THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIGHT

This essay is a sequel to THE TWO PSYCHOLOGIES.

The Psychology of Light

In defining the psychology of light and liberation, there is no need to look too far from our everyday reality. We already know that we can exercise our power of choice in relation to many things. If a marriage or job has turned sour, we can leave it and seek our happiness elsewhere. If the place of our residence no longer suits us, we can re-locate or migrate, in search of greener pastures.

The same freedom exists in a more fundamental sense in relation to our beliefs and concepts of reality. To be free from prejudice, for example, is one of the signs of an inner freedom that many consider indispensable for civilization, as it is for science.

If someone believes that he can fly and is headed for the roof, his friends may restrain him, and in this case we cannot say that they are wrong, unless we are advocates of the right to suicide. But there are many cases in which even a moderate eccentricity provokes the forces of social constraint. In fact, even the most genuine search for answers to some of the great mysteries of life may be regarded as impractical.

To be sincerely free, we are sometimes forced to be at odds with family and friends, for fundamental freedom is always something individual. Even if it is something that we are born with, it must be deployed, or it may wither on the vine. While our freedom may exist as an inner fact, it lives only if it is demonstrated.

The demonstration may begin with an awareness of seeming limits or boundaries. These limits chafe and instigate the type of activity that leads toward a liberating realization.

These thoughts are not terribly original, but they have become unfashionable. In so far as modern people are excessively geared toward external manifestation, they lack the patience for the inner search. In their haste to be something, somewhere, their goals are defined by the context of business and jobs, and they give relatively little thought to their more fundamental aspects of their own psychology. They do not see the ways in which their lives are unnecessarily conditioned and stunted.

Alchemy

Apart from the types of limitation that have been cataloged by exoteric psychology, there are more subtle limitations that an adventurous soul may wish to overcome and greater freedom to be realized.

Any matrix of beliefs is a limiting framework. The limitation may even be useful for a period, but every period comes to an end, and that which served a purpose at one time may no longer do so.

Liberation signifies not merely relief from stereotyped conditions and prejudices; it signifies a fundamental awareness of the creative capacity of the human being. It brings to light transformational possibilities and the prospect of a new type of human being altogether, as the child emerges from the father. These possibilities are not only generational (and therefore deferred to the long stretch of time); they may also be hastened and realized in the individual life.

These alchemical possibilities (as we may call them) are the greatest untapped resource of the human race, transcending by far anything that may be offered now or in the future by mere external technologies. Technologies may be useful or harmful, according to the uses to which they are put (which depends on the quality of the human beings making use of them). Hypnotized by the power of external technologies, we have placed our faith in the wrong place, and failed to realize the real treasure at our disposal.

The Individual Matrix

To place an emphasis on transformational or "future" possibilities is to emphasize the abstract or the apparently non-existent. We would not imply that the concrete experience is of no importance; on the contrary, we learn most quickly when we keenly appreciate all of the circumstances of our individual lives, the good and the bad alike. The emphasis is on learning. This means not only being aware of external circumstances but of the inner life of thoughts, feelings and values, and realizing that our present values, fundamental concepts and beliefs are subject to examination and change.

Such an attitude characterizes the creator. To have this attitude means that one takes maximum responsibility for one's own life and refuses to be a conditioned robot.

What this will mean specifically will depend on who one is, where one lives, what one has "inherited" from the past, and everything that contributes to the external characteristics of an individual life. This is the matrix out of which any "future" self will emerge.

This matrix does not actually define one. It merely represents the external aspect of life, as the clay exists for the sculptor. The creator possesses a measure of detachment. Detachment helps one to see clearly and assess existing conditions with a minimum of distorting interpretation.

For example, embarrassment and shame are usually quite useless. They indicate lack of detachment and identification with the material rather than the shaping hand.

The Social Matrix

The social matrix is a compound reality, but the themes that come to life in social and political events are the same as those that have significance in the individual life. To understand them it is necessary to understand the significance of individuality and the variety of life conditions and purposes at work in the human race.

Social life is seldom understood in this manner. True understanding would require a rare degree of comprehension of the many factors. Instead, social life is "understood" through crude formulas. These formulas represent systems of ideas that appeal to various groups within the social body. Such systems or ideologies generally leave out more than they include. In this sense they are "illusions" that produce distorted behavior patterns: the acting out of limited thought and beliefs.

The social conflicts evident in the world today cannot be resolved by merely external means, since their main cause is the lack of "inner" realization on the part of the members of the various groups. Almost all social groups are unreasonable to some extent; their efforts to empower a point of view are harmful to the extent that this is the case.

Emphasis on power without due consideration of issues of wisdom and justice will always have detrimental effects; the more so, as the "culprits" achieve social or political dominance.

Withdrawal

The "individual" is not a separated entity that can be understood apart from social, economic and political references, in isolated splendor. Such an abstract understanding is limited to the special condition of a complete withdrawal from life, in the manner of ancient and modern practitioners of some forms of Indian yoga. If the yogi finds "bliss" in such a state, it remains to be seen how his realization benefits the greater world; it may, if one takes into consideration subtle strata and the action of psychic and spiritual influence.

For the average individual such an extreme has little appeal, and the isolated yogi may seem to represent only a dead end. Still, there is much to be gained by a temporary withdrawal from the excessive immersion in external life. There can be healing and illumination in such a sabbatical.

While an excess of withdrawal may produce a condition of sterility, a healthy rhythm may be discovered, whereby one taps the benefits of a temporary withdrawal in order to maximize what one can be bring to the table of social, economic and political life. Through withdrawal, one can bring into focus his essential identity, purpose and values. One can analyze one's experience and discover the root meaning of all events, which may be quite different from what it was assumed to be, in the haste and confusion imposed by external preoccupations.

The Rhythm of the Subjective Life

Essentially, the emphasis on the "inward" or subjective life is a corrective for the excess of external preoccupation. The emphasis on the conscious mind yields, for many people, a one-sided and unbalanced perspective. Too many prejudices are accepted as laws of nature. Too many social trends are taken to be "the way of life" for all time, producing a conformist treadmill. Any type of mental or psychic error will have external consequences; when these errors are social or collective, consequences are "massive" and may be overwhelming in their destructiveness.

Apart from the sphere contained by the conscious mind is the great unknown. A healthy mind maintains a dual awareness, poised between what is apparent, and what lies behind appearances. It is obviously more difficult to speak or write about this mysterious portion of our lives, but ultimately it is mystery that sanctifies life, whereas the continuous banal focus of the dense-minded trivializes life.

What is lost may be ultimately greater than what is gained by the minute emphasis on the externally evident. A poised awareness does not negate the useful aspect of the conscious mind, but insures that the conscious mind will be given to that which builds the quality of life, and not to that which destroys the quality of life.

The old Latin advice "Solve et coagula" suggests a useful sequence. After dissolving complexes that imprison the consciousness, we can build that which will be more useful. In fact, the dissolving and the building may be carried out in tandem, so that we develop a rhythm of life in which deconstruction alternates with construction.

The Quality of Life

It is a poor substitution to superimpose upon the mystery of life a false or inadequate interpretation, yet this is the commonplace work of the mind, when it is inadequately trained in the science of life. The realization that such mistakes are commonplace should not discourage us from thinking; they should encourage us to think more cautiously and rigorously.

The mistakes we make are not something for which we need to be ashamed. They belong to the process of learning to do better. The beginner in any new activity is bound to make mistakes. This is not a reason to avoid new activities.

Much of the current unpleasant social climate may be attributed to the acceptance of poor substitutions by the vast majority of people, including scientists, educators, preachers, parents, journalists, and world leaders. An elevation of life can be achieved when everyone individually steps back and raises the individual quality of life and activity. The mass quality of life is what everyone creates together.

Emphasis on the individual quality is important as an antidote to the excessive scapegoating. It insures that the focus of the individual effort is positive.

It is a great realization when the individual discovers that he can be positive regardless of circumstances. Such "bliss" can well become a social model.

You Are What You Choose To Be

An individual must give a concrete content to his determination to be positive. In relation to the duality that defines human existence, the ideal of self-determination stands as the positive pole; the negative pole is defined by the multiplicity of human failures, whatever their causes, and however explained; for they always carry the implication or appearance that self-determination had little or nothing to do either with processes or end-results.

The capacity for self-realization is only fully realized at an advanced stage of the initiatory process, but the effort in this direction is essential to the psychic health of any human being. Even children generally show healthy tendencies in this respect.

In keeping with modern prejudice this idea is often circumscribed by an orientation toward participation in the economy; in fact it has much broader significance and encompasses the whole development of the human being.

Introversion

A psychic force of self-determination may be active without full consciousness.

Take the introvert, so-called. In Jung's description:

"Introversion or extraversion, as a typical attitude, means an essential bias which conditions the whole psychic process, establishes the habitual reactions, and thus determines not only the style of behavior, but also the nature of subjective experience."*

Most definitions of introversion will emphasize the negative element of a withdrawal from external challenges. Unfortunately, such a definition represents a social presumption that the commonplace challenges are those to be taken on, and shows little insight into the hidden purpose of the introverted orientation. In fact, something is being sought, even if the introvert himself may have a hard time defining his goal. In a different social milieu this would be obvious and the positive nature of the inner challenge would be recognized and assisted. The negative recognition arises primarily from the social bias toward extroversion and business life.

The centripetal focus is aimed at the discovery of the actual root of the individual being, and if carried out successfully, establishes the individual with a centeredness that is altogether lacking in the vast majority of extroverted persons.

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* "A Theory of Types" from Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by W. S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes, 1933.

Good and Evil

In general, apparently maladaptive behavior is best understood in terms of the positive goal that underlies the behavior. This permits the realization of a more constructive approach to the same end. Efforts to change behavior are mostly futile or negative, because they ignore the most positive factor. Frequently such efforts are motivated by the external desire of "others" and take little account of the individual psychology of the person who is to be molded.

For true self-determination, an individual has to understand himself. To assist the self-determination of another, the helper, obviously, has to understand the person being helped. This understanding is by no means easy to achieve.

The popularity of social engineering reveals a profoundly crude psychology and displays a marked contempt for the human material subject to shaping by those who supposedly know what is best. To the extent that this type of thinking is embedded in our institutions, we have the foundation of the police state. Moreover, today, the combination of such crude behaviorist efforts with the new electromagnetic technologies is radically subversive of the very idea of freedom. The idea, in essence, is the application of force by one group to achieve its aims, irrespective of the cost to those who are shoved aside or destroyed in the process. In so far as psychology is an agent or factor in these efforts, it is the psychology of evil. Even the methodologies of torture have a psychological component.

While good and evil are generally defined by extremes, we should be more aware of the gray area in which the boundaries may be discovered.

