4253.Manufacturing the Illusion of Freedom

Freedom as such does not manifest itself directly. As a 'state' or 'condition' it can only be experienced indirectly through echoes and reverberations in heart and mind.

In the mental domain, freedom can be recognized through the knowledge of being free.

In the emotional domain, freedom will be expressed through the joy of tranquillity and the feeling of perfect safety.

However, the compound term 'joy of tranquillity' is an oxymoron: joy in any form is an excitation of the mind and thus defeats its tranquillity.

Likewise, a 'feeling of safety' is typically bound to present time whereas 'perfect safety' should be independent of time.

And 'knowledge of being free' is another formulation of 'not knowing of anything that makes oneself unfree'.

These are paradoxical situations and they open the door to abuse by canny tricksters.

From a technical viewpoint it doesn't matter whether these tricksters are mechanism of one's own mind or whether they are being presented by authorities which claim to have only the best intentions and which offer 'help' to all the poor guys out there.

Individual spiritual illusions and political manipulation of the 'masses' are overlapping here.

The following could therefore be taken straight from a 'Handbook of How to Delude One's Fellow Humans on a Large Scale'.

And each of the tricks that are outlined here contains enough material to write books with thousand of pages of ramifications and examples.

Most of these tricks have been 'successfully' employed by the major religious institutions and all of the governments in past, presence, and future (hence the importance of 'eternal' vigilance).

They are 'situational' traps and as such different from 'semantical' traps (as described in another chapter of PNOHTEFTU).

The bridge between both could be called 'conceptual, emotional, and symbolic associations' and they sometimes are hard to tell apart.

Why does PNOHTEFTU go into this field at all?

Because manipulators use the _existing_ aberrations of their victims - without these already existing aberrations they would be utterly helpless.

In short, these aberrations are the same fetters of the mind that are holding back a Being from realizing its unlimited potential - an overlap is therefore impossible to avoid.

Regardless whether self-inflicted, other-determined, or abused, these tricks are pervading the individual mind to such a degree that a confrontation with these issues may be unsettling to the emotional make-up of some of the readers.

Therefore, examples are mostly left up to the readers themselves. The reader's own willingness to confront may determine the depth of unveiling the amount of delusion that was, is, and will be going on wherever there is a congregation of men.
 

It makes the pain go away

What better 'proof' exists than to demonstrate the ability to make pain go away?

The extinguishing of pain - isn't that the road to happiness?

This is an easy one to manufacture: just throw someone in a river and then pull him out: you've saved his life and his eternal gratitude is yours.

Immediate experience overrides logical thinking - it will be very difficult to 'de-program' the victim of such a (manufactured) salvation, especially if this process had
been applied repetitively.

This sounds too incredible to believe, yet today's most notorious cult works entirely on the basis of this cheap trick.
 

Pitying the poor guy who'll sure go to hell

If someone thinks in a way that is differently from what the powers that be are expecting from their slaves, there is, besides hate, a rather innocent responses that can be manufactured: pity.

Pity and hate are more closely related than one would expect.

Both are manufactured by misinformation and exaggerations, as amply demonstrated in both politics and religions.

The 'pity-trick' here consists of prompting the minds of the slaves to assume that they are better off than the poor souls that think differently.

Such an assumption is 'self-propelling' - once established in the mind, it will reinforce itself every time that it should become obvious that it is false.
 

Know your enemy

Freedom is fragile unless it is boundless (which is impossible within this Universe).

There are these enemies of Freedom, of course, and if there shouldn't be any of those around, it is easy enough to manufacture them.

Find someone who asks for being hated and blamed for every crime under the sun - there are always some who are ready for abuse.

Do exactly that: blame the guy for every crime under the sun, and the crowds will hate him - and love _you_. Then generalize it for a group of people that is somewhat related to the guys and there you go...

If necessary, start a war in a foreign country. Once started, nobody will remember who started it and it's easy to become a hero.

Employed by all major religious institutions (except Buddhism and Baha'i) and by practically all governments in past, presence, and future (here again: the importance of 'eternal' vigilance).
 

Doing the right thing

It is only through the negligence of the Being that it became entrapped in the first place - the Being knows this deep down.

Treading on the road to freedom, it doesn't want to make further mistakes.

