For a magician to fool his audience his deceit must go unseen, and to this end he crafts an illusion to avert attention from reality. While the audience is entranced, the deceptive act is committed, and for the fool, reality then becomes inexplicably built upon on a lie. That is, until the fool wakes up and recognizes the truth in the fact that he has been duped.
Maintaining the suspension of disbelief in the illusion, however, is often more comforting than acknowledging the magician’s secrets.
We live in a world of illusion. So many of the concerns that occupy the mind and the tasks that fill the calendar arise from planted impulses to become someone or something that we are not. This is no accident. As we are indoctrinated into this authoritarian-corporate-consumer culture that now dominates the human race, we are trained that certain aspects of our society are untouchable truths, and that particular ways of being and behaving are preferred.
Psychopaths disempower people in this way. They blind us with never ceasing barrages of suggestions and absolutes that are aimed at shattering self-confidence and confidence in the future.
Banksy, the revered and elusive revolutionary street artist, once commented:
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. – Banksy
Advertising is just the tip of the iceberg. When we look further we see that the overall organization of life is centered around the pursuit of illusions and automatic obedience to institutions and ideas which are not at all what they seem. We are in a very real sense enslaved. Many call this somewhat intangible feeling of oppression ‘the matrix,’ a system of total control that invades the mind, programming individuals to pattern themselves in accordance with a mainstream conformist version of reality, no matter how wicked it gets.
The grandest of the illusions which keep us enslaved to the matrix, the ones that have so many of us still entranced, are outlined below for your consideration.
1. The Illusion of Law, Order and Authority
For so many of us, following the law is considered a moral obligation, and many of us gladly do so even though corruption, scandal, and wickedness repeatedly demonstrate that the law is plenty flexible for those who have the muscle to bend it. Police brutality and police criminality is rampant in the US, the courts favor the wealthy, and we can longer even lead our lives privately thanks to the intrusion of state surveillance. And all the while the illegal and immoral Orwellian permanent war rages on in the background of life, murdering and destroying whole nations and cultures.
The social order is not what it seems, for it is entirely predicated on conformity, obedience and acquiescence which are enforced by fear of violence. History teaches us again and again that the law is just as often as not used as an instrument of oppression, social control and plunder, and any so-called authority in this regard is false, hypocritical, and unjust.
When the law itself does not follow the law, there is no law, there is no order, and there is no justice. The pomp and trappings of authority are merely a concealment of the truth that the current world order is predicated on control, not consent.
2. The Illusion of Prosperity and Happiness
Adorning oneself in expensive clothes and trinkets, and amassing collections of material possessions that would be the envy of any 19th century monarch has become a substitute for genuine prosperity. Maintaining the illusion of prosperity, though, is critical to our economy as it is, because its foundation is built on consumption, fraud, credit and debt. The banking system itself has been engineered from the top down to create unlimited wealth for some while taxing the eternity out of the rest of us.
True prosperity is a vibrant environment and an abundance of health, happiness, love, and relationships. As more people come to perceive material goods as the form of self-identification in this culture, we slip further and further away from the experience of true prosperity.
3. The Illusion of Choice and Freedom
Read between the lines and look at the fine print, we are not free, not by any intelligent standard. Freedom is about having choice, yet in today’s world, choice has come to mean a selection between available options, always from within the confines of a corrupt legal and taxation system and within the boundaries of culturally accepted and enforced norms.
Just look no further than the phony institution of modern democracy to find a shining example of false choices appearing real. Two entrenched, corrupt, archaic political parties are paraded as the pride and hope of the nation, yet third party and independent voices are intentionally blocked, ridiculed and plowed under.
The illusion of choice and freedom is a powerful oppressor because it fools us into accepting chains and short leashes as though they were the hallmarks of liberty.
Multiple choice is different than freedom, it is easy servitude.
4. The Illusion of Truth
Truth has become a touchy subject in our culture, and we’ve been programmed to believe that “the” truth comes from the demigods of media, celebrity, and government. If the TV declares something to be true, then we are heretics to believe otherwise. In order to maintain order, the powers-that-be depend upon our acquiescence to their version of the truth. While independent thinkers and journalists continually blow holes in the official versions of reality, the illusion of truth is so very powerful that it takes a serious personal upheaval to shun the cognitive dissonance needed to function in a society that openly chases false realities.