Intolerance

Apart from the action of pure evil, many unpleasant social situations may be understood in terms of the type of psychology employed by the participants.

In general, it is impossible to respect another human being without acknowledging the free will and autonomy of the individual. We are not talking about children, felons or those with severe psychiatric disabilities. In a normal adult relationship it may be appropriate to offer a suggestion; but it is left to the other to apply or not apply the advice.

In a free society, tolerance is essential. This means that a wide variety of possible behaviors are permitted free expression. A narrow point of view is not permitted to monopolize discourse or determine the laws.

The prevalence of bigotry, intolerance and the widespread desire of various groups to re-make others (according to their own prejudices or desires) reveals a lost capacity for civil and reasonable discourse. In fact, this is an aspect of the bias toward extroversion. Many people are led to become activists in the business of externalizing some very weak ideas, when they might do better to refine their own thinking or purge themselves of their own ignorance.

Choice and Secrecy

The choice between the dark psychology and the psychology of light is always present, but it may only be implied in circumstances and not directly faced.

This was the case in 1987, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. China was also shifting away from revolutionary ideology toward an adaptation to the modern world. Suddenly America had no serious enemies anywhere in the world. It was a time made for fundamental choices, since the circumstances that had guided the nation and its allies since World War II no longer existed.

There was, however, no serious debate about the future direction of the nation. Such a debate would have required an open forum in which ideas and possibilities were presented for consideration by the public. Instead, essential decisions were made by unknown persons without public accountability. Major factors, such as the existence of the new electromagnetic technologies, as well as their use in covert operations and in experimental programs, were kept secret from the public.*

A major sector was fully in favor of this secrecy, since secrecy favors the control by the few and the effective disenfranchisement of the many. If major factors governing the determination of the future are kept hidden from the public, the public debates may deal with minor issues, but they do not and cannot touch upon the major decisions. The public is then effectively disenfranchised. These political choices relate to an underlying psychology.

In essence, there are those who believe in freedom, and those who do not believe in freedom. For the latter group, secrecy is a vehicle by which the power of one group is established at the expense of another group. We are speaking here of domestic groups and not of the rivalry between nations.

The two psychologies can be further elaborated. One is essentially optimistic. It assumes that man is free and self-determined, and that his free will and self-determination are precisely the features that define him as a man. For the religious it may be said that man is a creator because he is made in the image of God.

The second psychology is essentially pessimistic and anti-religious. It rejects the idea that man possesses free will. It is theorized that he is formed materially, by his environment, by his upbringing; and that he is an automaton, compelled by genes, instincts and external conditioning to think and act in a certain way. He is passive clay, to be worked on and shaped by those with greater knowledge, who know what is best. The great majority of men are considered too dumb to be entitled to know the real story. Decisions must be made on their behalf.

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* Mind-reading technology was used in Bhutan in the early 1990's in the service of the genocidal policies of the Bhutanese regime. See Torture, Killing Me Softly: Bhutan Through the Eyes of Mind Control Victim (2009), Tek Nath Rizal.

The Culture of Dependency

The culture of secrecy places special emphasis on the division of mankind into two groups: one group entitled to the possession of knowledge and the right to make decisions; and the other group incapable of either knowledge or the capacity to make fundamental decisions. It follows that the first group is expected to act as the shapers of the second group, in keeping with their superior knowledge.

We are not here talking about any natural differentiation of capacity, as the result of which different groups find their fulfillment along distinctive lines of activity, but about an artificial differentiation, one that is the result of a deliberate emphasis that fosters the culture of dependency in the second group.

Apart from the reservation of political decisions by those who possess "classified" knowledge or secrets, and the corresponding disenfranchisement of the great majority, who are kept in the dark, another example of this culture of dependency can be found in those therapeutic systems that forcibly focus the attention of the patient on past errors and complexes, when it is obviously better is to evoke the positive character. Similarly, the tendency of modern medicine to treat illnesses rather than people is dubious. People are taught to expect illnesses, fear the future, and become permanent patients, dependent on doctors, hospitals and professional ministrations. The obsolete religious teaching of original sin is transformed, in medicine, into the susceptibility of the body to a variety of diseases and conditions. This susceptibility is suggested by advertisements. In fact, the power of suggestion can and should be used positively, and not prostituted to sell drugs or services.

Common to both forms of negativity is the primacy of fear. In the political life it is the fear of "enemies" that drives policy makers and public alike to ratify the desire for secrecy and covert actions. The most powerful nation is ever in need of more dollars for defense. In the world of therapy and medicine it is fear psychology that lies behind so many complexes and illnesses, and hypochondria is even encouraged by the ubiquitous advertisements of illnesses to come.

Part of the problem is that there is a great deal of money to be made from the manufacture of weapons or the sale of health-oriented products and services, whereas peace and health have no value for industry.

Nevertheless, if we were more sane, we would certainly have a Department of Peace, focused on the minimizing of conflict by fostering constructive relations with other nations. Our citizens would be healthier, not because they had more hospitals and doctors, but because they were living healthier lives, without imposed anxieties; in short, they would not be hypochondriacs.

Positiveness

Positiveness is a major sign of the healthy psychology. Whether we speak of faith, trust or confidence, we are revolving around the same concept.

Doubt and fear are magnets for negative experiences. Passivity is a sponge that soaks up all the dirt in the polluted atmosphere.

Positiveness is aided by the formulation of a definite purpose.

A good doctor knows that it is important for the patient to be an active participant in his own healing.

In psychiatry, in the most troublesome cases, a patient is required to follow the therapeutic regimen that has been determined to be in his best interest. However, as the patient remains dependent and, in spite of this, may also be skeptical of the prescribed medicine, there is usually no evocation of his active will. This leads to the revolving door of the perpetually dependent, in and out of the system, and their inability to achieve any discernible progress.

To provide a theoretical framework for the concept of positiveness, we affirm the supremacy of spiritual, psychic and mental causation, above merely physical causes; the latter being secondary or tertiary in significance, a mere reflection or echo of primary causes. To the extent that we lose sight of this and over-emphasize merely physical causes, we fall into an alienated and negative state.

Standards

While passivity is bad, the modern interpretation of positiveness is also half-baked. The will is associated with muscular effort, intellect and external works. In fact, these efforts often display nothing more than the inertia of habit.

The will is something that works through the psyche. It may even be expressed, in a paradoxical fashion, in terms that seem to imply the opposite of these familiar manifestations of labor. As Simone Weil put it, it is "waiting for God," by which she meant that the proper goal for the active nature was the avoidance of evil, the "evil" being precisely the human tendency to substitute a secondary, distorted manifestation in place of the divine world.

In fact, the secondary and distorted world has become for modern people the only world they know. They have gotten used to the inferior nature, the concrete mind, and muscular effort as the very stuff of life. They ignore the intuition and they demand objective proofs for that which is self-evident.

Not only the gold standard has been forgotten but the silver standard as well, as today, the bronze medal of the trading class has been exalted into the highest imaginable objective.

The Healthy Psychology

The healthy psychology reconciles the terms "individual" and "social" because, in the simplest sense, what is "good" for the individual is "good" for society. To attain this essential positiveness, therefore, is the basic goal of education and psychotherapy. Without this basic, positive synergy, the building of strong societies is impossible.

The above formulation would be self-evident, except for the fact that alienation has become a way of life, and standards are created that have their roots in this inferior soil.

In the alienated condition the social thinker imagines that social discipline requires that individuals be shaped for their destiny by an all-powerful totalitarian regime. The individualist imagines that his freedom requires him to throw off oppressive social influences and standards. Extremes promote one another.

Such conflicts resemble the resistance that arises in occupied countries, because people can acquire the feeling that they live under an occupation, even in their own countries, under modern forms of organization.

There is no antidote for these negative conditions apart from the striving toward new and more wholesome life styles and systems of governance. Such longings exist but they are currently blocked by a feeling of hopelessness and futility. As a result people lower their aim and allow themselves to be channeled into the inadequate behavioral models that hold sway, or else run wild.

Recollection

The word "recollection" is sometimes used in reference to the efforts made to restore a pristine or paradisaical connectedness that has been lost. Those who make this their fundamental purpose are often called mystics. Those who are seemingly lost in the preoccupations associated with this purpose are called introverts.

Introversion as a one-sided preoccupation is a negative condition, just as extroversion as a one-sided condition is negative. The healthy mind is simultaneously or alternately introverted and extroverted. To be exclusively one or the other is to be stereotyped. In the way of learning or experimentation "lifetimes" may be spent as an introvert or extrovert, but the larger goal is to realize a wholeness that transcends the limitations of one-sidedness.

Once the "inner" or subjective ground of reality has been recollected, it becomes possible to orient toward the external world in a new way, making possible the creative inspirations that lead in the direction of a positive world transformation. The creative role of humanity must be acknowledged before the individual can realize maturity, and societies that reflect this maturity appear on the face of the Earth.

"Recollection" is followed by a more sensitive responsiveness to all conditions both inner and external. The realization of wholesome personalities and societies will only be possible as the "inner" realm and the "outer" realm are better related and blended together. This is accomplished individually and but also by groups who are "on the same wavelength" whether or not the members of these groups are externally aware of one another.

Synergy

If the two-party system were retained, the growth of consciousness would be reflected differently in the two parties. Ideally, each party would reflect the more positive spirit in its own way. The parties could challenge and prod one another, and the result would be the greater good of the whole society; as, in a good chess game, both players play well, and the game is not decided by the blunders or poor play of the loser. It is not sportsmanlike even to desire such a victory.

Cut-throat competition arises out of a state of degeneracy. There are no winners to such a competition.

As there is both a positive and a negative synergy, it is imperative that the parties find their way to the positive synergy. This can then find its way into foreign policy and the relationships with other nations. At present our leaders cannot even speak with one voice, for they are divided, and each is despised by large segments of the population. They are not considered truly representative, even by the citizens of their own nation.

Supremacy

The emerging doctrine of "American supremacy" as a necessary condition of the nation's defense makes inevitable a global arms race and the continued squandering of resources that might better be put in the service of vital human needs. A military build-up undertaken by a potentially belligerent power, it also poses a constant threat to other nations.

This doctrine reverses the consensus policies of arms control that brought the world to the brief, hopeful period of the late 1980's, and attempts to make permanent the global supremacy of America as it existed at that point in history.

The refusal of the "great" powers to accept a policy of arms control makes it impossible for the "lesser" powers to refrain from a kindred military build-up. Their only reason for doing so would be "trust" in American restraint, a trust by no means merited, or the caving in to American demands backed by intimidation. Capitulation seems unlikely, since all nations (and leaders of nations) have their pride and many would rather fight to the death than cave in to a bully.

