In this journey, I often go back to my first days of comprehension and consider all I've come to realize with inherent understanding and independent studies. I am trying, though I know not how successfully, to expose and denounce the psychological manipulation of the psyche in a mind opening, motivational theme. My first attempt at exposing and denouncing psychological manipulation using the Internet and its many resources (e-mails, homepages, forums, message boards, polls, chat rooms, and so forth) was a trying and learning experience. I am thankful to the many people who took time to consider what I was trying to do and criticize or encourage me on many of the concepts presented. Most importantly, they insisted I back up what I was saying with established sources.
It has taken research, consideration, and the insightful views of some very articulate authors to do as suggested. The effort has been well worth the time spent. I am now wiser and more confident than ever that this is an endeavor that needs to be seen through to a reasonable victory. I have held many discussions on the Internet and all confirm that the people are psychologically manipulated through Media and Religions...
I know I cannot do this alone. Let us work together to expose and denounce the psychological manipulation of the psyche in a mind opening, motivational theme. Love and Reason are central to the theme.

Freedom is the cause!!

KEEP THE DRIVE ALIVE

Seek to FelizManana: (post 208) Poll:Are the People manipulated through Media? The X-Files Forum

I think you're right on the mark. People inherently know much more than they give themselves credit for, in my opinion. I'm glad you see what I present with an open, objective mind. If you follow the course of this thread and compare to my updated homepage, you'll see I've taken what I inherently know and developed it over the years. I take a justifiably hard stand to get the point across...
Psychological Freedom is the core issue. Christian biblical psychology utilizes the awe, fear, and superstitions of natural phenomena as part of the validation for its manipulative versions of reality and the divine being. In a comparable manner, American capitalist psychology utilizes the ambiguity of language, the successful therapies that are not truly its own, and a pseudo-science of the psyche as part of the validation for its manipulative versions of the human being. If you'd like to know more, visit my homepage...

Seek to DECON66: (post 37) Support your President! Opinions Unrestrained

I served during the Gulf War. The one in which Iraq invaded another nation and set fire to its oil fields. Perhaps, you remember it? I received the National Defense Medal and was honorably discharged before the current conflicts.

Just because no weapons of mass destruction were found doesn't mean they weren't there, and now the objective in Iraq has changed.

Mar 3.28-29, "Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost *hath never forgiveness*, but is in danger of eternal damnation..." from Blue Letter Bible, King James Version
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Mar/Mar003.html#29
In my opinion, Jesus is guilty of a kind of sin--speaking as if he knows God. How could he possibly know whether or not God would forgive a person for such a sin? Would not a "blaspheme against the Holy Ghost" be between the person and God?

The Evolution of Faith & Cave of Buddhism

The Creator Exists
Knowing the Divine Being Exists, what do we know?

The Evolution of Faith

Life is the greatest gift I can imagine—in any form. Each of us exists individually as well as together. Though similar, the ways we perceive and interact are unique.The Holy Bible and other religious texts began with a sense. It was not a sense isolated to one life-form. It is a sense that all of Life feels.
As time and evolution allowed, that sense became a thought. And the life-form that came to be called human began to express thoughts of the divine being with senses, gestures and sounds, symbols, pictures, word of mouth, writing, music, and so forth. The expressions were passed on from generation to generation. People came to sense, see, hear, read, and comprehend the expressions that evolved from thoughts of the divine being. They came to understand what had been done and, therefore, knew what they must do—walk the path. As each person walks the path, it becomes more developed. They add their own insights and discoveries as they walk along. With all things we are interested in, we seek to make them come alive. We like to feel the things we do. We breathe life into the things we do.
I sense the force that created and guides Existence. I call the force the Creator. The Creator knows every step every life-form has taken from the very beginning. The proof of the force that guides Existence is all around us. In fact, it is in our very genes.
We have too much in common with other life-forms on this planet not to be related to them. Deviation of species, for example, is not an occurrence isolated to human beings of different geographical locations. Live birth and breast-feeding are not traits unique to humans alone. All life-forms intake energy and expel waste. Though I can understand humans better than any other life-form I have encountered, we are not the only life-forms that can communicate.
I write this in an attempt to express the sense of the divine being and that all is related through the divine being. **Anything a person can write about the Creator is, at best, incomplete. And, at worst, manipulative...
The sense of the Creator and my respect for all Life as a result of that sense has lead me to question the path of knowledge that deals with the divine being—religion. I question Christianity because it is the religion I am most familiar with. If I were familiar with any other religion, I would be questioning it, as well.
It need be reflected upon that we should be thankful for all we know and have to the labors and songs of Life. Most importantly, we should be thankful to the Creator for Life. Life is the gift. Everything else is a part of it...
**In just one of the Creator's Words, all of creation is considered. Can a person know all of creation? Can it truly be said that Jesus knew God when on the Cross, Mar 15:34, "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

