Exploring Mass Events: Chapter Two by Thomas J. Sherlock
I
n Chapter Two of Mass Events, or INME, Seth discusses how the lack of trust is conveyed through mass communications resulting in a mass meditation that further amplifies the idea of an unhealthy, powerless people. He alerts us however to our inherent power as expressed through our ability to reconfigure our memory and time. As implied in the abbreviation of The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events (INME), discussion on mass events starts with the individual. It starts in you, it starts INME1. And within me, within you, within the individual lies an inner sense to trust or mistrust. Accustomed to focusing primarily on the projections of our inner experience, we have learned to mistrust the inner experience itself and have likewise projected mistrust upon the external, objective, physical world. The individual does not trust the good intent of his own body (p.39), his fellow man (p. 40) nor nature (p. 56). This mistrust is manifested in multiple ways in individual and mass dramas. In the United States, “tax dollars go for many medical experiments and preventative-medicine drives” (p. 76) We no longer trust our food supply: “More foods… are being added to the list of disease causing elements [,yet] generations before [we] managed to subsist on many such foods, and they were in fact promoted as additive to health” (p. 35). The U.S. military budget has ballooned over the decades in order to prevent war (p. 76), with a U.S. military presence in about 130 countries for as along as 60 years. There is an “anticipation of disaster” (p. 76) which has feed into the current Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against other countries perceived as threats. As a society we apply a Rambo approach to disease as well; it “must be combated, fought against, assaulted, wiped out” (p. 42). Such a perspective results from artificially separating ourselves from nature and from abdicating responsibility over our own bodies: “The individual… has a private biological and spiritual integrity that is part of man’s heritage” (p. 76). Yet, many of us have disclaimed this heritage.
Tightly intertwined with this mistrust of self are “feelings of unworthy” (p. 56). We undermine our “own feelings of safety” (p. 56). The result is a societal approach to health which de-emphasizes the “body’s natural defenses, its integrity, vitality or strength” (p. 58). The doctor becomes the Great Intercessor and preventative medicine his magic potion. However, “the idea of prevention is always based upon fear – for you do not want to prevent something joyful” (p. 75). Thus, “preventative medicine [often] causes what it hopes to avoid” (p. 75). Selfexaminations for fear of suggested breast cancer “has caused more cancers than any treatment has cured” (p.57). Our “current ideas of preventative medicine… increase the individual sense of alienation from the body, and [promotes] a sense of powerlessness and duality.” (pp. 57-58) This sense of powerlessness is reflected within modern society. Man has turned “the most natural earthly ingredients against himself” (p. 58). We are now allergic to wheat, to dairy, to peanut butter, to red meats… the list goes on (p. 58). Our novels and poetry are replete with anti-heroes who “portray an individual existence [as being] without meaning, in which no action is sufficient to mitigate the private puzzlement or anguish” (p. 58). Many of our novels and movies are plotless. Thus “no action is heroic, man is everywhere the victim of an alien universe” (p. 58). A powerless individual will often feel his actions do not count and will be driven to violent action as a last resort. Illness is often this last resort (p. 59) Writ large, we express illness in terms of the flu season. It is a “psychologically-manufactured pattern that can at times bring about a manufactured epidemic” (p. 72). It is a “social program for illness” (p. 72). It mirrors man’s fears (p. 73). The elderly are encouraged to take annual flu shots because, as you know, they “are more susceptible to diseases”; this is a “medical fact of life” (p. 72). But it is a fact that is “brought about by suggestion” and which does not consider “the truth of man’s biological reality” (p. 72). There are areas of the world where the elderly “are not disease-ridden” and whose “vital signs [do not] weaken” (p. 72). These
elderly “remain quite healthy until the time of death” (p. 72). Consequently, Seth does not recommend inoculations (please read those sections of INME carefully and take prudent action regarding your health). Seth says that “inoculations themselves do little good overall, and they can be potentially dangerous, particularly when they are given to prevent an epidemic which has not in fact occurred.” (p. 73) Seth insists that “in the most basic terms… inoculations do no good”, even though “medical history would seem to contradict” him (p.75) Our mistrust of our body, our belief that our health must come from an outside agent, our concern of the next big epidemic, all this is reinforced by the mass meditation of mass media. Medical commercials and public health announcements do not mention the body’s natural defenses and vitality (p. 58). Rather, they “reinforce negative conditions” (p. 59). They are more prone to promote disease, not prevent it (p. 58). A commercial about high blood pressure tends to “raise the blood pressure of millions of television viewers” (p. 57). Through mass meditation we are taught to examine our body for specific symptoms, a hypnotic suggestion that frequently results in previously undiscovered symptoms. By implication we are further taught to ignore our own feelings of good health (p. 57). Mass media, such as television and radio, and now the Internet, serves as conduits for mass meditation. They are not inherently harmful to our mental, spiritual and physical health. However, they do amplify both the “positive and negative issues” (p.56). It depends on the approach of the program. The medical commercials tend to raise a problem without relieving the tension or the fear delivered with the message. On the other hand, mindless, “unlettered, violent television dramas do indeed provide a service, for they imaginatively specify a generalized fear in a given situation, which is then resolved through drama. Individual action counts” (p. 58). Seth explains that television “interacts with [our] lives, but it does not cause [our] lives… Television reflects. In a manner
1 This obvious interpretation of the acronym, INME, was first brought to my attention by a member of the Awareness Network, a group that meets in NYC to discuss the Seth Material.
Wisp e-zine
OCTOBER 2008
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