In fact, the doctrine of supremacy does not guarantee the security of America. It makes the world a more dangerous place. What it does guarantee is the empowerment of military industries and job security for those involved in the military and defense establishment.

To risk the national and global security for mercenary ends would be an act of treason. Since traitors would rather call themselves by other names, "dangers" and "enemies" must be created by every means possible.

When such backwards thinking is not simply the fruit of duplicity and hypocrisy, it can only be said to have a psychopathic origin. That is, when it is "sincere," it originates in fear-based psychology. Either the "danger" is seen even though it does not exist in reality; or, the degree of an existing danger is inflated.

A basic problem exists when the assessment of dangers is left to those who have a vested interest in inflating the actual facts, since to do so elevates their importance and promises job security.

This is merely a sub-problem of the materialistic culture, in so far as the same problem of vested interests infects every field.

In essence the distinction is between "service" and self-service.

The claims of the participants can seldom be taken at face value, for the tendency toward inflated self-representation is nearly universal.

These assessments may seem unfair to the individual members of the armed forces, who are typically modest in their individual claims. Nevertheless, they partake in the inflated glory of the business to which they belong. In recent decades, military "service" has acquired a quasi-religious aura, even as the mercenary (volunteer) army has replaced the draft. This process of glorification began during the Reagan era, as a reversal of the unfair contempt showered upon those who had served in Vietnam, a turn of the pendulum that replaced one extreme with its opposite.

Degeneracy

Once an idea or an institution is conceived to have an inflated value, a whole series of consequences will follow inexorably. We have already referred to the more obvious consequences, but there are others, less obvious.

The normalization of the military culture results in conspicuous manifestations of degeneracy. Of these, the Abu Ghraib syndrome is one. We have to call this a syndrome rather than an event, because the "effects" seen at Abu Ghraib were by no means as unusual as many would like to believe.

The problems incident to the "Targeted Individuals" program may be taken as a case in point. After attacking, imprisoning at Abu Ghraib and torturing citizens of Iraq suspected of "guilty intentions" toward those who had invaded their country, what could be next? Amazingly, the same processes were brought home to America, as the domestic "fight against terrorism" came to signify attacking American citizens in their own homes.

With the technologies that make possible action-at-a-distance attacks we can dispense with both valor and justice. As a cruise missile can be sent off at the push of a button, so can a neighbor next door be be brain-targeted and tortured at will with non-lethal electromagnetic weapons.

America is not the only country that has taken a low road in this respect, but as the world's premier power, America bears the additional responsibility of providing example; in this case the example has been unfortunate; the result is the diminished status of the human rights agenda everywhere in the world.

Scylla and Charybdis

Our scientists have hypothesized the creation of the universe. These hypotheses are the new creation myths. Unfortunately, they are not even as adequate as the old religious myths, which at least endowed the universe with mystery and significance.

It has been said that man creates his own gods. In this case, the gods created are the least significant in the history of god-creation. As a result, the modern man has a hard time discovering the meaning and significance of his own life.

The fundamentalists are correct to reject these new myths, but they fall back on ideas and stories that are equally inadequate to the needs and demands of modern life. If they really believed in God, they would realize that God's wisdom will not be bound to the pages of a book that has been collecting dust for millennia.

Between useless dogmatism, both "scientific" and religious, and a hopelessly ignorant relativism, man today stands greatly in need of a renovation of all his fundamental ideas, be they religious, scientific, economic or political.

Emerson had it right in his essay, "Circles":

"The things which are dear to men at this hour are so on account of the ideas which have emerged on their mental horizon, and which cause the present order of things, as a tree bears its apples. A new degree of culture would instantly revolutionize the entire system of human pursuits."

Sub-personalities

The personalities of people are usually conditioned by the jobs they do. This conditioning is often unfortunate, owing to overwork, long hours at the same task, or monotony.

Part-time jobs and a variety of occupations may be more useful for building a well-rounded personality.

As a writer I have one sub-personality which organizes everything around the task of writing. Another sub-personality acts as an editor. But I also find it very congenial to do tutoring, a very different type of activity involving me in a variety of relationships. Since I am a bachelor, with no hired help, I am also responsible for the household chores, an activity that brings into play another type of experience and consciousness. It can be fun to do all these things well. Thus an integrated personality may resemble a smoothly functioning society.

It is not necessary to identify with any of these jobs. Everyone is capable of doing many things. Under different circumstances, we may seem to be different people, and in relationship with different people we may find that different aspects of our personalities emerge. What we are, essentially, is larger than all these partial or temporary expressions. A person who identifies with his external role or status does not "know himself."

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking involves the simultaneous performance of two or more tasks. This is like juggling.

It is only possible if one has first acquired a degree of proficiency in relation to each of the tasks to be performed. Familiarity with a task permits an ease and speed of function that the beginner, learning that task for the first time, cannot be expected to possess.

Obviously this ability to handle "more" responsibility is a useful and desirable skill, but it is questionable if it is appropriate to be always piling more and more of a work load on oneself or others. There are natural limits of harmony, and excesses can adversely affect mental and physical health.

There is also a multi-tasking in the world of thought. Thoughts may be organized into various compartments, so that they do not run into one another, producing confusion. As in the acquisition of a single skill, a single line of thought is pursued with concentration. Later, some of these lines may coalesce, producing new and interesting combinations.

Owing to the artificiality of compartmentalization, synthesis in the world of thought is especially valuable. Exceptional specialization can be deforming, since the loss of organic wholeness may come to outweigh whatever value is realized through concentration.

Sacred Individuality

When one is sufficiently individualized, the absurdity of competition is apparent. Because one is an individual, one has an individual destiny. There is no one else following precisely the same path. With whom and for what could one compete?

The psychologist can help another person only by respecting the sacred character of the individuality. This is especially true when that individuality is only budding and the uncertainty of the person makes him or her excessively impressionable.

Someone who is fully formed we can treat forcefully, for he can stand up to a challenge.

It is appropriate to treat different people differently, not because we are prejudiced, but because people are different. They want to be treated as individuals. Of course in the everyday world we have established customs, and the most basic relationships may be defined by a common standard, or courtesy, but as soon as we go past these elementary steps we are on individual ground, and between two individuals there can only be an individual relationship.

A specialist, as a specialist, is not an individual. A specialist is only a member of a special group.

An emphasis on the sacred individuality does not promote anarchy, in the destructive sense. Indeed, the true anarchist has in mind an order based on the highest ethics, in which the fulfillment of the individual does not put him at odds with any social norms that are not perverted.

A psychology that has its beginnings in merely social norms may be useful for wardens or police departments, or for the preservation of the status quo, but it can have no significance for the higher development of the society in question. It has already internalized paradigmatic limitations that guarantee stagnation and frustration.

Social Terror

All historic chronicles reveal the superiority of individual judgement over merely social judgments, at least when we have in mind the heroic or noble part of history. To the extent that social judgments are enriched by the seeding of individual wisdom, they have in turn their place, fencing in the lower impulses and base motivations of the unprincipled.

Deliberations such as those that gave us our Constitution are an example of the first process: the judgments of superior men taking a form that made of them a social property.

Mob rule, vigilante policing, bullying, gossip, slander and character assassination display nothing more than the headless horseman of social terror. It makes little difference if the result is the guillotine, the firing squad in the police state, or the creation of virtual, covert prisons through the use of electromagnetic technologies, operated by anonymous persons for ends known only to themselves or their masters.

Human Bondage

Management and social engineering are integral to the current order, but both concepts, in so far as they refer to the management of some people by other people, postulate the existence of people who are not able to manage themselves or make decisions on their own behalf. To some extent these paternalistic ideas are reasonable, and merely reflect an existing reality.

However, the thrust of evolution is for all human beings to grow into full independence. Any attempt to suppress or retard this flowering is contrary to the psychology of light.

The multiplicity of forces attempting to manipulate the human material for specific ends (in the minds of the manipulators) is itself a testing factor, and the response of those who are impacted by such efforts may become in turn the key to their self-determination. This is a norm of "growing up" in our time.

What distinguishes the psychology of light from the dark psychology is that the former holds the emancipated human being as the centerpiece of all rational efforts in education, government and religion. It does not, therefor, presume the perpetuation of systems that embody or impose truncated forms of development.

The latter may be the result of errors in thinking, overcome in the normal progress of the human being and of societies. But they may also be deliberate in their service of the dark motives that underlie human exploitation, enslavement and trafficking.

Imposed Ignorance

The main effect of extensive covert programs and secrecy is an imposed ignorance that conditions not only the mass of men but even the professionals and "experts" in the various fields. This has been fully evident in the ease with which psychiatrists and other professionals have been made to play the part of unwitting fools for a covert program designed to circumvent the Constitution.

If psychiatrists remain ignorant of the use of electromagnetic technologies for auditory harassment, their false diagnoses facilitate the torture of the victims of these attacks.

If neuropsychologists remain ignorant of the developments in their own field that have proceeded under classified programs, their "authoritative" denial of the existence of mind-reading technologies merely solidifies the curtain of ignorance.

Journalists, relying on the "experts", add their own modest authority to firmly close the minds of the docile public.

Americans who speak out against the human rights abuses in other countries are unaware of their own hypocrisy, if they remain ignorant of widespread human experimentation in the USA.

Consolidation of Power

The consolidation of power makes the emerging police state at home a far greater danger than external terrorism. The checks and balances system needs to be re-invigorated along with the transparency of government, including the elaborate apparatus of national security and policing agencies, in order to prevent the normalization of abusive power.

Police power in the old police states was obvious. Even if the police arrived in the middle of the night, everyone knew about it. The new technologies permit repressive policies to move forward invisibly, unacknowledged by the "free" press or the citizenry. Censorship may also be invisible. The silence of the press relative to decades of covert use of RNM and other invasive technologies against specifically targeted individuals speaks eloquently about the ability of government agencies to muzzle the major media.

The basic techniques of conformist pressure are universal. They are the carrot and the stick. If carrot and stick are wielded by diverse power centers, a balance of power may arise which serves as a corrective of the worst abuses. If all power is concentrated in one center, it becomes impossible to oppose tyranny in whatever form it should choose to operate.

Truth

The main difference between the two psychologies is that one is based on truth and the illumination of truth and the other is based on lies and deception.

In our time the manipulative psychology, based on lies and deception, has been empowered by huge budgets, advanced technologies, and extensive organization. The governments of the great powers, or at least agencies or factions within them, are implicated. The major media are implicated.

This presents a problem the magnitude of which can hardly be over-estimated. Yet it is necessary as well to face this problem with fortitude and without ceding to malefic powers the victory in the game of life.

