Our
personal self-image, the way we believe ourselves to be, may not, in
fact, really be our true identity. What we think of as our own
unique identity may in reality be the echo of a pattern of the human
collective that has been bestowed upon us from the outside. Where
have the ideas that have molded and shaped the way we live and think
come from? Are they uniquely ours, or someone else's? Stop and ask
yourself if you have ever had an original thought, truly originating
from within your own imagination?
People
are psychologically shaped to fill specific roles in the world, as if
they were poured into a pre-designated mold. When you come to
realize that life is no more than the upholding of patterns installed
from some outside agency, it is a rude awakening. You can scream,
but until you cease to compare your existence to the way others live,
you cannot restore freedom or regain control and will continue to
live according to the operational instructions that have been
downloaded into you from peers, parents, and the social powers that
be.
This
foreign installation is very much like a downloaded computer program
or a psychological implant – something that has been embedded into
the human psyche to keep people, among other things, fearful and
compliant. It is a kind of self-imposed mental slavery that
disempowers us, ultimately leading to unproductive or unfulfilled
lives, or something destructively worse. This imposed identity is
the gift of the dark side to humanity.
Where
did this come from? Has it always been this way?
There
is a dark force about the world that preys upon us all; it is of our
own making and has been here for as long as anyone can recall. But
it does not exist everywhere. Some places on Earth were not shadowed
by the darkness until recently. Many places throughout the wide
universe have beings that have not evolved a dark side.
It all
began as an idea... an idea that someone had to make things better.
Traveling back in time to when our ancestors lived a hunting and
gathering lifestyle, someone proposed a novel idea to cultivate food
and domesticate animals so that the community was not on the move
from day to day, but could retreat to the safety of a secure dwelling and give up the hunting and gathering way of life. It
seemed like a good idea at the time.
Our
ancestral communities thrived with the shift to agriculture and
populations increased significantly as communities began to spread
out over the land. Leaders arose who did everything they could to
emulate the success of other communities. As communities grew and
became more complex, tasks were assigned to specific people to
optimize productivity. In return for taking time away from tending crops and animal husbandry to perform their
assigned tasks, they were given housing and food in trade.
And so
slavery had its beginning. Some people objected to the arrangement
and may have gone off to start their own communities with those that followed. Eventually, most found themselves repeating the same
patterns from which they fled their previous community.
What
arose from this was a claim to land and a right to possessions. All
sorts of rights emerged – rights to land, animals, even the right
to control the people in a community, forcing others into labor that
offered less and less in return. Looking back at the feudal era, a
certain disconnect between the people and the land arose.
Anger, frustration, and loss characterize the unfulfilled lives of
those subjugated to the control of feudal lords.
Then
wars began to protect claims and expand territory, fought not by the
noblemen, but by those who continued to labor on their behalf, turning
their plowshares into weapons of war against other communities that
became the enemy.
And so
the arms race began. Communities merged into countries as they
pushed for bigger and better tools of destruction. Greed to control
more and more land and people along with every other natural
resource continued to escalate. The drive for control and power
over humanity has become the conclusive agenda of a very small group
of elite “leaders”.
The
outcome has been slavery, mass production, over-consumption, and war.
It no longer even matters what the conquest is all about.
Sitting at the top, weapons ready, the elite protect their prominence
and the material possessions and privileges they have amassed.
The
weapons they use are not always overt. Manipulative language is used
as a weapon targeting the collective unconscious with lies of praise and
condemnation. And all of this began with the first seeds of our
so-called modern civilization - wresting control and power over the
environment, animals, and people.
Some
claim that this dark force is otherworldly. So horrific is it's
predation on the planet and humanity that it seems easier to assign
blame to some outer space origin. That is easier than taking
responsibility and owning up to the fact that we allow this to
happen. By blaming the corrupt systems of control on some alien
force, the culpability for humans may be set aside so that our own
barbaric and cruel behaviors may be justified.
But we
are not the dark force that acts through us. The predator is a force
of energy, not a being, that over thousands of years has enmeshed
itself in every aspect of our world – government, money, food,
religion, education, resources, and the environment. It imposes
itself upon us in every aspect of our lives, effecting control by
removing our decision-making authority in a very subtle form of
slavery.
Those
appointed or “elected” into positions of power are given
decision-making authority. We put them on a pedestal, showering them
with privilege, and want to believe we can trust their integrity and
wisdom, but they are little more than pawns on a chess board and can
only maintain their position of authority and power so long as they
uphold the paradigm of the dark force.
We
like to think we have free will, but that authority has long ago been
taken from us. Because of that people have increasingly moved away
from taking responsibility for anything, relying on being told what
to do and say and think because to do or say or think otherwise would
be counterproductive to the system.
We
have not really advanced as a species since the birth of
civilization. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were more connected to
the world and lived in greater balance and harmony than have we
since. Instead, we continue to spin around and around as unwitting
slaves to a corrupt system of deceptive agendas rooted in greed and
profit. We are largely blind to an outdated and corrupt reward
system of unnecessary and obligatory consumption, with the major
readily reconciling their lives to being herded like sheep, fearfully
trying to remain in compliance with the hope of receiving praise,
rewards, or increased wealth. Compliant consumption keeps the wheels
of the machine well-oiled and lucrative.
The
predator's energy is well entrenched in the minds of much of
humanity. The illusion that this is just the way it is, to accept it
and make the best of it, is the prevailing, largely unquestioned
notion. Most people are not even aware that they are prisoners of
the system. They are entirely sold on the idea that the system
exists solely for the advancement and benefit of humanity. Perhaps
the greatest sadness is that most people are happy with the way
things are, satisfied to reach for but never achieve the unattainable
carrot that has always been held out of reach. Rather than attack the
system, many people would prefer to defend and protect the
preservation of the status quo and their right to their continued
habit of consumption.
The
predator is well on its way to succeeding in its agenda as they hold
sway over a majority who still believe they have choice. It is
positioning itself to take control of everything, removing any
remaining claims to freedom, vision, or creativity. But more and
more people are awakening from their slumber, beginning to pull at
their chains and fight back. The thought of worldwide totalitarian
centralized control is terrifying enough that many have reached a
tipping point of toleration.
It is
shocking how many people still defend their enslavement to the
prevailing paradigm. The drawn out battle between the forces of
light and darkness is by design, with all its gory detail on display
to awaken the sleeping masses, to get people to look the predatory
square in the face, to acknowledge that the darkness exists and that
it is consuming them.
Acknowledging
the existence of the dark force in the world is the first step in
casting off its shackles. To end the game, one must come to the
realization that each of us has the power to create not only our own
identity, but our complete reality. The predator must be given
permission to control us. Until we take back control of our free
will, we shall remain slaves in an imposed reality. Look closely at
the mirror-age, the illusion, and see yourself emerging from the
darkness into the new age of emerging light. To see the world
differently, we must each remake our own self-image. That is where
we must begin.