Internal "Logics" suggests that while one is doing the 'right' things one can't do anything 'wrong'.

How can one manufacture the satisfaction that goes along with knowing that one is "doing the right thing"?

This one is easy too: invent as many rules as possible - as unrelated to freedom and spirituality as possible - and enjoy being in their 'voluntary compliance' (a most
ridiculous oxymoron, of course).

This is a major factor in the creation of uniforms of all kinds - wearing a certain kind of hat, for example, proves beyond doubt to everybody that one is walking on
the holy path to enlightenment. (Another major factor is described in the chapter 'Group Identities').

Employed by most major institutions that are based on belief  or blind obedience, including the IRS which is holding the  all-time record of 17,000 rules that can come handy for 'voluntary compliance'.

Ironically, even the early 'Buddhist' orders have been hit by this trap.
 

Enjoying Peace of Mind

Peace of mind is a hallmark of Freedom.

It can also be achieved by drugging people, mentally, emotionally, or physically.

Since 'peace' is a relative concept, manufacturing 'peace of mind' interlocks with the pity/hate and other paradigms successfully.

No further words needed.
 

Expansion

One aspect of Freedom is the ability to roam the spheres of existence without restriction.

On the way to Freedom, therefore, expansion is vital.

Transferred to social constructs, expansion can be taken as a sign of increasing Freedom by the unsuspecting mind.

Furthermore, successful expansion is typically interpreted as a sign of the correctness of the approach itself, interlocking with 'Doing the right thing'.

Nations and empires always operated under the flag of expansion.

Now, 'global economy' replaces the outdated concepts of nationalities and local cultures.

Can a country be 'democratic' if McDonald's doesn't have a market share of more than 50%?

NOT!!
 

Unity

Integrity has the spatial and conceptual aspect of 'unity'.

A 'united' mind has found its peace in itself (see above).

This paradigm can be used to introduce 'unity' in instances where 'diversity' becomes an obstacle for the dollar- and brainwashing markets.

What exactly, for example, is meant by 'unity of religions' as pushed by the 'United' Nations?

Can it mean anything else other than that there will only be ONE religion left after the successful 'unification'?

And, whatever the denomination of the reader may be, are you sure, that it is 'your' kind of religion that will be the 'unified' religion of tomorrow?
 

Stability

What would Freedom be good for if it wasn't stable?

How can the illusion of stability be manufactured?

By creating stability out of confusion.

If the confusion doesn't already exists, it's not too difficult to create some.

Then, reestablishing stability is another 'proof' of having the 'right' approach.

Beyond this 'proof', this old trick reaches straight to the basics of self-enslavery.

It directly ties up the unsuspecting person.

Details are in the chapter "Exteriorization by Thawing Viewpoints".
 

Safety

Safety is a big concern and one of the biggest buzzwords around.

Probably the safest place on Earth can be found in the isolation of a solitary prison cell.

It is always surprising how people accept slavery in various shades and colors just in order to feel a bit safer.

Truly, fertile grounds for manufacturers of illusions of Freedom.
 

The list of tricks seems sheer endless...

Looking at the ways in which the concept of freedom is being used to achieve its opposite is like opening a can of worms.

The brevity of this outline should not give reason to take them lightly or brush them off - as mentioned, these illusions are deeply seated in the individual mind and difficult to perceive, no matter how they got there in the first place.

Every lie draws its power from a truth - the more powerful the truth, the more powerful the lie will be.

There cannot be anything more truthful than complete spiritual freedom: it is transcending all departments and echelons of this Universe. This circumstance is giving the lies about Freedom such a tremendous power.

Honest, tough, self-assessment is required to even grasp a glimpse of it.

Certainly, the contents of PNOHTEFTU, the little purple notebook of how to escape from this Universe, must be assessed in a similar way as well:

The mind can pervert the most innocent statement to presumably mean the opposite.

And any tool can be used as a weapon as well.

It is hoped that the reader doesn't use the wayposts to freedom, as presented here in PNOHTEFTU, as a weapon to hurt himself or others.

It is sincerely hoped that the reader recognizes these wayposts as what they are. And that the reader, despite all shortcomings of the medium and the presentation of this notebook, is moving in this direction - the direction of spiritual Freedom.

Recognizing illusions as what they are is perhaps the most vital part thereof.