by Frederick Mann
In 1978, the important book 'Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change' by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman was published. (A second edition was published in 1995. My qoutes in this article are from the original edition.)
Conway and Siegelman describe "snapping" as a "sudden, drastic alteration of personality in all its many forms... in which intense experience may affect fundamental information-processing capacities of the brain."
I propose that the process whereby young children "flip" from relying on their senses as their primary determinants of "what is" to "conventional perception" is a kind of "snapping." However, it may occur over a longer period than the "snapping" described by Conway and Siegelman.
"At the present time, our language has no appropriate term for this new way of coping with the problems of life. We can describe the process as one of shutting off the mind, of not-thinking...
What kind of cultural environment breeds this widespread need to shut off the mind? It could be argued concincingly that the need is universal, that everyone -- from Athenians to Sufis to voodoo tribesmen to modern Americans -- must have some periodic release from the ordeal of being human. In that sense, the rituals and techniques which throughout history have been used to create peak experiences and moments of enlightenment may be looked on as vital sources of rest and relaxation for the mind, momentary breathing spells that hold great powers of insight, healing, and renewal.
But what value can there be in engineering these experiences to shut down the workings of the mind altogether, to stunt the process of thought and leave people numb to their own feelings and the world around them? Throughout history, this kind of attack on human awareness has proved an efficient method of controlling members of tribes, societies, and whole nations in which little value is placed upon individuality. The state of mind it produces has a tradition that dates back to the dawn of civilization." -- Conway and Siegelman
What if "typical modern Americans" -- who "believe in God, Country, and Government" -- have snapped out of their "natural or native state" into "conventional perception" and surrendered to "conventional reality," "religious reality," and "political reality" -- all accompanied by a degree of brain/mind shutdown? Would "coming to their senses" involve snapping out of conventional perception?
"This shift in our basic attitudes, opinions, lifestyles, and relationships has fed into a social and cultural environment that in its own tacit way offers heady rewards for not thinking... Shutting off the mind in this way provides instant relief from anxiety and frustration. It evokes pleasure by default, salvation through surrender, and even better, its simple happiness is self-perpetuating." -- Conway and Siegelman
Of course, questioning "conventional reality" ("what everybody believes") requires some heavy thinking. And if the "normal" people (Ghost Not victims) find out, they might consider you crazy!
Conway and Siegelman quote a report by Journalist Sally Kempton in 'New York' magazine on her experiences with Swami Muktananda, which includes:
"But Muktananda's words did something to me. It was as if they entered my mind, sinking through my assumptions like a kind of depth charge... What it made me think of was Alice falling down the rabbit hole... a feeling that I had stumbled into some forbidden region, perhaps tapped a pleasure center in my brain, which would keep me hooked on bodyless sensuality, string me out on bliss until I turned into a vegetable... then I forgot about thinking, and just let myself drift on it."
Conway and Siegelman basically explore the snapping that occurs when "normal" people "fall under the spell" of cults and the like. But what if the "conversion" from "natural or native state" (where you use your senses to discern reality) to "normal" person (where you surrender to "consensus reality," "religious reality," and "political reality" is really a similar form of snapping?
Should Ghost Not victims be regarded as members of the "conventional perception cult?"And, all religious movements as cults? And all political ideologies as cult tools? Is government really a mind-numbing cult?
From #TL07B: The Nature of Government:
*****
POLITICS ON DUMBTOPIA"This is one of the most delightful things I've read in a while. Thanks." -- Robert Sterling (Editor, The Konformist)
Far, far away, on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy, there's a beautiful planet called Dumbtopia.
Dumbtopia's inhabitants are called Idiots.
They believe in a Supernatural creature they call Skybless.
Dumbtopia is divided into Dumbcountries -- at least, that's what the Idiots believe.They sporadically fight and slaughter each other over some skyblessforsaken patch of land -- "For Skybless and Dumbcountry."
Apparently, each Dumbcountry is ruled by a Plusidiot. Plusidiots are wiser than Idiots because they have blue blood -- or so they say. Common Idiots have red blood and believe that Plusidiots are their Superiors.
Apparently, each Plusidiot has a Dumbcouncil to help rule the common Idiots. Plusidiots have a secret magic drink called Etherwise. They give it to selected Idiots to drink. It makes their heads spin. After they've been drinking Etherwise for about a month, they experience Dumbliss, become Halfwits, and qualify to serve on Dumbcouncils.
Plusidiots and Halfwits pretend to have the ability to speak and write magic words called Pluswords -- Pluws for short. Common Idiots believe that Pluws are special holy, sacred words that must be obeyed. To make sure this dumb belief sticks, Plusidiots employ Dumbcops to punish and kill Idiots who "disobey The Pluw."
Many common Idiots campaign to "Improve the holy, sacred Pluws."
Every hundred years or so, as a result of an unusual evolutionary mutation, some common Idiot wakes up and realizes that all the political systems on Dumbtopia are scams, hoaxes, and frauds. The woken-up Idiot then suggests that Plusidiots really have red blood, just like all common Idiots, and that there's nothing special about so-called "Plusidiots" and "Halfwits" -- they're really common Idiots like everybody else.
As soon as the Dumbcops discover a woken-up Idiot, they kill him or her. "Skybless help us if the Idiots ever discover that so-called "Plusidiots" and "Halfwits" are really impostors and liars -- common Idiots like all the rest -- and that their pretended "Pluws" are hoaxes... strings of dumb lies written by "clever" Pluwyer Idiots!"