Educators must build up the immunity of their students to the various modes of deception, and not merely encumber them with facts that may or may not be true or useful. The search for truth is more important than ever. It does not lie at our feet to be picked up without effort. It is not to be found on the surface of life or in the casual communication of the latest gossip.

Nor is it helpful to be exclusively pre-occupied with the dark side. This leads people to become discouraged, fearful and despairing, precisely when they need to cultivate the opposite characteristics.

Arbitrary Authority, Fake Solutions

In connection with the processes of deception and burial of truth, we have the fake solution. Consider the quite arbitrary authority of psychiatrists in matters of social and legal import. There is no valid scientific reason for society to take the opinions of psychiatrists as a standard in matters of judicial or governmental, administrative significance.

If there are problematic individuals in our society, individuals who may be dangerous or incompetent, this is naturally a social concern. However, the decision concerning such individuals should not rest exclusively on an arbitrary authority masquerading as a scientific verdict. This is done largely as a matter of convenience, whereby others avoid their responsibility. The "expert" decides, even though the "expert" is often no better informed than many others, be they family members, neighbors, policemen, teachers or social workers.

Setting up an arbitrary authority and chain of command provides a convenient "system" for dealing with problems; it does not, however, really solve the problems; it merely provides the semblance of a solution.

This type of "solution" is an outgrowth of various sociological factors, including our undue respect for specialization (according to the specialist an imaginary infallibility), the evasion of responsibility so typical of so many, and the widespread desire for some type of streamlined process to "deal with things."

American Vulnerability

Although we love to scapegoat individuals or individual groups, the gravitation toward fake solutions may be more honestly regarded as a near universal tendency, with responsibility for an existing state of affairs widespread.

Assumption or delegation of arbitrary powers by or to an individual or segment of the social body has as its corollary the evasion of responsibility by other individuals or segments. In reality this is a type of co-dependency.

The primary values for social cohesion are the basic teachings of citizenship and ethics. To these may be added the broad-mindedness conferred by a liberal education. Specialization and the development of special skills come third in importance. In our over-emphasis on specialization, we place the bronze medal in the first place, and foster a fracturing that is seen in widespread corruption and growing mental chaos.

If our diagnosis is correct, it is obvious that real solutions will be found only by supporting those qualities that provide a sound basis for social harmony.

Consider the case of Russia's meddling in our election process. Whatever the blame that may be placed on Russian hackers or propagandists using social media, the primary concern should be the susceptibility of American voters and computers to such manipulation. If these voters are so easily manipulated, this simply means that they have not been adequately educated. If we can't build hack-proof computers, we should stop relying on them for the more important transactions of life.

The fundamental solution is simple. It is to build our self-sufficiency at home, by supporting the educational process that makes American voters immune to specious campaigns based on lies or manipulative propaganda, even as we make our computers immune to hacking. Such an educational campaign would make America strong in the real sense, strong because we are a free people, and not because we are in possession of a vast arsenal of weapons or because we may impose economic sanctions.

The external and fake solutions to which we typically turn are never really adequate. Sanctions invite reprisals. Although we have weapons, others have weapons, too. The sham solution creates new problems, or merely moves the problem down the road.

Even the claim of significant Russian meddling is disputed. Since our intelligence agencies practice information warfare, we can no longer trust them to tell us the truth, and everything they put forward is subject to doubt. This creates a situation of uncertainty, with no clear truth to guide either the policy-makers or the voters who elect them.

If, on the other hand, we turn toward the fundamental solution, we can build American strength without offense to other nations. We can rely on our own sound values without worry that another country will "influence" us through a propaganda campaign or attack us through our unnecessarily vulnerable systems. The very possibility would seem ridiculous.

The Tortoise vs. the Hare

Educational processes are slow. Psychic problems are obdurate. But these are the factors that must be dealt with to effect real change. The popular search for the quick fix is usually only a preference for play-acting, while evading the deeper issues.

A deeper response to the attack of 9/11 would have been to initiate a profound meditation on the causes of terrorism. The hunger for action may only be the lack of restraint characteristic of an absence of culture; what appears to be decisiveness may be only the reaction of a billiards ball to being struck.

When we need leaders with thoughtful policies, we find instead demagogues and media pundits with inflammatory rhetoric urging instant "solutions" that merely compound existing problems.

Worse for us, our poor "speed of business" reactions are empowered by a vast array of technologies and organization. The apparatus for the implementation of poor ideas has never been greater.

These "solutions" and their inevitable sad results are produced by the one-sided extroverted and materialistic character that dominates American public life.

Another aspect of this rush for the precipice is the conformity and regimentation that has also been increasing in recent decades, through the power of the major media and modern organization. Our greatest achievements, our technologies and power of organization, combine with our lack of wisdom to produce monstrosities.

Vision

Our current approaches to life and problems seem to people both normal and inevitable. This is a perceptual problem, based on the absence of vision. In such cases, the foreground of established things exerts an excessive sway over minds to a large degree deprived of their creative function.

What seems to be true may be only a mirage, but the seeming may be too powerful to set aside. When this is so, the spiritual and psychic necessity is to step back, assume a more cautious and thoughtful stance, and consider life with a fresh mind. There may be a need to jettison old and familiar interpretations on the path to new and better. To borrow an expression from the native culture of America, we have need for a vision quest, for "where there is no vision, the people perish."

A narrow, myopic perspective is evident in relation to practically every one of the issues that make headline news. The re-writing of an old trade agreement is haggling for pennies. Is it really worth the disruption to a settled order of alliances, business relationships and friendships? Sudden, violent changes to a nation's policy bring into question the reliability of that nation as a partner. The call for a border wall against the invasion from the south ignores the fact that American support for military dictatorships in Central America has rendered many of the countries in this region uninhabitable.

Policy changes must be introduced gradually, with consideration for opposition views. This creates a layered approach to national change that does not militate against a reasonable continuity and coherence. If the President of one party simply abrogates the promises and policies of his predecessor, the nation becomes a banana republic.

Murky Business

Some problems can only be appreciated when seen in their larger sociological dimension, since many individual relationships are conditioned by this context, which is often unacknowledged. If a social worker visits a client, the individuality of the social worker is constrained by an institutional nexus. Nor is it likely that the client will be viewed as an individual; rather, the client is a case to be interpreted and handled according to pre-established guidelines. The social worker may have very little personal discretion in relation to the time spent on the case or the determination to be made. The client, if not already keenly aware of this, may be oppressed or disappointed by this truncated form of relationship. This results typically in a type of gaming in which clients "play the system," for that is the only possibility for their human initiative, which is not satisfied by adhering to a medication regimen or other program shaped by others.

When the underlying social nexus is not only unacknowledged, but is deliberately concealed or camouflaged, social problems appear in a distorted fashion, as in a funhouse mirror. The mystification of the public is then guaranteed. The assumption of extreme ideological stances, with their simple one-sided solutions, sheds no light in the darkness.

Within this stew of confusion, the tendency to shine a spotlight on some small fragment of the whole, and to micro-analyze it, is deceptive rather than helpful; in the absence of context, it is likely that we are witnessing the spin machine of someone with an ax to grind or something to sell. The very clarity of a slice of life or isolated picture can be one of the greatest deceivers.

One more factor may be mentioned, while we are considering the sociological context within which relationships are framed.

Few people say, “Let’s change the subject.” They simply introduce a new subject, and the more successfully they focus the attention of their listener, the more thoroughly the previous subject disappears from sight and mind. This exemplifies the power of the illusionist to determine the context of discussion.

The power of money and the major media are that same illusionist operating on a larger and grander scale.

Powerful agencies are at work to inculcate beliefs and to induce the passive public to follow a given train of thought. The methods used seldom involve the free consideration of ideas; rather, they are the methods of the illusionist and the hypnotist. They induce conformity; they do not provoke thought.

Free Will

The agencies of sociological influence and control are manifold. Some are benign. Others are malefic. Some are recognized. Others are not. Together with nature as a whole, viewed as a conditioning factor, they constitute the matrix of the human consciousness from birth. It is essential to realize that human beings are not born free. They are free only to the extent that there is something within them that is not of this matrix. This inviolate factor is usually called the soul. Free will is established within the human personality as it aligns with the soul and takes the first steps toward soul-personality fusion.

Freedom is realized progressively as this fusion is accomplished. It is a spiritual attainment.

B. F. Skinner's assertion that there is no free will is correct in so far as he is talking about the mass man and the average materialistic thinker. People are subject to a variety of compulsions. So long as their life can be defined solely in terms of these compulsions, they are machines. Their humanity is only a potentiality.

The first step on the path to freedom involves the realization that although one is not free, one is potentially free.

To call the state of total subjection "the human condition" is to make a mental error based on undue generalization. Human beings exist at all the different stages between the pure savage and the superman. The mass-man as he is today is merely expressive of a "second nature" that has been cultivated for decades and even much longer periods. Although he is the product of various forces, he is not an end-product. He has not even begun the real journey.

The Problem of Freedom

Freedom is primarily a problem for the individual who is potentially free. It is also a problem for institutions, governments, corporations, prophets and social engineers, since all have become fond of the mass man, a predictable, quantifiable entity.

The free man is also largely unpredictable and ungovernable. He prefers to govern himself.

If it be judged a weakness in a man to retain childish ways when he is called upon to grow up, it is also a weakness in governments, institutions, parents, teachers, preachers and psychologists, when they do not encourage this growth toward freedom as the very essence of humanity.

Many behaviorists and neuroscientists are pre-occupied with what they can do to a man, and insufficiently aware of what he could be doing for himself. Their work is naturally appropriated by government agencies, and the results are not always benign. Many psychiatrists and physicians are pre-occupied with pharmaceutical remedies. They make man into an object to be chemically and physically re-constituted, a robot or a lab animal on whom they experiment.

The worst of these unfortunate tendencies finds expression at the government level, where the word "control" is so beloved, while the word "freedom" belongs mainly to the realm of hypocrisy.

The Eagle

One may be compelled by outward agencies or by inner compulsions. In either case one is not free. It is a mistake to identify the free will with compulsive actions. Can one freely will not to be free? Equally, freedom cannot be equated with a trivial choice between brands in the supermarket.

The free will is the highest law; it is the immediate evidence of man’s divinity; it is the voice of the soul in man, translating potential freedom into actual freedom.

This means, in the first stage, becoming aware of and resisting the matrix of ignorance and compulsion; it means recognizing the means whereby freedom becomes actual in one’s own life; it means, finally, that the lower nature is governed by the law of freedom, and that one is identified with the principle of freedom, the spirit. 

If the eagle is taken as a national symbol, as it is by the USA, it means that this realization of freedom pertains to the essence of the national identity.

The Eagle Has Been Grounded

Given the emphasis on freedom in the national destiny, one might ask, "How could the USA have veered in the direction of the police state?"

