Reality Programming

Posted on July 25, 2004
Filed Under Journal, Society |

Apparently there is an ever increasing trend towards the corruption of the modern language. This is not merely a case of altering the context of words, but something far deeper; the alteration of our perspective.

Our reliance on words is necessary in order to communicate - but words also form a large aspect of how we perceive the world around us. Words are not only a method of relating ideas and concepts; words are also labels.

However language is also a free flowing dynamic form. It can be used to relate concepts that are not physical in nature. Language has an aspect – like thought – which places it beyond physical ideals. Words like anger, love and hate do not just label emotions, but also feelings, entire concepts and beliefs. A single word can place within an individuals mind an entire ideology and relating thoughts and reactions.

It is therefore clear to see how words can posses a powerful hold over individuals and groups alike.

When a word is said to us again and again, and each time a fixed meaning is placed on that word, we can adopt a fixed belief of what that word represents. Freedom, War, Terror, these are examples of the words that have been fixed into our minds. Each word brings to us associated responses and beliefs. We thus have a pre-conceived perception when these words are used.

A mind “conditioned in this way”:http://www.thethoughts.co.uk/thoughts/conformity.htm can have fixed reactions towards certain situations depending upon the word that is used to relate to it. A reversal within our perception can occur by the use of such methods. Of course many of us see this method used constantly within advertisements, which through imagery and word manipulation attempt to convince us upon the necessity of a certain product. Many corporate and product slogans attempt to catch the mind in such ways.

This same principle can be found in every area of society, from politics to schools, from work to consumerism.

The use of the word “free” is used to describe western societies. Those same societies are bound to financial, physical and emotional constraints. We are happy to accept the word because it invokes pleasant concepts within our mind with which we can apply to ourselves. However in this context could not “freedom hating” also mean opposition to being constrained by an economic system?

The danger here lays with the fixation of ideals and concepts to certain words; and then using those words to evoke pre-conditioned responses. But this is only the surface physical effect; the issue goes far deeper.

In the manner described above, words can be used to “program” a certain perspective or ideal into a person. For example the use of high street store “Reward Cards”, (or loyalty cards etc.) the wording relates a positive concept. The information collected on individuals by the usage of these cards is sold onto other businesses…another label for these cards could equally be “Data Gathering Units”. Of course this isn’t pleasant and thus the idea would not take off.

When used in this manner word programming becomes a form of reality manipulation; the intentional alteration of an individual’s perspective in order to achieve a desired response.

Looking further into this issue though, a requirement of this form of “reality manipulation” is for a mind to be routed within a pre-conceived five sense _physical_ belief. Rooting language in its physical form, to communicate physical ideals is a daily occurrence in our usage of language. Essentially the manner in which we use language bolsters our perspective of reality.

If our language is based in “physicality”:http://www.thethoughts.co.uk/thoughts/physicalism.htm then ultimately we will perceive a purely physical reality…or physicality.

When we realise the fundamentals behind this issue, we can begin to release the ties that the use of physical language has on our perception. Rather than relying on preconceived ideas of what a word or phrase means, we need to look at the issue ourselves…and think for ourselves what precisely it means. When words are used to elicit a positive physical response from us, in order to evoke a certain reaction or perspective…these are clear signs of manipulation.

However, moving further; just as words can fix the mind within the realms of the physical, so too can words allow the mind to perceive things other than just the physical. Zen koans are created entirely for this purpose:

bq. _”Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma, “Why hasn’t that fellow a beard?”_

When reading or hearing such words - for an instant the mind stutters…at what appears to be either nonsense or contradiction. This is the non-physical mind responding to what has been conditioned into it by the nature of physicality.

The mind attempts to make physical sense of what is in essence a phrase or concept that is indicating something non-physical. This points to our reliance on structured physical language and gives us an indication as to how said physical language affects our perspective of reality.

bq. _”A monk saw a turtle in the garden of Daizui’s monastery and asked the teacher, “All beings cover their bones with flesh and skin. Why does this being cover its flesh and skin with bones?” Master Daizui took off one of his sandals and covered the turtle with it.”_

We see reality as “how it should be”, based upon created principles that exist within the physical which we then adopt into our minds as what we call fact. This in essence is what we refer to as belief. This belief causes us to see things according to how we judge them. For example we say the world is round because we use the term round to describe said mathematical shape. That belief is from a perspective based on physicality.

In truth the earth is simply what the earth is. The labels we apply to it will not alter its structure. However when people believed the earth was flat…it _did_ affect the structure of the earth _within people’s minds_.

bq. _”Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, “The flag moves.” The other said, “The wind moves.” They argued back and forth but could not agree. Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch, said: “Gentlemen! It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves.”_

Being free of the impositions from a purely physical perspective of reality, allows us to perceive the aspects of reality we usually do not see. Our mind is inherently free, but we purposefully allow it to be subjugated.

We must understand, that what we have learnt from physicality is not to be ignored…but rather to be brought in unison with the rest of reality. Thus we will realise that we need not base our existence on false ideals and beliefs - which lead us into confusion within an existence we believe to be purely physical.

Marcus - 2004