An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
F.: Perception management began the first time a human used words or actions to manipulate other humans to think, talk, and act as he would have them think and talk and act.
Consider one early example of perception management: the first communion service was conducted to appease one of the metaphysical entities that had been dreamed up by controlling, ignorant men...the entity in that case being an angry rain god.
Note the way that perceptions were managed by a self-appointed medicine man/priest who would have said: “The crops are dying because the rain god is angry with us. Like any male, he can be appeased by sex; thus, I will need a virgin, and as that god’s representative on earth, I shall have sex with her for him…by proxy.
“Then, I’ll sacrifice her to that god by cutting out her beating heart and eating the body and drinking the blood. Then, I will pass the heart through the crowd so all can commune with god. He will then be much pleased with you. And if the rain does not come immediately, obviously more sacrifices will be required.”
Now that might be considered an amazing piece of perception management unless you understand the power of programming, the power of fear that responds to such programming, the level of sheep-ness that humans emulate, and how quickly learned ignorance can spread throughout a culture and become a widely-held belief; moreover, all widely-held beliefs today evolved from the same scenario of perception management leading to programming leading to learned ignorance.
Nowadays, “Perception Management” is a term that has evolved from the ranks of the U.S. military, intended to be kept secret from the public. Only recently are some becoming aware of how organized and widespread the use of this clandestine tool really is.
In the befuddled and convoluted manner of communicating that the military has perfected, they define “Perception Management” in their secretive writings as
“actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator’s objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.”
Some may be familiar with this tool used by manipulators since it has become the standard operating procedure of the U.S. government:
A piece of legislation that allows for more pollution is called “The Clean Air Act”; a piece of legislation that strips away the rights of citizens is called a “Patriot Act”; “truth projections” (a.k.a. lies) about WMD’s were “projected” to justify war;
“psychological operations” were organized to trigger fear (which 50% of all populations are already prone to experience as a result of being Personality Type Sixes); once the war was started, the press was prohibited from photographing the flag-draped coffins of those killed in the conflict; and ego-states (labels) were assigned to “enemies” who were identified as “Members of An Axis of Evil” in order to cover hidden agendas and to manage domestic perceptions.
In the book THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF WARS, evidence is offered that shows the way that governments, organized religions, and big business (including the industrial military complex that Eisenhower warned the public about) have been using perception management since the 1950’s to influence “the emotions, motives, and objective reasoning” not only of “foreign audiences” but of domestic audiences as well.
So what does this have to do with the Advaita teachings? Everything. The programming, conditioning, acculturation, and domestication of the persons on the planet all make use of the technique of perception management. It is the effects of perception management (which has been employed on a planet-wide basis by manipulators for thousands of years) that Advaita pointers would un-do.
It has been perception management (PM) that has been employed for millennia to inspire persons to believe in the concepts and ideas and messages of their “leaders” (especially political, business, spiritual and religious leaders).
Their concepts and bogus teachings have resulted (all across the planet) in one of the defined goals of PM: to eliminate “objective reasoning” and thereby produce a population of persons who make no use of logic but are driven instead by the emotional intoxication that is inspired by manipulative leaders.
If persons are not awakened to fact that there is, and has been, an orchestrated and organized effort by “leaders” to manipulate persons with the “deception” that is referenced in U.S. military writings, then they will not be willing to engage in the first requirement for completion of the seven-step “journey” to Realization.
That first requirement is a willingness to question it all. That includes questioning everything you have ever been told, and are currently being told, by politicians, preachers, priests, parents, ad infinitum. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