The answer lies in the misunderstanding of freedom. Philosophically, freedom has one meaning. In the popular thinking it has another. In the twist of the ideologue it has a third. As the corrupt meanings diverge from the true, so does the culture descend into materialism and slavery in tandem with their acceptance.

The ideologue does not deal with ideas but with ideals that interpret those ideas. If the interpretation is inadequate, this is reflected in the resulting culture.

If freedom is interpreted to signify free enterprise, we have to define carefully the words "free enterprise." Historically, as individuals sought betterment (in accordance with the free will), their efforts could be described by these words, because they were evolutionary in a spiritual sense. The social system growing up in the wake of these efforts, codified by the Constitution, made America an attractive example for people around the world. It was more alive.

Today the situation is very different. Radical changes have occurred through an incremental accretion, so that the present scarcely resembles the past. Yet anachronistic ideologies govern the thinking of both major parties. Massive and systematic growth has made the individual of small account next to corporate and institutional entities, whose operations reflect neither the will of the citizens nor the Constitution.

The Culture of Freedom

While many people sense that our systems are out of control, the solutions put forward are inadequate. Either they are based on a simplistic ideological selection of facts, or they simply focus on one narrow aspect of a complex situation. Almost always, they reveal the same limitations of thought and vision that were responsible for the existing problems in the first place. Many people are simply numb and in despair, not believing that any solution is really possible.

First, it must be said that we should not look for scapegoats. Existing problems have their origin in the compound errors of all groups of human beings; these errors have been decades and centuries in the making. Many of our most cherished beliefs may turn out to be illusions or mistaken hypotheses.

While religion as understood formerly is in decline, is considered to be mired in dogma, superstition and bigotry, there is also an aspect of religiosity (using the word in this negative sense) to modern business life, scientism (the false science that elevates hypotheses into new dogmas), social theories and even contemporary fads. Our modern religion of money, technocracy and egoism, steeped in errors as deep as those that infected the social life of previous generations, is still upheld (here in the USA) as if it were impervious to criticism or change.

Spiritual life, as distinct from religiosity, is the essential positive factor that must be called upon for the re-building of the world. While interpretations of the spiritual life may be jettisoned as understanding grows, spirituality is the living essence of progressive life; religiosity merely clings to the tatters of historic formulations of that life.

Spirituality will not be at odds with actual science. It will not be at odds with sound economics or government. If there is a pernicious science and technology, it is based on the materialism and base motives that underlie scientific funding and the uses of technology, as well as the type of technologies that are developed. If there is a pernicious economics, it is, again, because of the base materialism that animates the players, and because of the absence of significant checks or re-direction that might be imposed by the intervention of wise government. Those who complain that government has no place in relation to the economy are talking nonsense, since the economy and the government are inextricably inter-twined. If the economy serves only 5% of the citizens, that is because the government has permitted or fostered the existing disparity.

In any event, the "government" is not a thing apart from the citizens; it is their government. To have a responsive government and a responsible citizenry, both those who aspire to serve in government and the people they represent must be steeped in the culture of freedom.

The culture of freedom is not irresponsibility or selfishness; it is the opposite.

Globalism

When we speak of "the culture of freedom," we have in mind a way of life that is guided by the progressive impulse. This will be expressed differently by different individuals and groups at different times. Given the diversity of humanity, and the divergence of life conditions faced by various social groups, it cannot be otherwise. Nothing is more obviously wrong than "one size fits all" thinking.

The equalizer is the relation to transcendence and the fact of the progressive urge, not the relative fruits of that urge. No human being can say, "I am finished." Everyone is a work in progress.

One may be a conservative or a liberal, a Christian or a Muslim, a Jew or an atheist, rich or poor; the same basic fact applies. Wearing the blinders of materialism, men are pre-occupied with end-results and lose the pulse of life. They see one another in the light of a transient appearance and not in terms of the essential reality.

If the primary fact is the relation to transcendence that we call spirit, the second basic fact is the shared context of life itself. This leads to the concept of globalism, which may be defined essentially or conditionally.

Globalism as the recognition of a shared habitat is one thing; globalism as an imposed or created system of relationships is another thing. The first definition is unalterable; if the planet is destroyed, there will be no future for anyone's children. The global system of relationships, on the other hand, is a temporary man-made construct, which can be altered according to the creative will of humanity.

Groups, institutions and nations within the larger context are simply macro-individuals within that context. Needless to say, all these groups are composed of individual human beings who merge their interest to achieve some result. They are subject to the same law of freedom and share the same global context.

We emphasize these basic facts of life because their non-recognition underlies the intolerance and lack of understanding which poison contemporary social relationships.

Alienation

People do not, as a rule, see the existing forms of global relationship as their own creation; neither are they conscious of their own power to re-create these relationships according to a new and better pattern. Although this negative (alienated) attitude may be typical, it is neither healthy nor unalterable.

Alienation is a psychological fact that indicates a distance between the soul (the inner, essential being) and the outward personality of that same being.

The awareness of this distance is created as one of the first stages of true self-awareness. In the New Testament parable, the prodigal son becomes aware of his unsatisfactory position. As suggested by the English title of one of Jung's translated works, modern man is in search of a soul. This is a mystical expression, by which I mean it assumes the peripheral viewpoint; another, occult, way of expressing the same psychological fact would be to say the soul "calls" the outer person to attention. This "call" initiates a relationship between the essential soul and that aspect of the soul which is incarnated.

As we live on the periphery of ourselves , we remain unaware of our creative power; we see the world as something pre-established and essentially unalterable. This is the essentially irresponsible position of animal-man. Perhaps for long periods of history this was fine, for the purpose of life in that early time may have been to establish an outpost in this physical world. While some people may still be at this stage of simple, instinctive life today, many more experience an uneasy sense of themselves and their place in the world. After having superimposed upon the instinctive life the modern concrete intellectual life, they experience incompleteness.*

At this point they are called upon to begin a new journey.

In the above, we do not speak of social alienation, a secondary concept, but of spiritual alienation. The ability to "fit in" and to be part of a group may be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the nature of the group, and what is derived from membership.

The rationale for one's group allegiances and the degree of comfort that one experiences in any particular group are both subject to change, based not only on changes within a group, but on changes in oneself. As one goes through changes of a fundamental character, one's relationships are bound to undergo a corresponding change. Some relationships may fade or go sour, temporarily or permanently; others may take their place. Such shifting and adjustment goes on all the time, even for transient and minor reasons.

In the current cycle of growing material intellect, individuality and personal ambition, people are equally removed from instinctive animal harmony and the freedom of the spirit. The answers of the material intellect, which dominate our era, are more satisfying to some than to others. Apart from this dominant group, some incline backwards to harmony with nature. Others seek to go beyond the established and known boundaries.

It is this latter group that hears the "call" of the soul.

__________

* This unsatisfactory condition is the theme of Freud's classic work, Civilization and Its Discontents.

Twilight

The half answers provided by the material intellect cannot satisfy those who seek the larger dimension of the soul. The material intellect sizes up the material world, including the physical human body, but remains blind to everything that lies beyond its ken. For those who rely exclusively on this instrument, the limitations of the instrument are taken to be the limitations of cognition and even of life itself.

Even the body is not properly understood, since it is not seen as a vehicle (in the light of the soul) but as the self itself. In particular the brain is regarded as the source of identity. This mistake implies a lack of understanding of the basic purpose of life. Since the material body (which we take to include the material and knowable emotions and concrete thoughts) is subject to external manipulation and control through the brain, many minds are pre-occupied with the means of control. They would like to shape humanity according to their purposes, which do not always harmonize with the spiritual evolution of the race. Although these shaping efforts are sometimes benign in intent, frequently they are not benign. Any effort to control another human being, in opposition to the free will of that person, is a dubious business, at best.

Incarceration in the case of criminals or persons deemed dangerous or incompetent for psychiatric reasons must be an extreme solution, a last recourse, as war should be a last recourse. If we find ourselves resorting excessively to such extreme solutions; if, likewise, the efforts of social engineers to shape society become too extensive; and if, finally the police or military resort to extreme measures for population control; the experiment in building a free society will have failed.

Dawn

When we speak of society as a whole we are necessarily considering

the mass outcome resulting from of all the contributions of all the various groups that today compose and have composed that whole in the past. This is a sum total. Any individual has only a limited influence in relation to such a massive totality.

This basic fact of relativity induces a despairing hopelessness in many; in others it leads to the exaggeration of the significance of an individual leader. The first group tends toward an apolitical stance, as if one could simply ignore politics and go about one's individual life. The second group is politically active, but tends to exaggerate what can be accomplished through a given political agenda, given the available material.

By the available material, I refer to the state of consciousness of those participating in the political drama, either for or against a given agenda, as well as that of those who remain apolitical and indifferent. This state of consciousness is a product of the general culture, plus the self-effort made by any given group or individual.

When we speak of the culture of freedom, we refer to a process that has individual, group, national and global significance. However, as distinct from the shaping efforts of social engineers, the culture of freedom must begin with the individual, since apart from the free will and responsible choice of the individual, nothing is possible that can be referred to as "free" or "spiritual."

Useful teaching may be offered, but it is ultimately up to the individual to respond freely to the opportunity proffered. Any coercion leads back to the life of caged animals.

The significance of freedom lies in a way of life that is given to the removal of impediments and unnecessary limitations, however these may be understood at any given time and place. This removal could take place in a rational manner, through growth of consciousness and a graded succession of realizations, implying the normalization of progressive life. Unfortunately, this is often not the case; repression and oppression stand in the way; the result is frustration and violent explosion.

While there is certainly an elite aspect to the culture of freedom, it is important to recognize the mass expression of the same vital fact. The aspiration of people everywhere to throw off their chains and seek material betterment is a spiritual event. Often what is desired is simply adequate food and clean drinking water, or access to the basic amenities of civilized life.

Good will is more important than expertise, because the latter is a two-edged sword that may hurt as well help the cause of freedom. The gas chambers were no improvement of the quality of life.

As for the class war, it should not exist, for it is in the interest of the possessors of wealth, if they are on the path of liberation, to discover a more generous attitude. Nor is it in the interest of any nation to foster in any class parasitic, selfish or criminal characteristics. Such characteristics are contrary to the culture of freedom, as this is understood by the philosopher.

To minimize the use of force in any context, within any nation or between nations, should be a guiding principle of civilization; less, rather than more, the sign of success.  

In the Mouth of the Eagle

As the banner in the mouth of the Eagle is the banner of synthesis, we understand that the higher harmony and synthesis of actions is only achieved through the liberation from unnecessary conflict. As men free themselves from base motives, self-deception and blinding illusions, they have the opportunity to work together in concert.