In my view, all religions, philosophies, and so on speak of the same Truth. To paraphrase from Nature's Web by Peter Marshall concerning Wisdom, 'Sometimes, we need the help of good and learned friends to point us in the right direction...'
This is not due to any matter of inequality, per se, but due to the caves we put ourselves in, or are enticed to go into...

The Cave of Buddhism

Do you understand the Cave in Greek philosophy?

Although an individual can live in his or her own personal cave, let us consider a group in the Cave of Buddhism. There is a group of people sitting in a cave watching images on the wall; the images are their reality. They channel their energies into the images to make them 'real'--to themselves, at least...

Now, a philosopher, guru, thay, preacher, wise person, brother or sister who has attained enlightenment knows the Truth. He or she enters the Cave and shines the light of Truth on the wall. The images momentarily disappear. This gives individuals of the group a chance to use their energies to leave the Cave and see reality for what it truly is, to see that every life-form has a life-force of its own and is worthy of our consideration and respect. This gives them a chance to see that a rose is something far more beautiful and alive than being the incarnation of a goddess. A rose is worthy of our consideration and respect simply for being a rose. It gives them a chance to see that the sky is blue and the grass is green. If gives them a chance, if only for a moment, to know themselves and love their brothers and sisters for no greater reason than that they are all a part of Life. Life itself is worthy of our consideration, our respect, and, most importantly, our love. Yes, sisters and brothers, the Truth will set you Free; and, believe it or not, the Truth is in everything we see...

THE CREATOR IS THE SOURCE
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
ALL IS ONE

P.S. This is just information. If it will break your heart, do not take it to heart. Love is more important than information.

The Holy Bible can be viewed as a form of 'religious dictatorship'. It is early Israel's version of social control/government...
The naturally occuring phenomena of the human condition are conceptually subverted in the scriptures of the Holy Bible. What are called demons in the Bible are nothing more than the ill wills of people...
This realization naturally follows an earlier realization that came to me concerning the subversion of naturally occuring phenomena on the physical plane. The rainbow, for example, is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has been in place since the Earth held an atmosphere and the mysterious compound known as water was evaporated by the heat of the Sun only to reform in the air and cause rain.
"When the sunlight enters a raindrop it is refracted, or bent, by and reflected from the drop in such a way that the light appears as a spectrum of colors. The colors can be seen, however, only when the angle of reflection between the sun, the drop of water, and the observer's vision is between 40' and 42'(degrees)." Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.

As I toured an exhibit at the Library, I saw bleeding men, newborn babies, and lamenting women. All of them very strong emotional appeals.
With the addition of Christ, the Holy Bible has one of the strongest emotional appeals I have yet encountered. And it is used as such: Leaflets, posters, statues, word of mouth, and so on.
All depicting a man profusely bleeding for the World...

"Jesus died on the Cross for you!"

"Look how I bleed for thee..."

Jesus died for my sins? What an amazing thing.
Now, what are my sins?
What is a sin?
Who am I?

I imagined a parent using the doctrines of biblical psychology to subdue a child. Questions aside, I have been moved and inspired by the portrayals of Jesus as the loving Son of God who was sent from Heaven above to teach, be crucified, and raised from the dead so that we might have hope of salvation and eternal life by believing on him. Now, through reason, I see that Jesus represents alleviation from despair and a manipulative version of the divine being.
It was Socrates, with his quest to know the truth and questioning of self-proclaimed wise men, that gave focus to my chaotic state of mind and started me on the path of truth in earnest. Though I did not fully understand why he presented himself to the courts and drank hemlock in Plato’s portrayal of his confession and execution when he could have easily left the city as his friends had urged him to do, until I read The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom.