*****
"Throughout our society, the unconscious control of human beings has become the focus of some of our most powerful institutions. It is taken for granted in education, where the principles of behavior modification govern teaching, not only in school but also in the home. It is the subject of continuing experimentation in factories and other work environments. It has burgeoned in the seventies in a spate of best sellers advising readers how to exploit the tactics of "power," "assertiveness," and "winning through intimidation" to turn the unawareness of others to their own personal advantage." -- Conway and Siegelman
What if most politicians, preachers, teachers, business tycoons, and others in positions of power and influence are more interested in turning "the unawareness of others to their own personal advantage" than anything else?
"In the wake of snapping, after an individual surrenders or lets go, whether in a sudden moment or gradually, he may possibly slip into a level of reduced awareness in which the disorientation and confusion that follow the snapping moment become part of his everyday manner of experiencing the world. This trancelike limbo state represents the suspension of a person's response as an individual and is the first stage in the reorganization of personality." -- Conway and Siegelman
The process of "unsnapping" -- reverting from a "normal, socially adjusted" Ghost Not victim (in a "trancelike limbo state") to your natural or native state -- involves questioning everything. See How to Disagree and Question Everything
I have bad news for you: The very act of learning and accepting your native language (this certainly applies to English and most other languages) involves a considerable degree of snapping. See #TL07A: The Anatomy of Slavespeak. To "unsnap" you have to question the validity and usefulness of many words of your native language!
"In America today, aware, intelligent individuals of all ages are being persuaded to stop thinking voluntarily. While many do so in their escape from the real world through authoritaian cult religions or extravagent psychological fantasies, an even larger number stop thinking with no immediate religious or psychological goals in mind. Their intentions are, instead, quite down to earth and practical as they pursue training in simple techniques for reducing brain activity that may produce immediately desired and beneficial effects. What they do not realize, however, is how the brain responds to that experience: positively, at first, but after a very short time the benefits may drop away as the brain readjusts in a catastrophic manner. When that happens, not thinking becomes the norm, and with it there is a reduction in both feeling and awareness. Moreover, once a person's brain enters this stae, the individual may be incapable of coming out of it.
This can be the cumulative effect on personality of the experience known as meditation." -- Conway and Siegelman
In some forms of meditation, such as Transcendental Meditation, you repeat the same word or phrase over and over in rote fashion. Some meditators chant the same phrase over and over in rote fashion. Such rote repetition is a typical aspect of Monster Zero.
"The threat of snapping extends far beyond America's religious cults and mass therapies, beyond their dramatic rituals and intense experiences to the overwhelming pressures of everyday life. These forces, too, may cause profound although often less immediate observable changes in awareness, as well as sudden drastic alterations of personality. Just as moving land masses may shift gradually and imperceptibly and then give way in a massive earthquake, so, too, the sheer mass and movement of experience -- of information -- that has engulfed our culture in recent years may bring about changes in individual personalities, making us less aware, more vulnerable to manipulation, and ultimately, less that fully capable of thinking and acting as human beings. Already, the forces are at work on each of us in our daily lives, and they are mounting...
Everyone, without exception, is susceptible to snapping. The pace and stress of life in the seventies is enough to do the job. The physical stress which has been singled out as the potent tool of "brainwashing" in cults is so much a part of our daily lives that its impact on each individual's ability to think and feel may be easily overlooked. What with job, family, travel, and entertainment, most of us can go for days, even weeks, and save scarcely a moment for reflection. Yet, an individual who simply consumes each experience in this way, like junk food or candy, may over time become inattentive, passive, and totally open to the barrage of intellectual and emotional propaganda that comes at him daily. This propaganda urges him to surrender to the seductive enticements of our consumer society, to the manipulation of his opinions and beliefs, and the overpowering weight of new and traditional images, roles, and rewards, which, in the seventies, make promises of fulfillment that our society cannot keep...
...[O]ur culture seems to be embarking on a destructive new course of manipulation and escapism, of human abdication. Snapping, as we have come to understand it, may be summed up in a very simple definition: it is a phenomenon that occurs when an indivual stops thinking and feeling for himself, when he breaks the bonds of awareness and social relationship that tie his personality to the outside world and literally loses his mind to some form of external or automatic control. In that sense, the moment of snapping, when the mind shuts off, remains a moment of human decision. It takes place as some invisible switch is thrown in the infinitely flexible human brain, whether volutarily and in good faith or unwittingly and in a state of confusion, as individuality is surrendered to some religion, psychology, or recipe for living that requires no real conscience and no consciousness, no effort or attention on the individual's part." -- Conway and Siegelman
A friend recently emailed me: "By reason of birth I am a subject of the Queen of the Netherlands." Did he use his senses to determine that a certain woman is "Queen of the Netherlands?" Does this woman have a huge body that lays thousands or millions of eggs every day, or some other physical characteristics that make her a "queen?"
Let me suggest the possibility that people who regard some really ordinary woman (with red blood like all the rest of us) as "Queen of the Netherlands," "Queen of England," etc., have snapped into "conventional perception." For someone who has "come to his or her senses" (snapped out of "conventional perception"), it may be absurd to regard any really ordinary woman as "Queen of the Netherlands," "Queen of England," etc.
See also #TL07A: The Anatomy of Slavespeak.
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