Those who believe strongly in patriotism and the flag (and who often resent native opposition) are always, perhaps, seeking this, but the outward realization without the inner freedom is impossible. During the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, for example, there were calls to rally behind the flag, but since these wars were immensely unpopular (in the view of many they should never have taken place), the events did not promote the unity of the citizens, quite the opposite. We cannot say, "My country right or wrong," for this attitude is at odds with the spirit of freedom.

In any case it must be possible to approach synthesis without the prodding of a national calamity.

Everyone admires the harmony of an orchestra, a winning sports team, or a well-run company. To discover the same miraculous formula for a nation, and for the community of nations, and to realize this with inclusiveness (without ovens) are challenges for the future. Obviously, these visionary ends will not be achieved (nor will anything approximating greatness be achieved) while promoting myopic selfishness and a hyper-competitive business climate tending toward monopoly power rather than justice and harmony.

Free Enterprise

The concept of free enterprise has lost its significance. With the development of global capitalism, it has dwindled to the freedom of monopoly finance and corporate expansion, following the material self-interest of the major stake-holders. Corporations have become individuals. Individuals have become corporate cogs and wheels. Under these conditions the super-rich get richer, while the majority find themselves increasingly boxed into an economic structure that is neither fair nor progressive.

The existing system is man-made. It can be tweaked or re-designed to serve the broader interest.

The idea that government has no place meddling in the economy is absurd. The entire history of global finance and corporate growth has been underwritten by government, without which it would never have been possible. American military bases around the world have frequently played an essential role in fostering and protecting these developments, as was the case with the British empire during an earlier period of history.

If the government is "shut down" or dismantled, we still have a vast network of military bases and an extensive police force. We become, by default, a police state or a military dictatorship. For some reason no one seems to consider the defense sphere as an aspect of the government, although it swallows half the national budget. When there is talk of a "shut down," no one suggests closing military bases. The defense sphere has also become a lucrative arm of the economy, a fact which sometimes militates against clear thinking.

The sterile debate between capitalism and socialism is unreal. No one considers that the defense sphere has become, in large measure, a huge welfare agency, or that legislation and judicial action has cleared the way for the enormous profits enjoyed by a tiny segment of the population.

It is obvious that we have and must have a mixed economy in which capitalist incentives are harmonized with social concerns, including but not limited to a safety net. The ideal of the legislator should be to encourage the better instincts of all classes and citizens and not to put up roadblocks or dis-incentives for truly creative enterprises.

The concept of spiritual capitalism may be useful in enlarging the boundaries of thought. Materialism, which confines the thinking to a narrow interpretation of the law of economy, has led to the present impasse. Spiritual capitalism seeks the promotion and unleashing of all the assets available to an individual, a group or a nation.

The Beam in the Eye

There is a stage in the spiritual life when an individual realizes that his main problem is with himself and not with the world out there. He becomes pre-occupied with the changes he needs to make in his own thinking, values and personality expression. Later, when he has resolved these "inner" problems, he can take on more responsibility in the larger world.

Our nation, viewing it as an individual on the world stage, has reached just this stage. Habitually extroverted, Americans like to imagine that their problems reside in the external world, and that their enemies are "out there" trying to get them. This is an illusion, or a projection, "the beam in the eye" from the Biblical parable.

There is no external danger as great as the dangers that threaten the nation from within. These are evident not as malefic others, but as confusion, loss of purpose and scapegoating.

Previous generations have grappled courageously with the external world. The task of the present generation may be to "look within" and accomplish a transformation of another kind.

The Science of the Soul

The future we create will depend on the version of science which we choose. Two stark extremes appear.

Spiritual science, as exemplified by the raja yoga, offers the prospect of profound self-control and self-mastery, through the control of the mind by the soul. The accomplished raja yogi stands as exemplar on the path of liberation.

Material science, through the study of the brain, offers the prospect of soul-less experimentation, and the creation of a new generation of brain-weapons, in the effort of a small group to achieve the control of mankind, by reducing the human race to a robotic or sheep-like docility.

These extreme possibilities emerge from the nature of the human duality, which, in simple terms, we describe as soul and body. The body exists in the material world and is subject to material laws. The soul, although immaterial from the perspective of concrete science, is an energy belonging to a stratum of the world composed of "matter" of a higher grade. It is uncharted by modern science, not because it doesn't exist but because the instrumentation of modern, concrete science is inadequate to the task of discovery.

The weakness of the typical adherent of "the scientific view" of the world is to take the temporary and limited structure of knowledge as the limits of the universe. The vast unknown has no place in the calculations of science, although we know that the introduction of infinity into mathematics changes everything in the most radical fashion. Further, the average scientist, a victim of his characteristic bias, cannot help elevating hypotheses into "facts."

In fact, one of the main characteristics of matter, speaking psychologically, is the hypnotic effect it has on the human mind. We see a table, not the atoms and molecules that compose it. We know, theoretically, that the table is not actually a solid object, but we cannot help forgetting that fact owing to the influence of the senses on our thinking.

Apart from this common example, anyone who studies the problem will be able to discover innumerable cases of self-deception, based on faulty perception and/or interpretation. To an astonishing degree our conventional world view is made up of these false evaluations.

Science has liberated us from some of our ignorance, but "scientists" are human and fallible and frequently mistake their own beliefs and biases as scientific truth. Their contempt for religious ideas is an instance of this bias; in rejecting superstition, they have thrown out the baby with the bath-water.

As the soul is energy of a finer grade, we call it spiritual. This is simply a relative designation, since this "spiritual" energy belongs equally to the material universe. As matter of a finer grade, the soul is governed by a set of laws that has been, historically, the subject of substantial religious discourse. One cannot say that these laws have been perfectly elucidated or understood, but neither have the efforts in this direction been wholly vain.

It is up to psychology to transcend the dichotomy between science and religion and to formulate the science of the soul. This will be the psychology of light and liberation, as psychology without a soul is merely the illusory psychology of the imprisoned human being.

Two-edged Sword

The idea that we create our own reality (as expressed by Jane Roberts and other writers) brings to mind the all-encompassing significance of human creativity. However, until we master this potentiality, along with its ethical implications, we are quite capable of creating monstrosities.

In general, science and technology can be a great blessing or a great curse. Which it is depends on the motives that underlie scientific research and the nature of the goals pursued.

Today the discoveries of behaviorism are used by military minds to devise a new generation of weapons. These weapons are subversive to freedom and dignity, as they are to the Constitution.

The pursuit of these weapons, which has involved generations of illicit human experimentation and contempt for the most common human values, has flourished under the cloak of national security and through covert operations, aided by a culture of secrecy and disinformation. These operations, no matter how corrupt, have perpetually evaded the scrutiny of the elected representatives of the citizenry. The major media have been muzzled, leaving the public in a state of ignorance.

Some conclude from these facts that we are victims of a vast criminal conspiracy and that the Devil is thoroughly at home in high places. Although there may in fact be conspiracies involving malefic persons, I believe the wider truth is in the gray area, and that many are complicit in some degree in the growth of corruption, including the apathetic citizens who have allowed these processes to continue unchecked for decades.

Mind over Matter

The theme of both the psychology of the soul and the psychology of the lower mind is “mind over matter.” Both seek to effect material changes on the basis of the subjective agency employed. In both cases power is sought through knowledge.

The main difference is that the psychology of the soul approaches the higher energies and their utilization for the benefit of humanity. The lower material psychology, as exemplified by behaviorism, may also bring benefits, but in so far as the higher energies are ignored, the possibility of abuse is multiplied many times.

Where the source of inspiration is the lower mind, all of the sordid forces that infect the lower material strata find easy entrance; it is not, therefore, surprising that the most advanced discoveries have fallen into the hands of those who do not subscribe to even the most basic ethical norms.

Few of these expropriators are psychologists of any kind. Most are military men or business men who make use of the work of behaviorists or psychiatrists as private contractors. Because they are private contractors, they do not control the outcome of their research and may not even know what purposes their research serves. They are cogs in a machine.

The Path Not Taken

If we see tables and not atoms and not molecules, it is because this is the way the human body is constructed. Our vision of the world is, in the first place, a function of the apparatus (eyes, brain, etc.) used to convey it. The concepts of the interpretative mind further color this picture of the world. The interpretive mind is also an aspect of the apparatus.

Through technologies such as the microscope and telescope, the scope of the given apparatus is extended, along with the field of knowledge. This takes place under the current scientific paradigm, in pursuit of material knowledge. Hard science takes precedence over soft science, according to the contemporary bias.

By soft science we refer to our forays into the fuzzy areas in which quantification and exact knowledge becomes difficult. These areas are, however, those that have special concern for human beings. Moreover, if we take the example of modern physics, we find that matter is not precisely quantifiable; under scrutiny, it breaks down into energy and mystery. The thing observed changes under the impact of an observer.

Apart from the approach of modern science, there is the road not taken, in which the inner counterpart of the human senses unfold through a more subjective human development. This is the path of yoga, an organic path. It is "primitive" only in the sense that it has a primal significance, relative to which the development of external technologies can only be of secondary interest, conferring "add-on" value.

Telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience and prophetic ability are among the "psychic" developments that have sometimes been investigated by exoteric science, but the investigators have usually lacked patience and have approached delicate matters in ham-handed fashion.

If one tried to see microbes without a microscope, one would likely be frustrated. Likewise, scientists approaching the domain of "inner" knowledge without respect for the correct instrumentation, are bound to be frustrated or to draw incorrect conclusions. How can they distinguish between fact and fraud when they have not established the basic pre-conditions for knowledge?

The interest in psychic knowledge is also sometimes perverted and approached in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons. This has been the case in relation to modern "psychic" research, undertaken mainly by the military establishment in the USA and Russia. One of the results of decades of research is often referred to a "synthetic telepathy."

"Synthetic telepathy" is based the development of brain targeting technologies, which acquire a brain signature that makes it possible to read the thoughts or dreams of the target, and to acquire somatic information of various kinds relating to that person. Further, it is then possible to affect the person targeted in a physical manner; for example, pain may be delivered to various parts of the body, not by direct physical means, but by "action-at-a-distance." Additionally, the target-person may be spoken to; both lives voices and recordings are used; in conjunction with the mind-reading capability, this makes it possible to establish a continuous back and forth circuit, in which the target is provoked and then read. This "voice-to-skull" audio harassment may continue 24/7 for the lifetime of the victim.

Apart from the immediate purposes of these activities, which no doubt include interrogations, the main purpose would seem to be experimentation itself, for there is much more to learn about these technologies.

