Designing the Mind: A Fable

Before I launch into the fable, I want to discuss briefly a related matter. The submerging of the individual into the collective, group-think, the consensus.

To many people, this submerging seems like a good idea. Why? Because they don’t perceive the actual creative potential of the individual. Therefore, they don’t see the submerging as a sacrifice.

“There isn’t a significant distinction between the individual and the group in the first place.”

And therein lies the problem and the tragedy.

“What’s the big deal? On one side you have the individual with his ideas and his agendas, and on the other side you have the group with its ideas and agendas. So what? It’s more pleasant and reassuring to dive into the group. So do it.”

THAT’S why it’s important to understand the individual and his imagination and power. That’s why it isn’t just a little choice between A and A plus .0001.

When the education system is rigged to delete all major references to the individual as an independent being and force and entity, and when, through electronic technology, the planet is drawing closer and closer together, and when more and more people consider freedom a vague slogan, it’s very, very easy to slide into some form of “group-ness” as the answer to all problems.

It’s easy to believe the mind is little more than a series of programs that can switched and replaced with no damage done.

Whereas the true image should look something like this: the individual is standing on top of a mountain with the open and endless sky of possibility above … and far, far below, barely visible, there is a murky and stagnant pond where the group lives, sharing impulses that meld and fizz their consciousness into a single clot of fairy tale.

I know this comparative image is shocking to some people. But they need to understand that the individual isn’t deserting other people. He’s deserting the clotted reality other people invent in order to drown themselves in endless compromise.

Okay. Here is the fable:

In their lab, Sam and Sally had just finished inscribing a huge amount of code on a two-dimensional sheet of plastic, in order to produce a hologram that would, when sprung, blossom into the continuum called The Physical Universe.

With glasses of good champagne in their hands, sitting on stools in the lab, they speculated on their next project.

“To me,” Sally said, “it’s obvious. People are going to live and proliferate in the Universe. So we have to design their minds to sync up with Universe. Otherwise, we’ll have a mess on our hands.”

“Chaos,” Sam said. “Not our objective here. But first we have to get a handle on what ‘people’ means.”

“Yes,” Sally said. “We do. We know they’re immortal souls. We know we don’t have anything to do with that mystery. It’s outside our control. But they will have bodies, physical forms. And minds. Inside the Universe.”

“And freedom,” Sam said.

“Right. But we can design a section of their minds to our liking. That section will sync up with Universe. It’ll mesh. It’ll accept the structure of the hologram.”

“Well,” Sam said, “let’s look at how we built Universe. Although it has action and energy and change, it also has a major amount of harmony, symmetry, balance, equilibrium, and repeating pattern. You know, the simple stuff. The stuff even a child can grasp. It’s not the most complicated universe we’ve ever made.”

“So,” Sally said, “suppose we design one segment of mind so it loves and attaches itself to symmetry and harmony and pattern. That’ll produce the sync-effect, won’t it?”

Sam said, “Yeah, but another part of the mind, the part we can’t design, will be free. And given that freedom, it can reject these childish qualities…”

“Solution,” Sally said. “Design a piece of every mind to hunger after and accept symbols of all kinds, especially mystical symbols that just lead them into mazes and labyrinths and dead-ends.”

“What good will that do?” Sam said.

“Well, it’ll make them think that the Universe we put together over breakfast is very strange and unfathomable and fascinating. Then they won’t be so quick to reject the symmetry and harmony and go out of sync with Universe…”

“Great idea!” Sam said. “In fact, if we tie together all those weird mystical symbols with the harmony and symmetry, we’ll really have something. The people will keep going around and around…”

“Yes,” Sally said, “and they’ll never explore their own consciousness where all the immortal stuff and the real mystery are.”

And that’s how Sally and Sam finished the job. They called this new second phase The Good Citizen Project.

Some time later, much later, they watched with amusement as “researchers” living in Universe pointed out that snail shells and certain flowers and spiral galaxies all expressed very similar configurations.

“Wow,” Sam said, “it worked. They really go for Pattern, don’t they? They eat it up.”

“I know,” Sally said. “And they’re talking about simple configurations as if they’re symbols of something very ‘deep.’ They’ll be delving into this stuff for a million years. They’ve synced up to Universe beyond anything I thought possible.”

A few million years passed.

Sam and Sally got together, to peek in and see what was happening in Universe. They were surprised again.

“Do you see it?” Sally said.

“Of course I see it,” Sam said. “They’re sculpting their own THOUGHTS into simple shapes. They’re making their thoughts mimic the symmetry and the geometry and the balance. They must be in a trance.”

“Do you think we should issue a wake-up call?”

“No,” Sam said. “Who knows what that would do to them? They’d probably think the wake-up call was coming through one of their elite priest classes and, as a result, they’d dig themselves in even deeper. Leave them alone. They’ll have to wake themselves up…”

“When do you think that will happen?” Sally said.

“A good question,” Sam said. “I say we let a billion more years pass, and then we look in again.”

“I can’t remember how they entered Universe in the first place,” Sally said.

“That would be Department 4-AR’s job. Let me look it up.”

Sam typed a password on his computer and read the note.

“It was a vacation special,” he said. “Tickets went on sale and were scooped up. It was a big seller at the time.”

“Long vacation,” Sally said.

“That’s the way it’s turning out,” Sam said.

Sally said, “We have to remember what we did, for future reference. Design a universe with a significant amount of symmetry, balance, harmony, geometry, and repeating pattern. The puerile stuff. Then introduce a whole host of weird symbols that go nowhere. The inhabitants will connect those symbols to the childish symmetry and enter a trance, a long lasting trance…”

“It works,” Sam said. “Like a charm.”

“We need to make up a name for what we’ve done,” Sally said. “A label, a title. It’s a major accomplishment. It needs a name.”

Sam thought about it for a minute. “Let’s try something a little weird,” he said. “You know, with initials, so it sounds official.”

“Right,” Sally said. “Well … see how you like this. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s got a bit of comic-book flair.”

“Hit me with it,” Sam said.

“MKULTRA.”

The author of two explosive collections,THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon Rappoport was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com