Just as biblical psychology attempts to bind us to its manipulative versions of reality and the divine being, so too does Capitalist psychology attempt to bind us to its manipulative versions of reality and the all mighty dollar. Whereas biblical psychology subdues instinctual drives(sexuality, aggression, selfishness, and so on) to its own manipulable ends, Capitalist psychology inflates the drives to its manipulable ends.
Capitalist psychology, which--for arguments sake--had a somewhat moral tutor in biblical psychology, has outgrown its tutor and shed its morals. Its savior is not a loving Jesus, but a cold-hearted dollar.

Between 9/11, anthrax, and the sniper, media had the citizen cornered. When it didn't have those things to use, it used murder-suicides and mommas cooking babies in microwaves or drowning children in cars, etc.
Now that the recent calamities have somewhat subsided, the Capitalist leaning media is, and will no doubt continue in its old fashion when Operation Iraqi Freedom has been won, shifting the fear/paranoia factor back to the Public sector by highlighting gruesome incidents and rehashing old horrors. The fear/paranoia factor makes people more easily manipulated and, at least potentially, instills a sense of helplessness...
Just hearing that psychological manipulation is being used in such a way through the Capitalist leaning media helps some people.
A form of psychological warfare is being used against us through Media--including the Press, today. The concepts of evil, abuse, violence, neglect, and so on are used to keep us in a state of mortification. Shocking incidents of this nature are regularly broadcast to keep the Public eye turned in against itself and off the underhanded tactics of Capitalism. The fact is that the most influential sources of information on the planet present themselves as trustworthy while shoving a Science of Manipulation down the throats of the people on a daily basis in the name of Capitalism!

This kind of manipulation can cause a person to walk senselessly though he or she is surely sensible and may lead to serious health problems. Whenever before have we allowed such an underhanded practice to have such a devastating effect?

The Capitalist leaning media does not have the childrens' best interests at heart--to say the least. Capitalism banks not only on humanity, but also on our fears, and takes steps to keep those fears fresh in our minds. Many children do not do well in school, today, because the manipulations of our emotions, ideals, and sexuality have them mentally and emotionally disturbed. Television, movies, music, magazines, and so on with the disease of psychological manipulation in them are mentally and emotionally taxing, especially for the younger generations with their emotions constantly peeking, and striving to understand the World around them from the inside out.
I recently checked this book out of the library and visited the relevant website The Other Parent: The Inside Story Of The Media's Effect On Our Children by James P. Steyer With an Afterword by Chelsea Clinton
The author really knows what he's talking about as he shares stories from his personal family life. Mr. Steyer takes the truth to heart and gets right to the point...
"Steyer is not out simply to demonize media. Rather, this eye-opening book is clear-eyed and free of knee-jerk hysteria as it delivers a forward-looking, comprehensive prescription for addressing media's massively influential presence as The Other Parent." from The Other Parent website
http://www.theotherparent.com

The fact is that the most influential sources of information in America, today, present themselves as trustworthy while shoving a Science of Manipulation down the throats of the people on a daily basis in the pursuit of money! I'm concerned and motivated, and I'll try to illustrate why with a poem...

The trap, net, and web of PsychoManip

The forest is free and vibrant; yet, as a beast, if one is not careful, he or she can fall into a trap of psychomanip.
The sea is free and flowing; yet, as a fish, if one is not careful, he or she can get snared in a net of psychomanip.
The air is free and clear; yet, as an insect, if one is not careful, he or she can become enmeshed in a web of psychological manipulation.

I do not suggest all societal influence is detrimental. I have learned many sound facts, concepts, ideas, theories, and so forth from media, psychology, religion, and so on. However, it is the element of society that utilizes psychological manipulation in the spirit of Capitalism to manipulate the psyche that is of major concern here. Capitalist Psychology, among other detrimental influences, presents valid arguments with fabricated conclusions labeled disorders, which the Drug Industry advertises drugs to alleviate.
"It is important for us to distinguish between valid reasoning and truth. In trying to influence us, it is a common device for vested interest groups to present an argument in a valid manner, but then to state a conclusion that is false. If people are not careful, it is quite easy to be fooled by what appears to be a perfectly valid argument...
The art of persuasion is a very old one. People, throughout history have, for a variety of reasons, tried to influence other people and have used a variety of techniques to do so." from Propaganda, Polls, and Public Opinion: Are the People Manipulated? by Malcolm G. Mitchell.