Since these or similar technologies have benign as well as malefic applications, there is no reason to oppose open and controlled experimentation involving consensual subjects. However, under the perverted aegis of "national security," experimentation, conducted at the tax-payers expense, has been covert and seems to be oriented solely toward the creation of a new generation of weapons and social control. How else can one explain the random use of American citizens as unwilling guinea pigs?

Such malefic activities arise owing to the depravity of the minds which control both tax dollars and technologies, and to the absence of sufficient oversight by the elected representatives of the people. In Washington and virtually everywhere in the USA it is enough to pronounce the magic words "national security" to obtain unlimited funding for any purpose whatsoever. In all such cases of extreme corruption, there is also the factor of a strong lobbying power with material interest and power at stake, against which disinterested and righteous concerns have had the aspect of Quixote tilting against windmills. Further, it is easy for covert operatives to conceal their activities from casual investigators; by employing diversion, disinformation, mis-direction, evasion, denial, camouflage, creative naming and every tactic in the arsenal of "intelligence" agencies, including blackmail and direct threat, they turn our Constitutional democracy into hypocrisy, fraud and circus.

The Synthesis of Corruption

Apart from the synthesis of harmony there is a negative synthesis that is more easily attained but dubious in its benefits. The police state apparatus comes into being by promises to make the trains run on time or to eliminate evil-doers, taking short cuts in the name of efficiency. The short cuts involve the abrogation of freedom and decline in the quality of life. Since the judicial process has been set aside by impatience and fear, the evil-doers turn out to be convenient scapegoats, like the Jews sent to the ovens. Government and business become especially cozy in the name of efficiency, but the arrangement is merely an efficient way to raise a tiny financial elite to a position of social and political supremacy. By promoting fear, the security community promotes itself, and gains increasing and inordinate influence. This influence leads not only to political and social power but to lucrative contracts.

We have mentioned already the manner in which private contractors may aid criminal causes, even without conscious criminal intent. Similarly, the apathetic citizen passively ratifies criminal activities carried out in his name and is the complicit enabler of the operations of the CIA in foreign countries, and of the useless wars fought for all the wrong reasons.

Many of our modern arrangements can be analyzed in terms of this negative synthesis of corruption. As we said before, freedom comes first. Without it, the banner of synthesis is meaningless hypocrisy. This is evident in the failure of modern arrangements to create anything even close to harmony. On the contrary, the nation verges on civil war.

People do not knowingly and willingly seek failure or catastrophe, but in the absence of clear-sighted recognition of the problems before them, they are easily steered in the wrong direction. Thus our fundamental social problems can be interpreted in terms of the erroneous beliefs that people hold, and the manner in which these beliefs are created and fostered.

Democratic politics can only be successful if people are reasonably well informed and reasonably engaged in the political life of the nation. Ignorance and apathy are fatal. The dissemination of false information or information that is heavily biased and one-sided is a threat to us only if the public is accustomed to swallowing sheep-like whatever is offered, from whatever source. Thinking people are not so vulnerable.

Projection

This word is interesting because of the two primary meanings that attach to it. The positive meaning has reference to the creative project, the fully conscious act.

The negative meaning has to do with the ignorance of the person who projects some inner, unresolved content of his own personality onto another person or group. This, too, is a creative act, but as the creative act is unconscious, it merely externalizes and obscurely dramatizes an inner problem. It indicates the confusion of an inner state with an outer situation.

Those who are unwillingly or willingly involved in the projection either come into conflict with the person making the projection, or enter into a co-dependent relationship. Those who are willingly involved are entangled in the psychic confusion of the unconscious creator and must perforce live through the same dramatic episode; those who are unwillingly involved are likely to be in conflict the creator. Others may simply keep their distance and maintain a detached freedom; they do this by rejecting the superimposition of the projection and recognizing it as a negative psychic manifestation originating with the person responsible for the projection.

Chrysalis

The prevailing psychologies belong to a truncated world view and fail even to understand the fundamentals of human life. They have captured man at a point of transition, as one might cut out a frame from a movie and they have presumed to deduce the whole from that snapshot. On the basis of this myopia, they exaggerate foreground experiences and cast the adventures of transitory learning into the nomenclature of lugubrious complexes.

The world exists in layers, like Chinese boxes or a Matryoshka doll. Within the elementary order of creation there is a secondary creation, and within that a third. Our concepts still belong primarily to the first order of creation, whereas our spiritual life is active to open up and make evident the second. It is through this second order of creation that human destiny flowers and the reality of freedom is known.

Upon the established and inherited material world, we are called upon to build something new, a world order that reflects the world of the soul. This implies learning; it also implies that learning is what we are here to do; in a sense, this too is part of the creative design of the first order of creation; that is, the creative design allows for (or pre-ordains) a secondary level of creation. The theme of this secondary level of creation is expansion or ascent of the human consciousness. This is the real point of life. Everything else is merely context.

At the first level of creation, the world is given, and man, like the animal, also has a given nature. But this given nature is simply the matrix within which something further may come to life, just as a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and the caterpillar.

At the second level of creation man acquires a progressive liberation from the limitations inherent in this matrix; he learns to identify with his spiritual soul; he recognizes the truth of the statement that the kingdom of heaven is within; and he begins to participate in the creative work of world service.

The meaning of life and the significance of events is discovered in relation to those episodes of learning that facilitate the translation of the divine potentiality into factual reality. Even actions that seem to retard this forward motion provide food for thought and ultimately serve the same goals.

The Observer

The second order of creation follows from the pre-eminence of the soul. The law of attraction supersedes the law of economy in significance, and the spiritual interpretation of life prevails. This does not happen all at once but by stages. Ultimately, all material conditions and the Matrix, which is their sum, lose their power to hold the soul imprisoned. The resurrection idea points to a universal prospect, with implications for every aspect of the life of humanity.

By contrast the materialist psychologies (or psychologies “without” soul) are infected by a hangover from the first order of creation. Their tendency is to confirm the “reality” of the prisons of the soul. This “confirmation” is an act of will that effectively “cements” the illusion of a material “reality” as the primary fact of life; it is not a scientific discovery but an imposed bias.

This basic error leads to a pre-occupation with material structures and their manipulation (in correlation with ignorance of the primary, subjective power of the soul). Science is then unnecessarily limited by the bias and illusion underlying scientific research.

Although the physicist has come to terms with the fact that the observer does not stand apart from the object of observation; and that the act of observation is therefore never objective in the sense formerly understood; materialistic psychologists seem not to have understood the point. Even less have the crude military and organizational minds who have inherited the fruits of behaviorist research come to terms with the degree to which their own subjectivity becomes part of their systems.

The shift of emphasis from the apparent object to the Observer, the Subject, is the basis spiritual exercise of the jnana yogi. It tends toward the release of the soul from illusory identifications and liberation from the Matrix. “In the world but not of it” describes the correct attitude for free creativity, the object being to promote the progressive liberation of humanity, and not confirm and strengthen the prisons of the soul.

In the tradition of psychoanalysis, the would-be analyst is supposed to undergo analysis himself. Such analysis can be helpful but is often not taken far enough; moreover, it must be, finally, self-analysis, to produce effective detachment and supervision of the personality—from the altitude of the soul. It must be said that actual freedom from bias is rarely achieved, relative to the tens of thousands of analysts, psychologists and psychiatrists. Thus analysis becomes an art, rather than a science.

The alternative, the preference for “hard” science, is a little like burying the head in the sand. While the problems related to the achievement of subjective freedom are real, devotion to “hard” science is not so much a solution as an abdication of the problem. This “hard-headed” approach yields results that are profoundly irrational, as they are systematized as part of a materialistic organization in which bias is ingrained, but never subjected to a leavening scrutiny. This faulty systematization is epitomized by the growing dominance of the security infrastructure, members of which, without the slightest qualification, make use the most advanced surveillance technologies and behaviorist-type methods to “police” the rest of society. Owing to a random patchwork of special interests and specialized workers, researchers may pursue what they think of as pure science, only to have the fruits of their research translated into sophisticated gang-stalking operations.

Apart from the limitations inherent in the work of the honest behaviorist, it is necessary to see how behaviorist ideas work in a trickle-down fashion and permeate the whole of society. In this case their expression is phenomenally crude, leading to the epidemic of bad manners, the endless scapegoating, and the use of pressure tactics in every area of life, as one person or party endeavors to force another into compliance with the ideas and will of the shaper. This is a social sickness having its roots in the will to power. The mass of people follow the bad example of their leaders.

A person who follows the principle of the Observer will naturally question his own interpretations of an event or person. He is not adverse to finding fault in his own personality, if it is there to be found. The reason for this is simple: he identifies with the light and not that which the light reveals. He is not defensive. He does not identify with his own thoughts. They are passing clouds.

His interest in other people is primarily to learn what they see and believe, and to know them as they know themselves. He is not eager to interpret them or label them; far less is he eager to re-shape them according to his own ideas. He knows that pressure is offensive, and that even suggestion should be employed with care and moderation, as a matter of respect for another person. He knows that only what a person does on the basis of his own free will has intrinsic value for that person.

Such qualities and characteristics were formerly among the ends sought through a liberal education. Because the capacity to look at a matter without self-interest made possible an understanding of the greater good, it was considered indispensable both for science and for social cohesion.

During the liberal era, the existing systems were not so so extensive or so overwhelming; people could still imagine that the individual was the real point of our way of life. Today it is quite different. Not so long ago we could look at the Cultural Revolution in China and feel a revulsion for the power of social conformity at work, punishing, destroying or “re-educating” individuals to bring them into line with the prevailing orthodoxy, Communism. But even then the problem was not exclusively owned by Communists. In Taiwan the “White Terror” worked in reverse, to punish, destroy and bring into line anyone with an inordinate desire for social reforms. In the USA, during the McCarthy era, similar processes were at work; in fact, they continue today, albeit in an unacknowledged, covert and hypocritical fashion.

These social and political efforts, some acknowledged and others covert, all express the same crude behaviorist psychology, which has been adopted virtually everywhere in the world, primarily because it appeals to the powers-that-be and seems to provide them with a comprehensive system of social control. It offers them an engine for shaping compliant populations.

Note that behaviorism in its crudest expression has always been used by tyrants, dictatorial governments and police states. Murder, torture, demotion, ostracism, imprisonment and threat are simply operative formulae for the alteration of behavior in a subject population. The bribe works to the same ends, providing the human mouse with the cheese-reward for making the “right” choice.

These processes are subversive both to justice and to the actual freedom of the subject populations. In fact, they render the controlling class practically omnipotent.

Many Constitutionalists, while vociferous about the right to bear arms and the desirability of limited government, have nothing to say about the vast security empire, which gobbles up half the budget.