5. The Illusion of Time
They say that time is money, but this is a lie. Time is your life. Your life is an ever-evolving manifestation of the now. Looking beyond the five-sense world, where we have been trained to move in accordance with the clock and the calendar, we find that the spirit is eternal, and that the each individual soul is part of this eternity.
The big deception here is the reinforcement of the idea that the present moment is of little to no value, that the past is something we cannot undo or ever forget, and that the future is intrinsically more important than both the past and the present. This carries our attention away from what it actually happening right now and directs it toward the future. Once completely focused on what is to come rather than what is, we are easy prey to advertisers and fear-pimps who muddy our vision of the future with every possible worry and concern imaginable.
We are happiest when life doesn’t box us in, when spontaneity and randomness gives us the chance to find out more about ourselves. Forfeiting the present moment in order to fantasize about the future is a trap. The immense, timeless moments of spiritual joy that are found in quiet meditation are proof that time is a construct of the mind of humankind, and not necessarily mandatory for the human experience.
If time is money, then life can be measured in dollars. When dollars are worth less, so is life. This is total deception, because life is, in truth, absolutely priceless.
6. The Illusion of Separateness
On a strategic level, the tactic of divide and conquer is standard operating procedure for authoritarians and invading armies, but the illusion of separateness runs even deeper than this.
We are programmed to believe that as individuals we are in competition with everyone and everything around us, including our neighbors and even mother nature. Us vs. them to the extreme. This flatly denies the truth that life on this planet is infinitely inter-connected. Without clean air, clean water, healthy soil, and a vibrant global sense of community we cannot survive here.
While the illusion of separateness comforts us by gratifying the ego and and offering a sense of control, in reality it only serves to enslave and isolate us.
Conclusion
The grand illusions mentioned here have been staged before us as a campaign to encourage blind acquiescence to the machinations of the matrix. In an attempt to dis-empower us, they demand our conformity and obedience, but we must not forget that all of this is merely an elaborate sales pitch. They can’t sell what we don’t care to buy.
Sigmund Fraud is a survivor of modern psychiatry and a dedicated mental activist. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com, where this first appeared. He indulges in the possibility of a massive shift towards a more psychologically aware future for mankind.
I am always reminded of Forrest Gump, and the Fool’s journey in the tarot! We humans are not always predictable in unpredictable situations, life goes on!
All true….all true. Thanks for writing this piece. Nothing in it is shocking to the awake (as you are aware), but the very important need to have your information reiterated still exists. Thanks.
WOW! This is beautiful! Every single point is real and is the truth to freedom in this world! EXCELLENT! Thank you for sharing. 😉
Great article! Thanks!
Excellent observations. I would also add number seven to the list: The illusion of Abrahamic religions.All 3 branches are based on exclusivity, divide and conquer, strategies deliberately designed by the cabal. Observe the ongoing chaos created by socially engineered organized religions. Go within to contact Creator, directly to headquarters.
Christianity is not exclusive; neither is it an Abrahamic religion. Its substance and its essence entirely devolves upon the Person of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abraham plays no greater part in its structure than Noah, or Adam, or Methuselah, or a host of others defined not by their race, but by their faith.
Islam is not an Abrahamic religion either; however, judaism obviously is.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with Me”.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life”.
“He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life”.
No sign whatsoever of exclusivity here. The gospel is preached to the entire world. However, the other two religions you allude to are completely exclusive and intolerant.
Christianity also defines absolutely what reality is. It states categorically that man does not have an eternal spirit; as the second of these scriptures spells out most clearly, and the third implies.
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die”.
Thus, the wisdom of man, and the wisdom of Sigmund Fraud, is foolishness with God.
