While the CIA did not invent the term ‘conspiracy theory,’ they certainly popularized the term—by design—initially for the purpose of “countering criticism of the Warren Commission,” which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of John F. Kennedy.
Even the CIA could not have imagined how successful the propaganda campaign spearheaded by this catchphrase would be. Drenched with scorn and ridicule towards people who had the audacity to report that powerful people were meeting in secret and enacting strategies to shape public perception and behavior, this campaign seems to have set back human awakening to what is going on behind the scenes several decades. In fact, it seems to have taken humanity over half century to collectively acknowledge that the Warren Commission had one objective: to cover up the complex conspiracy that resulted in JFK’s assassination.
Not to worry, everything in its proper time. I say this despite the fact that there has long been oodles of evidence and information out there concerning most of the popular conspiracy theories (which are, one by one, becoming conspiracy fact), especially since the rise of the Internet. Presidents such as Adams, Roosevelt and even Kennedy clearly warned of the pervasive and negative influence of powerful secret societies.
Let’s be clear. The level at which our thinking and perception is being controlled and manipulated by a small group of powerful people may still be greater than most people are willing to concede. This famous quote from Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, has been in the public domain for nearly a century, and yet only now are its implications penetrating the collective mind.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”—Propaganda, 1928
Awakening to the Truth
I believe that the truth about the nature of life on this planet, and who human beings really are, is a complex, multi-layered phenomena that may very well extend beyond the limitations of the human mind. But I don’t say this to discourage you, or to make you feel there is nothing we can do. I actually say this so that we can feel gratitude and wonder for this incredible, immersive experience that is life on planet Earth. And I believe that all the subterfuge and deception by what I call the ruling class is part of the game going on that each of us here on Earth have chosen to be a part of, a game in which we have willfully forgotten the extent of our own powers and abilities in order to experience the joy and rapture of rediscovering them, both through our individual work and through collaboration with those of like mind and energy.
But don’t be misled by life being called a game. What we do and how we behave in our lives is not arbitrary. It matters. Life is continually moving us in the direction of the truth, about ourselves and about the world, and the more we resist the truth in favor of the comfortable yet distorted perceptions that we have been operating under, the more we will suffer. Many people have endured tremendous suffering, until finally it gets to the point that they are willing to surrender and give up their distorted perceptions. It takes work to awaken, and it happens slowly, layer by layer. Life on this planet is no cakewalk.
Our inner awakening to who we really are will eventually lead to us realize how powerful we actually are, and how utterly responsible we are for the quality of our lives. Our outer awakening to what is really going on in the world will eventually lead us to the realization that we are fully at cause, as a collective, for the shape our world is in. The dual challenge before us is to improve the quality of our lives by working on our inner coherence, and to improve the state of the world by working with like-minded people to change it so that it can fulfill our highest visions. Supporting this joint venture for anyone willing to take it on is the mandate of The Commitment Club.
