Wednesday, December 28, 2016

On the Question of Sociopathy

There is a notion that has taken hold in a large part of the world's population (at least in the so-called "developed" countries) that is totally false. That is the notion that it is somehow spiritually unevolved and undesirable to ever engage in conflict. To ever call out people on their wicked behavior. To ever disagree with bad ideas. Forcefully to do these things.

I am serving notice to this delusion right here, right now.

I have a sense that this falsehood has its origin in the New Age movement - [soft, amber light and tinkling bells, breathy female voice] "We must focus on the light." It's true enough, as far as it goes. Our reality follows our intention and our attention, and so we should predominantly focus those on positive things. However, what this worldview fails to account for is what we are supposed to do when confronted with Evil. It avoids the question altogether. Perhaps it assumes that there is no such thing.

This is patently, demonstrably false. How do I know? Because I have had intimate experience of sociopaths. And when you've done that, you've looked evil in the eye. I won't go into great detail on this, since others have done a fine job of it. But the bottom line is this: they aren't like the rest of us. They are incapable of empathy, of any sort of real human connection. Instead, they understand only domination. They appear to be wired like reptiles, in a way that precludes mammalian warmth and bonding. Wild, dangerous characteristics mark them. They can lie without affect! They don't feel fear in the face of terrible consequences! They cannot love!

How weird that the human species is burdened with these beings! Somewhere between 1-5% of our total population they form, it seems. What a strange, cosmic sort of affliction! What does it tell us about our mission on this planet, our burden, our gift, our lesson? That we should somehow have to learn how to manage these creatures who masquerade as our brethren, but in fact are among us as wolves among sheep?

And learn this we must. Learn it we must. Every tribal or sectarian war in humanity's long, sordid, blood-soaked history has its origin in these reptiles in human skin, these Hermann Goerings and Josef Stalins and Henry Kissingers and Hillary Clintons. Every industrial and post-industrial horror afflicted on human beings around the world has its origins in these "people", these Morgans and Rockefellers and Krupps and Rothschilds. The most prodigiously murderous among them we learn by name. The more mundane we simply feel as a dark, miserable leavening throughout our species, the nameless killers and enforcers and witches and manipulators and hatchet-men who dog us so ruthlessly.

As wise as adders and as gentle as doves - so must we be. We must contain them. We must contain their Evil. As near as I can tell, they're not really even in the driver's seat - sociopaths appear to me to be nothing more than vessels for hateful, hurtful, hellish spirits. I guess you could say it's not entirely their fault.

We must approach them in a spirit of charity, but not of foolishness. We must pray for their souls' healing and at the same time we must not be taken in by them. But what must we do with them?

Do we kill them all? Somehow that seems incompatible with the rest of our program here, with the medicine drinking and divine knowledge and compassion and all. Do we lock them up until they die? Maybe. Certainly the studies that have been done on rapists and torturers indicate that these creatures have no interest whatsoever in changing. They will never not pose a deadly threat to all other human beings. Maybe a wise and decent incarceration is the best that any society can hope to achieve with them. A recognition that they are a severely damaged subset of our species that must be quarantined for the common good.

Do we feed them plant medicine? Maybe. I read a fascinating article in which the author describes how an offshoot of the Daime in Brazil is working with violent offenders to help them understand the meaning of their crimes. I think it's probably too early to tell what its results will be.

I don't know. I don't think anyone else does, either. Honestly, I think what I'm doing here is issuing a call to action to those who feel inclined to read this blog: let's drink and consider the problem. Let's ask Mother Ayahuasca for guidance on the question of sociopathy. She'll come up with something far better than we ever could, I'm sure of that.

Because what's absolutely clear to me is that it's one of the most important questions facing our species right now. Quite possibly the most important. Think about it. What do you experience, over and over, almost everywhere in the world you go? Good people. Decent people. People who are hospitable and kind to strangers, people with light in their eyes who want to do good things.

And yet where are we as a species? On the edge of the abyss, that's where. Why?

"It's the sociopaths, stupid."

Truly, the time that Jesus and John spoke of is here. All that has been hidden is being brought to light. And I assert that this is the most important of all of those hidden truths. It's the lynchpin. The world really is run by a cult of sociopaths. They're the ones causing all of the mayhem. This is the central fact that we are never supposed to understand. We're supposed to believe the lying propaganda of the sociopaths. The problem is always out there - it's the Russians, it's Iran, it's the terrorists, it's the landowners, it's immigrants, it's the Jews. There's a shepherd in Afghanistan who poses a deadly threat to my freedom.

No. This has always been the sociopaths' greatest victory. Conning humankind into believing that some sort of external tribal danger threatens us, when in fact the real danger has always been right next door. Perhaps it has been in our own home. A tribe of people that exists in all of the world's tribes, indistinguishable on the surface from everyone else, yet bearers of an evil so profound that it's on the verge of snuffing us out.

We have to decide if we're going to allow them to do that. To snuff out our light. Because that's what they're really after. They hate and fear the light in us. It has no home in them, and yet somewhere deep down they wish it did. Their reaction to this profound discomfort is simple and brutal: they want to put out the light. They want to destroy innocence and beauty.

We must turn into a race of beings that is no longer vulnerable to sociopaths. That's the first step. To recognize them for what they are and to make a decision down to the depths of our souls that we will no longer be victimized by them. If we do that, we render them powerless.

As medicine drinkers it is incumbent upon us to bear witness to these truths. Simple-minded New Age foolishness and wishful thinking is inadequate to the question of sociopathy. We must bring this question into the light of the medicine. Sunlight dries out the garbage. Once we solve this problem we will be much further down the road towards the bright future that awaits us.

God bless you, whoever you are.