Perhaps if one observes Christ in an esoteric manner, one could say following Christ is not exclusive. The Christian religion however, is very exclusive. One must be “saved” by the “blood of the lamb” or one is unsaved, and according to the religion, doomed to burn in hell….forever. In the Judaic religion, one is born chosen, also exclusive.If not a Jew, one is a Goy. And the Muslims believe that all who are not followers of their prophet are infidel.
I think the controllers might have conjured up all of this separation for a reason, divide and conquer.
If you want to know about Islam, go to the Quran.
“Those who believe (in the Qur’an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah (God) and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.”
Quran, 2:62
This is just one of many verses that affirms the inclusiveness of God’s mercy. “Any who believe…” also opens the door to adherents of other belief systems that are not listed in the verse, the minimum criteria being belief in God (monotheism), the day of judgement, and righteous conduct.
The word infidel (Kafir) refers to pagans, idol worshipers, and polytheists – not monotheists, which include Jews and Christians. These two religions and Islam are most certainly Abrahamic in that all or most of their prophets issue from him, and affirm his archetypal declaration of the unity of God and our obligation to worship and serve him.
The god of the Old Testament, is clearly psychopathic.
Again, according to the official scriptures, one must accept the god of the Old Testament, to get into heaven. This is exclusivity. People who follow these religions, exclude all who do not follow the psychopathic Yahweh, and view such, as goyim, unsaved, or infidels. It could very well be true, that Yeshua was, in truth, a Gnostic, and the dying from corruption Roman Empire Part 1, morphed the Gnostic knowledge into a new religion, complete with instructions of passivity, turning the other cheek to aggression, and making sure you pay your taxes. Did Jesus speak out against slavery, which was rampant at the time? We know for fact, that the Gnostic gospels were officially eliminated from the Christian faith, at the Council of Nicea in the year 325 AD. So a group of elite men, dressed in women’s clothing, chose what Jesus said or did not say.
Anna,
I agree, and it is Islam’s claim, and now the historical record, that the revelations given to Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them both, were changed by the hands of men. The Quran makes the case that the followers of Jesus adopted a theology and Christology which was alien to his teachings – referring to Pauline doctrine and the Byzantine councils which Hellenized or Romanized a Semitic theology – and the Quran entreats Christians to focus and remember the truth.
Surely many gospels were discarded as non-canonical, among which is the Gospel of Barnabas which has congruence with Islamic teachings, and which some assert confirms the coming of Muhammad, peace be upon him. Surely, elite men have defined what we know today as Christianity, although I believe they wore men’s gowns, not women’s dresses ;-).
All prophets taught two ways: the inner and the outer. Of all the great Western prophets, Christ may have been the most esoteric, or the one who fused the inner and outer path most seamlessly – perhaps like his earlier Eastern counterparts.
Muhammad came to reconfirm a monotheistic theology after the perceived Christian deviation, to restore the religion of Abraham. He also came with exoteric law, because Islam identifies itself as the eschatological religion, for a period in history (in which we currently live) where people’s spiritual faculties would be diminished and thus in need of clear, wide-ranging guidelines.
However, he also taught an inner, mystical path which has flowered in the Sufi tradition, and which reflects the inner-most teachings of Jesus, affirming the essential unity of Abrahamic (and world) religions, despite differing outer forms.
Frank
Good post Frank. The Gnostics believed (and believe) this was an evil world, created by Yaldabaoth, Jehovah, Yahweh, all names for the demon god. It is no wonder the Gnostics were destroyed, the Library of Alexandria burned to the ground. Throughout human history Avatars have come to this dimension, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, Parzival, & others, to help restore some form of guiding light for the masses. Then after they die, the controllers move in, rewrite and distort the message, and apply hierarchical constraints on the followers, which results in confusion, each faction fighting the other. We just need to go directly within to headquarters, and forget all of the dogma and deliberate manipulations. We still have a large group of people who pray to a demon, they can’t move beyond dogma. This world is not all there is.
Anna, I agree with the spirit of what you say, but not the degree. This is a long message because what you raise is important. In my view it is not an “either/or” issue. The inner and outer are both important, and one cannot be without the other. The inner path, explored in the absence of an orthodox outer dogma is precisely what leads to people praying to demons. Kabbalah and Gnosticism happen when dogma is abandoned or perverted beyond bounds.
