In the first part of this
series, we contemplated the idea of a psycho-spiritual disease of the soul that
has been wreaking havoc throughout human history that Native Americans call wetiko. In part two, we
inquired into how the wetiko bug
disrupts and deranges a living system, using the world financial system as our
case study. The wetiko virus is like
a parasite that literally feeds off, takes over and aberrates the curren(t)cy
of the infected system. The wetiko
pathogen originally manifests as a disturbance in the field of the collective
unconscious of humanity itself, creating the psychic ley lines upon which world
events are erected and energized. The origin of this virulent disease is to be
discovered within the psyche (please see my article It's All in the Psyche).
Because of the psychic nature of wetiko,
it serves us to understand the psychological underpinnings of the virus, which
is to say, how it affects our day to day relationships and lives. We begin to
‘see' the bug when we are able to get in focus and recognize ‘its'
psychological signature in both ourselves and others. The fact that the source
of the wetiko germ is within the
psyche means that the cure for this disease lies hidden within the psyche as
well.
Wetiko
psychosis is at the very root of humanity's inhumanity to itself in all its
various forms. As a species, we need to step into and participate with our own
spiritual and psychological evolution, which means that we must focus our
attention on and contemplate this ‘topic of topics' before this virulent
madness destroys us. Up until this point in our history we have been too easily
distracted by the ruses of the wetiko bug
itself. The disease itself is now demanding that we pay attention to it, or it
will kill us. Its cure is the most pressing and fundamental issue facing us
today. Author and environmental activist Derrick
Jensen writes in his foreword to Jack D. Forbes book about wetiko psychosis, "Columbus
and other Cannibals is, I think, the most important book ever written
on one of the most important topics ever faced by human beings: why is the
dominant culture so excruciatingly, relentlessly, insanely, genocidally,
ecocidally, suicidally destructive?"[i] Historian
Arnold Toynbee points out that a civilization doesn't die from being invaded
from the outside, but unless it creates culture which nourishes the evolution
of the creative spirit, a civilization invariably commits suicide. As if
possessed, our civilization is, trance-like, sleepwalking in a death-march
towards our own demise. The most pressing and inevitable question of our time
is not just ‘why?' but more urgently, how can we stop this seemingly
out-of-control, self-destructive, hell-bent part of ourselves?
'Psycho'-Analysis
The origin of wetiko is the human psyche. Psychologically speaking, shadow
projection is at the very root of wetiko
disease. Shadow projection is a process in which we split-off from and project
out our own darkness onto others. It is our misguided attempt at a ‘final
solution' to the problem of the evil within ourselves which actually deprives
us of the capacity to deal with evil. Projecting the shadow opens up the door
and invites in the vampiric entity of wetiko
to make itself at home in the most intimate spaces of our own psyche. It is
through the dynamic of shadow projection that the wetiko bug digs in and entrenches itself within our psyches, where
it is then able to commandeer the executive function of the psyche to its own
ends. When we project the shadow, we unwittingly become a conduit for evil to
possess us from behind, beneath our conscious awareness, and to act itself out
through us. When there is mutual shadow projection between individuals, groups
or nations, each side has an unconscious investment in the other playing out
the projected evil so as to prove their own self-righteous innocence, a dynamic
which becomes self-reinforcing and continually feeds the polarization in the
field. Shadow projection, as it collectively plays out en masse on the world
stage is an outer reflection of the initial process within ourselves of our
be-night-ed effort to exterminate our own darkness (please see my article Shadow Projection: The
Fuel of War). When shadow projection happens en masse, it is as if the
archetype of evil emits its toxic radio-activity underground, through the
shared unconscious of the collective, and manifests collectively as destructive
psychic epidemics.
In shadow projection, we attempt to
master and experience power over the internal condition that originally
proclaimed our powerlessness to ourselves not by becoming conscious, but by
unconsciously identifying with, becoming, and then acting out the power to
externally destroy. Unconsciously acting out unbound power without restraint is
our perverse way of defending against the internal breakthrough of feelings of
helplessness. Evacuating and relocating our inner darkness outside of ourselves
by demonizing the ‘other' seemingly protects us from feeling our vulnerability
and pain. Our inner anxiety about our existential 'power to be' attempts to
resolve itself in the power to act free from restraint. In an unmediated expression
of our disempowered inner condition, our unconscious
acting out does not surmount the need for compulsive repetition, however, but
rather, assures it. Wetikos' modus
operandi, their 'M.O.,' becomes to
root out and kill everything that feels tender, vulnerable and alive within
themselves, thus systematically murdering anything and everything within them
that could possibly melt or produce a crack in the ice that encases their
heart.
Because full-blown wetikos are soul murderers who continually recreate the on-going
process of killing their own soul, they are reflexively compelled to do this to
others; for what the soul does to itself, it can't help but to do to others. In
a perverse inversion of the golden rule, instead of treating others how they
would like to be treated, wetikos do
unto others what was done unto them. The wetiko
is simply a living link in a timeless, vampiric lineage of abuse. Full-blown wetikos induce and dream up others to
experience what it is like to be the part of themselves which they have split
off from and denied, and are thus not able to consciously experience – the part
of themselves that has been abused and vampirized. In playing this out, wetikos are transmitting and
transferring their own depraved state of inner deadness to others in a perverse
form of trying to deal with their own suffering. Paradoxically, wetikos both try to destroy others'
light, as it reminds them of what they've killed in themselves, while
simultaneously trying to appropriate the light for themselves.
Wetiko
disease is an expression of the convincing illusion of the separate self gone
wild. Bewitched by the intrinsic projective tendencies of their own mind,
full-blown wetikos are unconsciously
doing the very thing they are reacting to and accusing other people of doing.
