A Whole Lot More Going On

July 22, 2008 – 3:06 pm by admin

By Terri Ann

Appeared in ANLP magazine November 2002

A whole lot more going on

There is always a whole lot more going on that we somehow miss completely. Someone walked into the room and no one noticed. Even though this person had to walk in between people to find a seat, people moved unconsciously to let him through without pausing in their conversation. One or two more walked in equally un-noticed. Another person walked in and everyone stopped talking and looked at the new arrival for a second. I looked at all the people in the room and realized they were not the least bit conscious of what they had all just collectively done.

Another time a group of us were watching TV. In the movie, this man comes out of nowhere and challenges the much loved hero saying the hero is a coward and must prove he is not a coward by winning a sword fight against the challenger. I noticed everyone watching breathless, fearing for their hero’s life and reputation. This is very interesting, as I’ll now point out.

A few important and blatantly obvious facts totally escape the absorbed movie watchers. Namely …
Firstly, who the hell gave the challenger the right to challenge?

Who says the challenger’s opinion of whether the hero is a coward or not is valid? Especially since we all agree - those watching from the lounge and those in the movie - that the hero is indeed a star hero.
Who gives the challenger the permission to speak at all, let alone challenge the hero?
Why does everyone suddenly fear for their hero hoping and praying he wins this dual he ‘cant’ get out of’ (??), and hoping he does not get hurt or beaten when all they need to do is wipe out the challenger immediately with no thought or question?

This is only TV you might say. But no, it is life. Some people assume the right to do whatever they like, and very few people seem to question it. Can someone else’s reasoning snatch our minds and run away with them? Are we all so brainwashed and programmed we are not ABLE to see the ‘whole lot going on’? Are our minds weak and pliable so anyone can take control of our thinking anytime they choose? And can we take control of anyone else’s thinking any time we choose?

Any good stage hypnotist will tell you ‘Yes’. This is the truth. We take control of other people’s hearts and minds all the time, but most of us are seldom aware of what we are doing. Some people do this on purpose, and some actually practice and learn how to do it specifically. You can too. Nothing stops us, except ourselves. There are no rules or laws against it. Some of us have strong, very strong internal blocks that forbid us to even believe that this is possible, let alone use it to our advantage, or protect ourselves against it.

We see the evidence all around us all the time, and even fall victim often, but the obvious seems to continuously escape us. We learn ‘about’ it all and marvel at how true it is, but somehow it doesn’t seem to really sink in to a place where we become conscious, and I mean really conscious of it happening when it happens. And it does happen. Even those of us who think we are so proactive might be shocked if someone videotaped us responding in some situations.

A long distance coach driver once shouted at all of us passengers and told us to sit down and if we stood up he would throw us off the bus. We whispered our outrage to each other secretly, but not one commuter had the guts to stand up and do what we all should have done. We all should have stood up and said, “How dare you!”

People run on emotions. And then we deny it. It can be embarrassing and difficult to look at. You can make people miserable and then make a lot of money selling them happiness. The more miserable you make them, the more money you can make out of selling them happiness. You can fill them with guilt and then sell them forgiveness. You can make them feel hopelessly inadequate and then sell them specialness. Religions do this. You can tell them they are sinners and fill them with fear of hell and then sell them tickets to heaven.

People only know what’s going on because they hear about it from other people. That’s the only way they know anything. They read books, watch the TV, listen to the radio, read the papers and listen to each other. You can tell them there is a lot of crime and then sell them security. You can tell them some other country is against us and sell them patriotism. Then they’ll rush out and fight wars, killing thousands of enemies (innocent people) and come home heroes. You can tell them jobs are scarce and people are getting laid off and retrenched by the hundreds, and they’ll all work very much harder and appreciate being allowed to work for whatever is the current wage. Who questions TV? It is the news isn’t it? It is the facts isn’t it? What if it wasn’t? Who would know? Would you?

How pliable and malleable the human mind is. How easily we can become weak and frightened and fragile. How easily we can become strong and powerful and downright dangerous. All it takes is words. With the right words to trigger the really strong values and emotions and you can create a revolution, a riot. People individually or in huge masses can be brought to laughter or tears, ecstasy or misery with just a few strings of clever words spoken masterfully with passion and conviction. Tell the masses how your little baby girl died in your arms and everyone will be moved to tears – and there doesn’t need to be a shred of truth in it.

In fact, truth has nothing to do with it. Emotion has everything to do with it. Truth only means you believe it. If they don’t believe it, it’s not the truth and that’s all there is to it. There is no other meaning for the word ‘truth’ really. If everyone believes it, then it’s the truth. How many of you actually saw with your own eyes any of the things they tell you on the news? How many of you actually saw those starving children in Ethiopia? I have some Ethiopian friends who tell me it’s all a lot of cods wallop. They say those conditions existed in a tiny little part while 90% of the country was poor and thin, but fine and healthy. Who should I believe? How do any of us know who to believe or what to believe?

Just like the bees in the hive, it is by following each other on blind, mindless faith that we create our society and the idea of safety, the idea of nations, culture, truth, right/wrong, belonging and every other idea. We thrive on ideas and we feed each other ideas all the time. These ideas are the facts we build our lives on, our dreams on, our country on, and why not? If it feels good, it’s working. If it feels bad, it isn’t. What else is there?