A clear dogma/theology is necessary, and it provides the topography and structure of belief. The process of debating for example, Christology and its history, is a necessary intellectual activity toward arriving at the truth. I applaud you for knowing your history in this regard, but would urge you not to stop the journey half way. Keep going. It is not mysterious, or an inscrutable enigma as they would have us believe. — God is not the author of confusion. — One could broaden his historical scope of analysis beyond the confines of his own religion, and go forward and backward in time to arrive at a more informed conclusion, conscious of the fact that God reveals himself not only in nature and scripture, but also in history.
But even that is not necessary, because Jesus gives us the answer in the New Testament itself. “Hear, O Israel. The Lord thy God is one.” “Why do you call me good? There is none good except the Father.” “My God, and your God.” “Not as I will, but as my father wills.” This last statement is a confession of his submission to God. The Quran refers to all prophets as “muslims” in the wider sense of the word, i.e., “those who submit their will to God.”
Debating dogma is healthy in the Islamic view, and the Prophet stated that differences amongst the scholars are a blessing to the faith. For instance, there are 4 distinct schools of law in Sunni Islam, each of which is acknowledged by the other 3 as legitimate. The body is the same, but the shade and trimmings of the cloak may vary.
The agitators will never cease fomenting discord – within and between faiths – that is their devilish duty. However, I don’t think the reaction should be to throw up one’s hands and discard dogma – that is their devilish wish.
Dogma has to be placed in its proper perspective. I agree that dogmatic bickering should never get in the way of the solidarity and swift action of believers against evil – evil of the sort we face today in its most concentrated form, the Dajjal, Antichrist, Illuminati darkness that has gripped the world in its wicked clutch. You may be interested to know that the Eastern Orthodox Church (Room/Rum) is praised by God in the Quran, and is spoken of highly by the Prophet, peace be upon him. In fact, he prophesied an alliance between Islam and the Eastern Church (which is based in Moscow) during the end times.
I do have my frustrations with excessive dogma. Popular Islam today has devolved into trivial pursuit, where scholars who should be busy interpreting world events in light of the irrefutable reality of Dajjal Antichrist are waxing on about small-time, nickle-and-dime issues of ceremonial law or practice, splitting hairs to the point of becoming irrelevant to the common Muslim. I can’t recall the last time our fine scholars and sermons even mentioned the unequivocal ban on usury in Islam, let alone assessed monetary policy and economics in this light! I’m sure many Christians can say the same about their current reality. However, a core of scholars has not lost its focus.
Nothing pains me more than encountering sites, articles and comments by Christians where they vilify Islam or suspect it to be the Antichrist, and vice versa. We need a vigorous shake folks, and a rude wake up call: Antichrist is playing us against each other like chumps – it is time to wise up and quit playing the dupe. We both affirm God, and Antichrist openly spits in his face. How can we be confused about this?? There is only one enemy, and the litmus test is Godfulness vs. Godlessness.
I like your headquarters analogy. After all, Jesus, peace be upon him, did say the Kingdom of God lies within. At HQ, there is an essential, inner unity (Frithjof Schuon calls it a “transcendent unity”) of religions, and we can access God directly. While dogma mustn’t be tossed to the side, it should not present an obstacle for us to meet at HQ to grow together and face our common threat.
In this vain, let me part with this link, http://www.acommonword.com, a worthy project called “A Common Word Between Us and You.”
Cheers Anna,
Frank.
Superbly succinct summation of truths I have hard-learned over a horrendously difficult lifetime. Cannot fault one word of this article. After my experiences I can understand why it’s so difficult to get the average person to grasp and truly understand the ‘reality’ of life in this world in these times. There is so much deliberate distraction and unneeded ‘convenience’ (carrot) paired with contrived ‘problems’ (stick) that the majority have no chance of ‘getting it’. Many thanks for this piece.
Freedom is nothing more than an illusion with a name. Our existence is designed for us and we do nothing more than accept it.
It would be a curious bit of information to learn what percentage of the populace is aware of the matrix but fears admitting to their knowledge.