I do not suggest all societal influence is detrimental. "FIRM is developing a series of programs through which concerned parents, educators and legislators can begin making a difference in the kinds of relationships our children build with the media, present and future." from Families Interested in Responsible Media 'What Can You Do?'
http://www.firmonline.org/what/index.html
Watch clips of founder Jim Steyer on Oprah, CNN and The Today Show
http://www.firmonline.org/video.html

Psychological manipulation is the core issue. Capitalism, Media, Biblical psychology, Capitalist psychology, government propaganda, and so on are means to express the gravity of the issue. I can think of no other terms to better fit in their place, at this time...

We are justified in exposing and denouncing the psychological manipulation of the psyche.

The fact that thought evolves at a considerably faster rate than physical forms do, makes it possible to discern the evolution of thought within the span of ones lifetime--within ones self...
Religion, psychology, philosophy, business, natural science, and so forth are all ways of thinking. The Holy Bible and other religious texts, for example, began with a sense. It was not a sense isolated to one life-form. It is a sense that all of Life feels.
As time and evolution allowed, that sense became a thought. And the life-form that came to be called human began to express thoughts of the divine being with senses, gestures and sounds, symbols, pictures, word of mouth, writing, music, and so forth. The expressions were passed on from generation to generation. People came to sense, see, hear, read, and comprehend the expressions that evolved from thoughts of the divine being. They came to understand what had been done and, therefore, knew what they must do—walk the path. As each person walks the path, it becomes more developed. They add their own insights and discoveries as they walk along.
Imagine the first human being to realize he or she had the power of reason. What an amazing concept that must have been—a concept for which the implications have not yet been fully realized. With the power of human reason, a person can use philosophical, psychological, scientific, and religious reasonings to draw realistic perceptions of the times in which he or she actually lives. Through time and the evolution of thought, people have furthered many of the paths we walk today.
With all things we are interested in, we seek to make them come alive. We like to feel the things we do. We breathe life into the things we do. The fact that thought evolves at a considerably faster rate than physical forms do makes it possible to trace the evolution of thought—throughout history—beyond a reasonable doubt.

Four years ago, psychological manipulation through the Capitalist leaning Media was a major concern during the Presidential debates. Has the problem simply vanished, or is it just not being covered this election year? I have not followed the debates as closely as I did in 2000, but I've heard nothing on this issue. Have you?
Here are some highlights from the last debates...

