As a US veteran, I know the value of psychological warfare. In the military it’s known as “Psyops” – short for “Psychological Operations.” The positive side of psyops is the concept of defeating your enemies by befriending them. This tactic proved successful in the case of post-WWII Germany, Italy, and Japan. Although defeated militarily, they managed to come together with us afterwards, making future war far less likely.
One negative use of psyops is terrorism. The idea and goal behind terrorism is to effect and control a population through the use of violence and intimidation.
The basic concepts in terrorism are: perceived, actual, or threatened violence, disregard for innocent non-participants, and randomness – that is, the terrorists want the target population to believe that they can and will inflict as much harm as they wish whenever they wish – while the target population remains helpless to protect themselves.
Successful terrorism campaigns tend to instill fear, distrust, and apprehension in the minds and hearts of their targets. Further, the targets will significantly change their behaviors and often initiate extensive defenses against future attacks. Depending on the level of psychological terror involved, the target population may become irrational in their defense – depleting their resources by overreacting to the perceived threat.
The 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon are a great example of a highly successful terrorist campaign as it inflicted massive psychological damage on a huge population for an extended period of time – while using very little resources to accomplish it. Each news report or press release added to the psychological damage already inflicted – contributing to the overall psychological effect of the operation. The target population significantly changed their behaviors as intended by the attackers. Militarily speaking, that is mind-boggling success!
The Terrorist Within
Each of us has a terrorist within us – that aspect of myself I call my ego – whose job it is to interact with my environment in such a way as to keep me safe. While I was in utero and throughout my life, my ego has developed alongside me, continuing to act as my agent against the environment.
Most of my life has been spent in the consciousness of the First and Second Degrees of Illumination. Now that I’m considering new levels of consciousness, I feel inclined to question my trust in this agent.
Remembering that the objective of terrorism is to effect change from openness and trust to distrust and defense, I now see my ego in a different light. I’m feeling the consciousness shift involved in the Third Degree of Illumination as it applies to my previously trusted ego aspect of self.
Based on the fact that I now distrust and defend where it is unnecessary, I wonder if I may have been traumatized and then hired the goon squad to protect me from the goon squad! Sounds a lot like a protection racket to me. Perhaps it started a long time ago…
The Birth of a Terrorist Within
The trauma of my birth was a little like a 9/11 attack to my psyche. Consider some facets of my birth experience:
- I literally drowned nearly to death – experiencing the transition from breathing water to breathing air. Drowning is a terrifying experience for me.
- From warm and cramped, my body experienced sudden cold and expansion. Ouch!
- From weightlessness, I suddenly became aware of gravity. Ever fallen from a distance? Scary as hell! Terror!
- My head had to pass through a tiny orifice – squeezing my fully developed head and brain to about 50% of its normal size. Even though my bones had not yet set, that had to hurt. Talk about a massive migraine!!
- Birth hurts! For baby and mom!
My ego works constantly to keep me from experiencing that again (thank-you very much!). Trouble is, I’m only going to be born once so defenses against experiencing it again are redundant and unnecessary. Yet, my ego works non-stop to keep me safe from “rebirth.” Later terrifying experiences in my life only tend to serve to confirm my need for these defenses.
Remember, terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation to affect and/or control a population. My ego doesn’t have to inflict the terror of trauma in order to take advantage of it. All the ego has to do is convince me that I am in danger and it has the answer to that danger – so it can get an energy feed and thus justify tapping my energy.
My ego works a bit like the US Defense Department that taps Congressional appropriations and uses a war on terror to justify its out-of-control spending. Why do I allow this to go on in my mind? Because I was terrified at birth – and later in other events – and even now when I consider facing my greatest fears, I irrationally trust my ego and its justifications for massive expenditures of energy toward defense. I feel safer as a result.
But am I really safer? As I shift consciousness from third degree to fourth, I feel less secure about my own personal psychological defenses.
At level three, I’m willing to choose to move past my defenses. That will likely mean facing my fears, which, by the way, is how one defeats terrorism. Terrorism cannot work where people are unafraid. One way to beat a bully is to stand up to them.
I know I don’t have to be afraid. I’m not being born. I’m not in my previous traumatic events. I am strong and capable. I can just “let all that fear go.” I don’t need to continue paying the goons for unneeded protection. Makes good sense!
I can do this! I AM COURAGE!!! (until I no longer need courage, that is…)
