Where we place our attention may be the most radical and freedom reaching action we can do. Going with the possibility of Oneness, call it God if you must, what we are thinking within the universal consciousness of Everything is the most significant action we take day by day and moment by moment. In this moment, I know there are others thinking like I do, not because a media platform or YouTubing guru informed us, but because in our hearts we know something that, for us, is true. The reach of a one world agenda that enslaves people more than people already are, is not acceptable to us. The thrust of a sexual predator, deflowering young women to satisfy his appetite for power is not acceptable to us. There are many of us thinking this way.
If you are watching the news and the news story looks like a movie you saw in theatres last year, you are potentially preprogrammed to believe what you are seeing in the news is an acceptable event. A rational and critical thinker would say no, its not acceptable. Vinyl chloride released into the atmosphere, or acres of blazing fires from a chemical factory, is not acceptable. And by the way, for what are those 100 liquid container train cars lined up in the middle of the California breadbasket? A movie?
When the EPA doesnt even bother to show up for environmental catastrophes, let alone bring assistance, speaking up over the silence of brain numbing acceptance might be read as a terrorist act. It might not be safe. However, speaking up is an act of freedom. It is a positive course to take and can lead to positive developments.
Now beware, if you are in a cult of any kind and the CEO aka Guru is hosting an event so investors and followers may air any grievances, look out for what you have already been programmed to accept.
In our cult of crazy mystics, we were told and eventually trained to put things on the shelf, to accept things that seemed sketchy while trusting they would be taken care of eventually. Eventually you will see the truth, he claimed. When we had feelings or intuitions about any cognitive dissonance, the devils own advocate suggested putting them on the shelf. Furthermore, feelings and intuition were not reliable sources according to our all-seeing CEO. He had worked on us for years so we would believe that. You cannot trust your self, your thoughts or your feelings. Trust comes from what is deeper. The deeper was an amorphous realm of undefined concepts that we were free to imagine as we liked, but never to lay hold of for ourselves. That was for him to do, if you dared to share anything juicy from your outpost in the deep.
At some point, a narcissist gets bold in letting their dark exploits show. The devil wants validation for his trickery and guile, a little applause, a bit of stage time to take a bow for what hes really doing. Very big demons make movies and television to show off. In our small theatre, our backcountry devil created what he called The Accountability Committee. This was a group of lesser executives who had influence in the community. They were considered above board, intelligent and incorruptible. We looked up to them. Within that small circle of lesser gods, the devil took his bows. That committee must have been shell-shocked when they first learned that the Teacher of Truth was a disguise for fleecing investors and sleeping with their wives. I know at least one of them was devastated.
Festinger et al, who conducted the first experiments in the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, tells it this way: the strongest believers, the greatest zealots, double down in the face of mistaken identity. So despite the increased depth and breadth of dissonance, the committee lived, and was able to relay the beatific efforts of the devilish CEO to the lesser able populous so we would be consoled. We could carry on without question, despite the continuing dissonance, because the committee said it was alright. They knew what he was really doing and we could trust their word. If we engaged them to air any doubts, their voices became vehement and we were quelled.
A better name would have been the Accommodation Committee, accommodating his need for validation while staying hidden within his self-made horror show. It wasnt long before we settled into the brain numbing acceptance that all was as it should be. A year after departing, I ran into a daughter of the cult, someone close to the CEO, who said to me, dont you think we are in a better position to judge his character as we have much more time and experience with him? Does the devil show himself to his nearest and dearest worshippers? Eventually. Will they recognize him. Not likely.
Announcing the Off the Shelf event!
We were trained as a group to put things on the shelf. When we werent able to move past the cognitive dissonance, our fellows would assure us its only thoughts and feelings that make us doubt, only our small thinking selves that cannot see the greater reality of the CEO. Group think is a method that is becoming evermore popular. I had a conversation with a seven year old the other day who told me that when his whole class is good they get a gold star. So if one person isnt good what happens, I asked. Oh, that doesnt happen, he said. Everyone wants a gold star!
Events occurred with regularity in the cult, always something to prepare for, dress up for, and likely spend money for. The Off the Shelf event was billed as an opportunity to pull all those contradictory things off the shelf and take a look, especially the growing acceptance of the CEO as a philandering monster, but not a monster. No, he was a transmitter of greater reality, provisioning higher spiritual journeys through carnal exchanges with his female parishioners. Scratch that, cant say parishioner. Its not a church. But it is a higher spiritual transmission from the CEO. No, hes a guru. No, hes a businessman. No, hes the backcountry motorhead antichrist. What exactly was he transmitting to those women and who was he exactly when he was philandering, I mean, transmitting?
His true identity is difficult to pin down. An identity will have to be concocted by his lawyer, one more disguise in his closet of cloaks.
Before the day was half over, the Off the Shelf event slogan quickly became double speak for nothing is coming off while we pile a lot more on. One deserter said later, My shelf has fallen down from the load.
It was a day for everyone to come together and speak up within the confines of a very strict schedule. I showed up late and the committee member guarding the door took it upon herself to relay the entire sequence of discourse as it had occurred before I arrived. It was his Calling (sexuality) moving among the Chosen (women) and it was soooooo good. One of his wives glared at us from the stage. We were making a scene. We shut up.
Smaller groups were convened to discuss our shelves in a more intimate circle. People were dear. I was outrageous. (See previous The Momentum of Investment) The CEOs brother was at my table. I hardly knew him. Also, there were a couple women I had never met before. That was unusual because I had been in the group for over a decade and thought I knew everybody. In that small circle of unknown dears, I was compelled to speak out, as if to enlighten them, reciting all the many slogans and so-called teachings I had learned from our CEO. I became a court jester, rallying around his calling like a cheerleader, while sounding absolutely absurd in the telling of it.
Everyday morality doesnt apply to him. He is above all those petty choices people are troubled by. We are not troubled. We have him, our guide and our source. He is bringing in a new reality, a greater reality! He is doing what he knows to do. Its his calling. We cannot possibly understand the amaaaaazing dimensions his power ripples into, how it changes Everything! What he does sexually is healing EVERYTHING for all of us, beyond what we can even imagine!
There was more but time has mercifully erased the extent of it. If you start to parrot some of the bull we are hearing from the media— try it! You sound like an idiot. JP Sears has a career out of it. A social media post I saved reads We need free speech so we can tell who the idiots are.
I look back on that day, the circle of stunned faces sitting around that endarkened table as they listened, and today I am mortified. Yet maybe, just maybe, someone stood up from that table, walked out and never came back again, because for all my enthusiasm and devotion, I sounded like an idiot. That would have made my appalling cheer worth the embarrassment.
The grand finale of the misnamed Off the Shelf event was a Q & A with the CEO/guru/devils advocate/devil himself on stage. He responded to a script of watered down questions from one of our elders, a man coerced like most of us and toeing the line regarding the CEOs identity. From a proud place, looking down upon us, the unidentifiable beast answered everything, placid as always but with a queer smile playing on his face. He played with us and we believed: he transcends all the rules and regulations of the world, worldly laws dont apply to him, and his own lofty law has nothing on him. There is no law against him anywhere, spoke his law.
I imagine it was that very long day of not reckoning, when I saw it written on his all-knowing, all-seeing countenance, a realization—nay! An awakening! He saw, then and there, as he looked down upon his flock, he could get away with murder.
Amaaaaazing!
Spot on Jessica !