The presidential candidates touched upon this matter of concern in the Election 2000 debates. I read about it in an article entitled “Stressed out parents prompt promises on presidential campaign trail” written by Sandra Sobieraj for the Associated Press.
“The presidential candidates promised to make government a tool for helping parents protect their children—from ‘cultural pollution’ in Gore’s words in Grand Rapids, or, as Bush put it in Royal Oak, from ‘popular culture that is sometimes an enemy of their children’s innocence.’”
The article appeared in the Friday, October 6, 2000 edition of The Miami Herald. If memory serves, many medical studies have documented the fact that stress contributes to high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. From what we have learned so far, Capitalism and its public voice—the Capitalist leaning Media—do much in the way of contributing to some of the nation’s most serious health problems.
Consider this article from the Election 2000 debates entitled “Both candidates make misstatements on health issues” written by Calvin Woodward for the Associated Press. The article appeared in the Wednesday, October 18, 2000 edition of The Miami Herald…
“The vice president also made an attack on drug companies that conflicts with independent studies. Gore claimed that drug makers ‘are now spending more on advertising and promotion—you see all the ads—than they are on research and development.’
In fact, the industry spent between 5.8 billion and 8.3 billion on promotion and 21 billion on research and development in 1998, according to a Kaisea Family Foundation study in July. There has been a 20-fold increase in TV drug advertising over the past six years.”
Misstatement or not, that is a whole lot of money being spent to promote drugs. While reading the, March 6, 2000 issue of U.S. News & World Report, I happened upon a statement that is rather disturbing in the Outlook section entitled “Drug Research: The Ties That Bind” by Bruce B. Auster with Kevin Whitelaw, K. Sobel, David Makovsky, and Jannie Schrof Fisher.
“Nearly half of the articles evaluating drugs in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine since 1997 were written by scientists who worked as paid advertisers to the drug makers or received major research funding from them…
With scientists addicted to the $24 billion pharmaceuticals inject into research, most medical journals no longer require authors to stay independent of industry.”
As disturbing as that statement is, I was far more disturbed by the cover story in that same issue of the U.S. News & World Report entitled “The Perils of Pills: The psychiatric medication of children is dangerously haphazard” by Nancy Shute, Toni Locy, and Douglas Pasternak with Susan Brink, Mary Lord, John S. MacNeil, Mark E. Madden, Stacy Shultz and Rachel Sobel.
“Startling as it is, the news about toddlers merely underscores the rise in the use of powerful psychiatric drugs in kids of all ages—despite the fact that these drugs are largely untested for use in the young. According to the surgeon general, almost 21 percent of children age 9 and up have a mental disorder, including depression, attention deficit disorder, and bipolar disorder…”
Our young sisters and brothers are just experiencing the power of their drives while being pushed and pulled, to and fro, in a psychologically manipulative society. In many cases, they are preyed upon by a Capitalist psychology that is only concerned with the bottom line!!!

“Aristotle recognized that rhetoric could be used to mislead as well as enlighten the public. Persuasive speakers could lead the audience to unwise choices. For this reason, he argued that rhetoric should be widely taught and understood, so that the wise members of society would be able to contend effectively with the rhetoric of the unwise…
Aristotle’s analysis is over 2,300 years old, but it offers the best solution that we have found to the problem of democracy in our own age—the age of public relations. Today’s opinion manipulated industry is a powerful giant, but like Goliath, it is a giant with a fatal weakness. When the public is educated about its techniques, it often loses its ability to mislead and manipulate.” from Toxic Sludge Is Good For You! by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.
We must inform and educate ourselves to the guiles of psychological manipulation(the uses of evil, fears, desires, despair, and so on to warp the peoples’ will). Once we are informed and educated, the psychological manipulation of the psyche will become apparent...

In The Closing of the American Mind under the heading “The Disciplines,” Allan Bloom states that the solid ground psychology stands on and its newer ideas are left open to questioning. I agree with that statement and just happen to have a few thoughts on the subject. Psychology, in America, was invented in a subversive manner to be used as a practical means in dispelling neurosis resulting from repressed sexuality, guilt, fear, and so on implanted by a manipulative religion—Christianity. And as a means to treat inflated sexuality, anxiety, doubt, depression, and so on, instilled by a Capitalist motivated society—America. The therapies actually used by psychologists, psychoanalysts and so on are insightful concepts based on the experience of living and observing the human condition. These concepts were already in use, in various forms, before modern psychology began to gather and incorporate them into its doctrines. In short, some insightful people invented manipulable ways, shrouded in subterfuge, to dispel and treat the neurosis and psychosis inherent in a psychologically manipulative society.

American media, education, business, psychology, and religion are, in large, tuned to psychological manipulation in the spirit of Capitalism. There is, in the practice of Capitalism, little or no regard for those it effects. Parents are in competition with a psychologically manipulative society for their kids’ attentions. Capitalist motivated society does not have the kids’ best interests at heart—to say the least.
Today, psychology is also creating the neurosis by which it maintains its fortunes backed by the Drug Industry. Its newer ideas—some of them, at least—are formulated in the spirit of Capitalism to mine gold from society. It spreads fabricated neurosis and the Drug Industry advertises the drugs to treat them.
Furthermore, people are pushed and pulled by religion and society—each having its own psychologically manipulative versions of reality—while trying to master their instinctual drives and come to terms with Life as it stands in our era. Some of our brothers and sisters going through the greatest struggles are labeled neurotic or psychotic, and forced to take drugs or be institutionalized before they can harness the power of their drives. This is a violation of Public health and trust that must be brought to an end—as soon as possible!!