The Consciousness Game, you may recall from reading the first installment in the Consciousness Revolution column, was defined as follows:
…a revolution in our conscious awareness of ourselves in relation to forces both inimical to and conducive to human survival is not an arbitrary choice. It is being forced upon us by objective conditions and the growing realization around the world that we may be drifting toward self-destruction. The ancient game of special interests competing with common interests for control of our understanding, our perceptions, beliefs, and values has diverted the consciousness of large groups of humankind from the pursuit of Life’s most fundamental necessities.
The game, as played by special interests, is to find new ways to capture your consciousness and trick you into serving their values without your becoming aware of it. As you may have noticed, this game is sometimes played on the field of personal relationships in a way that not only hurts emotionally but slows or stops the evolution of individual consciousness and of the arts of intimate connection.
The game, as played by democratic interests, is to detect the efforts to deceive us, provide an antidote, and fashion an authentic democratic system that will finally put an end to the cycles of domination and revolution that have slowed human evolution toward its Universal Goals, both secular and spiritual.
The game “ends” in one of three ways: species self-destruction, cycles of inequality, oppression and revolution among divided peoples that eventually wear us down to an “end with a whimper,” or it culminates with an authentic global democracy that perpetually and peacefully evolves in response to a changing Universe.
You, the reader, can help change human evolution from a finite game to one that is infinite. Let us share lists of types of deception and countervailing strategies. Send us information that can help us expose the tricks of Special Interests. We’ll publish them in our new column on The Consciousness Game!
Thus, in this column we invite readers to create the content. We will present an initial example of the pattern we would like to follow. In brief outline, it will consist of three sections:
- A Special Interest Assertion
- How It Deceives
- A Common Interest Response
Each month our editors will appraise the readers’ contributions, feature the Pick of the Month and the person(s) who sent it in, and award a prize from our store.
Here is our initial example:
Communique #0 “The Thought Stopper”
- Special Interest Assertion
We will stop illegal immigration from Mexico. I will build a wall, so big and so beautiful, and make Mexico pay for it.
- How It Deceives
What is obvious here is the grandiosity and the impossibility of it being literally true. What is not so obvious is that it ties up the rational mind which wonders “Is he actually expecting people to believe the literal interpretation? What could be the figurative or metaphorical meaning?” While the rational mind is tied up with these questions, another message slips into the unconscious mind: he will do something decisive to stop illegal immigration into our country! We, of course, don’t know what, but the feeling persists and may well be a decisive factor when we step into the voting booth.
- A Common Interest Response
Each of us can consciously recognize the above deception technique and tell as many people as possible, “If this person doesn’t speak clearly and plainly about his plan, it’s because (a) he has little respect for the intelligence of his audience, and/or (b) he doesn’t have a real plan but wants to influence and distract us by using this memorable imagery, and/or (c) he enjoys swaying opinion with entertaining imagery implying also that he is an omnipotent force and that we will just feel that he will solve the problem of illegal immigration.”
In any case, our easy to remember response should be that this man is a con artist who is dangerously unaware of his own weaknesses. He should be judged strictly by his actions—never by his words.
Let’s also use an insight from the Consciousness Revolution and think of the issue of illegal immigration from the perspective of at least three system levels: (a) local conditions that drive people to emigrate from their homes, (b) national interests and actually measured national effects of illegal immigration, and (c) the global system level which includes egregiously impoverished, authoritarian and crime-ridden nations near a border with the wealthiest nation in the world. To be truly effective, could we not do something to improve conditions at the source of the problem?
End of example.
And now, dear colleagues, it’s your turn! There is no human force greater than a people organized and ready to act on the basis of a goal and shared values!
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]