They have forgotten how concerned the original founders were about the mere possibility of a standing army. They had good reason to be concerned, for they knew well the history of previous states and the precariousness of liberty, dependent on checks and balances to prevent any single power from achieving overwhelming dominance.

It is absurd to imagine today that this balance will be preserved by the gun-owning householder, but it is not absurd to impose upon the defense establishment appropriate supervision, if ours is to be the government of a free people, and not merely another in the long list of history’s errors.

Inverted World

In the inverted world, the mode of government envisioned in the Constitution appears upside down. Instead of the people choosing and therefore shaping their own government, the government, like most corporate management teams, prefers to shape the people inspired by a program determined within the government. Aspects of this program may not even be known by the public, which is not considered (by those in power) to have a need to know. Moreover, the policy of the hidden shapers is to evade open debate or any serious scrutiny of “government” activity by the public, by utilizing secrecy, disinformation and misdirection.

Conversely, where the householder formerly expected privacy, he can today expect none at all, for nothing is off limits to the new intrusive surveillance of police, pseudo-police, private contractors and common criminals (increasingly, it is impossible to distinguish these groups). In addition to ubiquitous data mining, computer hacking is now commonplace, and remote neural monitoring (virtual psychic rape) is becoming commonplace; as a result, privacy belongs more and more to the realm of the nostalgia and wishful thinking.

It is absurd to call this socialism, or to even to view this inversion of the relation between the government and the citizenry as a partisan issue. Both major parties have been responsible for the change, and the partisan interpretations of the existing situation are not generally helpful in elucidating it. Apart from the half-brained polarization that seeks always to see everything from one side, both parties equally evade talking about their area of agreement or their mutual complicity in the growth of corruption.

Further examples of inversion become evident if we analyze the various bureaucratic structures, beginning with the defense industry in all it ramifications. We have to ask if this industry exists to protect us from our enemies, or if we require enemies in order to justify the existence of the vast defense apparatus, which provides jobs for many and enormous profits for some, while empowering a few in a manner altogether outside the chain of command. It may be that the situation in our own nation resembles that of a country like Afghanistan, where warlords operate freely in their own fiefdoms. In such a case, the “nation” is only a designated area on a map, with no substantial reality.

Covert Censorship

Herbert Marcuse points out the narrowing of political discourse as a feature of modern technological society in One-Dimensional Man (1964). If I may simultaneously paraphrase Marcuse and add my own thought, this narrowing is partly the result of relative success, but it is a success that builds toward failure under a law of crystallization. As there is a presumption that the basic problems have been solved and that the system is fundamentally satisfactory, the conservative and reactionary tendencies gain the upper hand and place a stranglehold upon precisely the types of innovation necessary, if the society is to advance to the next stage. Failing to advance, it falls into corruption. This corruption, in America, has been decades in the making and cannot be blamed upon any one President or party. A parallel process has gone forward in other nations.

Within the narrow dimensions of currently permissible political debate, all issues, even the most minor, are dramatized for maximum impact. We bear witness, in America, to an apparently great conflict; the contention is so heated as to prevent reasonable compromise; polarization is so extreme that many people only tune in the news that agrees with their pre-established bias. Meanwhile, however, little attention is given to the area of agreement between the two parties, or to the many issues that both parties agree not to address. Yet this silence is pregnant with the real story.

The growth of the defense establishment as a self-serving monster that feeds on tax dollars is not allowed recognition because it is at odds with the preferred narrative of a patriotic fight against terrorists and rogue nations (which abruptly replaced the original rationale, the Cold War, after 1987).

Self-criticism, or the recognition of America’s contribution to world problems, has never been popular; at times it has been considered treasonous; modern politicians, learning the lesson of electability, keep their silence. But their silence leaves us in the dark.

Even if they wished to speak, we might never know, if they were subject to unknown pressures. Their computers might be hacked and corrupted; their phones tapped or cut off, their families threatened. The varieties of pressure, including ostracism or marginalization, are seldom featured in the news, but they are the means of imposing a covert censorship. If we add the new generation of electromagnetic tools, including remote neural monitoring and non-lethal weapons, to the repertoire of technologies with which any nation’s Gestapo can silence dissidents and exert control of its citizens, it is evident that this is a success story that may end the brief experiment in free government.

Motives and National Decline

Motives have always been paramount in the spiritual life, since it is recognized that good motives lead to good actions and results, bad to bad. The motives predominating in the era of corruption have been unqualified love of power, fear and greed. Frequently, these three levers operate in unison, creating a negative synergy.

Fear is a common emotion. If we fear getting burned, we can avoid the fire, but modern fears are less well-defined. They permeate life, but they do not inspire useful decisions.

The growth of inordinate power in the security establishment is facilitated by the appeal to fear. The reassuring idea is that protection is offered, if only more money is allocated for defense or policing, if only people are willing to give up the rights enshrined in the Constitution. The wolves are pledging to look after the sheep.

At least fear and tyranny are not elevated into imaginary virtues, whereas the inflation of self-interest, the underpinning of the consumer culture, has resulted in the glorification of greed.

Any real social psychology has to recognize the ubiquity of these pathological elements. If our politics, newer laws and economic policies are based on such ground, it is not hard to see that social rot and national decline are in the making.

The worst examples belong to America’s 9/11 response: the completely unnecessary 2003 Iraq invasion, leading to the greatest military debacle since Vietnam; the Patriot Act, a legislative surrender to the power of terror and tyranny; and the endorsement of torture by our Vice President.

The Anarchistic Colossus

The attempt to create a semi-automatic system for the reconstruction of personality and pre-crime policing must have been in the minds of practical researchers dating back to WW II. Some of this research, like Delgado’s, is in the public domain. Much of it, we must presume, has been carefully hidden.

Usually when such a theme is broached, it is assumed that we are talking about science-fiction. The common assumption has been and still is carefully nourished by the disinformation agencies that seek to keep the public in the dark about certain significant facts. As it becomes impossible to keep the whole secret, some bits and pieces emerge into the light, as if they represented the state of the art, whereas the state of the art is decades ahead of the “advances” featured in contemporary “news” articles.

Some fictional works may shed light on the truth. I will mention two that focus on the “ideal” thinking that may have prompted the creation of such a system: Walden Two (1948) by B. F. Skinner and The Anarchistic Colossus (1977) by A. E. van Vogt. Both may be called science-fiction. The first is the representation of a utopia that makes use of behaviorist ideas to shape its residents into fitness for happiness. Like all utopias, its suffers from the one-dimensional thinking which finds in a panacea the easy solution of all human problems. The second is more subtle in that the author is able to visualize a more sophisticated apparatus, as well as a more limited sphere of control; nevertheless, there is a dangerous omission even in van Vogt’s utopia, in that the “system” not only prevents those subject to it (everyone) from violent acts, it disables them on a level affecting their survival.

I mention these idealistic works of imagination because the malefic reality of the system actually developed promotes incredulity on the part of those learning about it for the first time. The whole system seems so insane that normal people cannot even believe it exists. It remains, therefore, to explain the process whereby the actuality has developed, if we assume a benign intention at the root.

As there are significant benefits from some aspects of brain research that are well worth pursuing, the attraction of this type of research for certain minds is undeniable. Our concern is not with the honest efforts of researchers to promote human well-being but with those researches under military direction and oriented toward the creation of new weapons systems as well as the means of total social control. The fact that the new weapons are tested on American citizens, used as involuntary human guinea pigs, tells you all you need to know about the minds behind this program.

In the ideal version of the system, as visualized by Skinner and van Vogt, pure science operates as a benign instrument of humane purposes. Such idealism, however, does not take into account the subjectivity and bias of actual behaviorists, not to mention the even greater bias of the military minds and policemen who inherit the fruits of their research.

One aspect of the existing system is that it essentially by-passes the judicial process. Another is that it remains a covert system, although it has been actively employed for decades.

The rationale for this may be “national security” but even common concepts such as “enemy” and “threat” are volatile with the subjectivity of the interpreter. They are politically charged.

If policemen and military people (and even private contractors working in the “security” establishment) are allowed to operate without effective civilian supervision, their activities are inevitably politicized. Moreover, thanks to secrecy and disinformation, there is no check on these activities. There is neither an open public debate at their inception, nor any judicial process to correct emerging injustice. In effect, one unqualified segment of the population is given the right to police another without due process; the result, which should be no surprise to any real psychologist, is that every type of bias and bigotry gets a free pass, under the umbrella of “national security.”

As this actual “system” becomes the potent instrument of a political faction, it is subversive of law and order, and the police state makes its appearance.

Fear Psychology: Fashion, Pseudo-Science & Subversion

As the focus of medicine and policing shifts in the direction of preventive measures, professionals, patients and citizens are bereft of the guidance formerly provided by the empirical laboratory of ordinary life. The latter no longer serves as aid to the common sense and refutation of foolish or insufficient theoretical notions.

Similarly, when we dispense with the traditional judicial process, because it is too cumbersome, this avoidance is an invitation to tyranny. Far from expediting the work of the police and guaranteeing the national security, lack of civilian oversight for the police and security domains encourages incompetence and corruption. Above all, it introduces a covert political dimension to very concepts of security and policing. This is so obvious that one wonders what, really, was in the minds of those charged under the Constitution with the preservation of law and order under our limited form of government, who yet were responsible for arrangements that amount to the subversion of the very basis of the law.

We have no science that identifies criminals that we can substitute for honest police work or for the social and educational processes that build citizens and not criminals. The latter, not pseudo-science, is the key to the eradication of crime at the root. This is ancient wisdom, forgotten because it is unfashionable.

A characteristic of modern society is the widespread explosion of the will to power. Its unwholesome or unqualified expression is a major source of criminal, anti-social or inappropriate behavior. Politicians, judges, behaviorists, psychiatrists, police officers and social engineers are not immune to temptation.

According to pre-crime or preventive police techniques, suspicion is elevated into a major aspect of police activity. The police officer (or pseudo-policeman) is required to be psychologist, judge and warden, roles for which he has neither the training nor the aptitude, even if he had the authority. As fear psychology infects daily life, in the eye of the police officer every citizen must be considered a suspect, and suspicion falls especially on those with a foreign accent or the wrong skin color.

In keeping with the fear mongering of the Bush administration, an absurd system of red and orange alerts was deployed nationally. The implication was that the whole business of terror and counter-terror had been reduced to an exact science, whereas, even with virtually unlimited budgets and state-of-the-art technologies, our intelligence agencies proved not merely worthless but counter-productive, in that their assessment (subsequently invalidated) inspired the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the same spirit, in the domain of health-care, advertisements suggest that we are vulnerable to numerous ailments. In response to suggestion, the more impressionable members of the population begin to attract and incubate the diseases that are "sold" in the marketplace, as suggestive marketing promotes the disease as well as the cure.