Projecting the shadow onto others, they will accuse others of projecting the
shadow onto them. To use an extreme, but prototypical example, it is like
someone screaming that you're killing them as they kill you. If their insanity
is reflected back to them, they think it is the mirror that is insane.
Suffering from a form of psychic blindness that believes itself to be
sightedness, full-blown wetikos
project out their own unconscious blindness and imagine that others, instead of
themselves, are the ones who are not seeing. Governed by the insane,
self-perpetuating logic of fear and paranoia, those taken over by the disease
fear that if they don't attack and rule over others, they are in danger of
being attacked and ruled over themselves. In their convoluted, upside-down,
flawless illogic, wetikos re-act to
their own projections in the world as if they objectively exist and are other
than themselves, thinking that they themselves have nothing to do with creating
that to which they are reacting (please see Aparticipatory
Delusional Syndrome (ADS)). Someone fully taken over by the wetiko bug is like a kitten endlessly
reacting to her reflection in a mirror as if it is another kitten separate from
and other than herself. The evil we see in the full-blown wetikos is a reflection of our own evil; if we don't recognize
this, we will just be projecting our shadow onto them. We are then guilty of
the very same thing (shadow projecting) we are essentially reacting to and of
which we are accusing them.
The term wetiko is a Cree term (windigo
in Ojibway, wintiko in Powhatan)
which, to quote Forbes, refers to "an evil person or spirit who terrorizes
other creatures by means of terrible evil acts."[ii] Wetikos are the human instruments for
the transpersonal ‘spirit of evil' to terrorize the world. In wetiko disease, we unwittingly become
drafted into being foot-soldiers in the war not ‘on,' but ‘of' and ‘for'
terror. The wetiko parasite feeds on
and harvests the emotions of fear and terror. Terror is the essence of its
insidious ‘ill-usory ill-logic.' In wetiko
disease, the psyche takes the ‘terror' that haunts it from within, and in its
attempt to master it, unwittingly becomes taken over by it, thus becoming an
instrument of terror in the world. We have then become the thing we most
feared, ‘creatures of the European nightmare world,' as we psychologically
terrorize ourselves, as well as terrorizing the world at large. Wetiko is the bug which feeds the
experience of terror within our mind and out in the world, fueling one of its
more prominent manifestations in our world today: the ‘Global War on
Terror.'
A Frankenstein Monster Come to Life
Wetikos
suffer from what is called ‘pseudologia phantastica,' a form of hysteria characterized by a
talent for believing their own lies. "Lying," Forbes writes, "in fact may
represent a key strand in the entire epidemiology of wetokoism."[iii]
Ultimately deceiving themselves as they believe in the propaganda of their own
lies, full-blown wetikos become
strangers to themselves. Wetikos
continually have to invest their life-force in lying to themselves, while at
the same time fooling themselves into believing that they are not doing so, a
version of what George Orwell referred to as ‘doublethink.' Suffering from
amnesia, they have forgotten what it is to remember, and to ‘seal' the deal,
they have forgotten that they have forgotten. The result is that they split
their mind in two. Falling into denial, and yet denying they are in the state
of denial, becomes a process that they are invested in at all costs, or it
would blow their denial. Anything that threatens their perverse state of
affairs has to be destroyed. Hiding from their lie, they are in essence hiding
from themselves, which is pure madness.
Instead of living from and out of an
awareness of the psyche, full-blown wetikos
continually avoid awareness of the psyche, a habitual pattern which becomes
their internal compass and continual default, their M.O. Taking refuge not
‘in,' but ‘from,' themselves, wetikos are
continually fleeing from themselves, endlessly circling around in the hamster
wheel of samsara. All of their energy gets invested in fueling their own, and
others, deception. Their will becomes dedicated to hiding from the truth of
what they are doing, a truth which endlessly pursues them, as they continually
avoid relationship with themselves. Wetikos
become wedded to the full-time occupation of keeping one step ahead of
themselves, a process which, once it gains a certain momentum, attains a
seeming autonomy that is self-generating (please see Autonomous
Complexes). As this inner process progresses, it gains a sovereignty over
their psyche, as if a self-created Frankenstein monster has come to life in the
flesh. The wetikos have then created
their own sci-fi nightmare, with themselves in the starring role. Once created,
a mind-virus like wetiko, just like
the Frankenstein monster, gains a seeming life of its own, independent of its
creator. It then holds its creator in its thrall, unable to escape from the
out-of-control hell of their own making.
Speaking of someone possessed by the wetiko virus, Forbes writes, "such a
person cannot be authentic. Such a person is not merely a pimp, he is also a
ghost, as it were, a mere imitation of a person. His life is an imitation of
life…their life is less than that of a wild (free) animal who is, after all
always authentic."[iv] Wetikos become unreal to themselves, a
simulation of themselves. Split in two, they become schizoid, dissociated from
themselves, duality having seemingly established itself as the reigning logic
at the core of their being. Different parts of the person taken over by wetiko become compartmentalized, neither
connected to each other nor to the whole. This process of inner fragmentation
serves to hide from the wetikos what
they are doing to themselves, as they become their own never-ending ‘cover-up.'
This psychological dynamic is kept in place by how painful it is to behold and
contemplate the modes of avoidance they construct to protect themselves from
what they do not want to know. And yet, as painful as it is, it is only in the
seeing of what they are doing (to themselves) that there is any possibility of
becoming free from this malignant malady.
Wetikos
can psychopathically (and thus toxically) mimic the human
personality perfectly. If it serves their agenda, they can be convincing beyond
belief, making themselves out to be normal, caring, politically correct human
beings. They are unable, however, to grasp emotionally the meaning implicit in
the thoughts and feelings they are exhibiting. They lack insight into how
they differ from others, for they do not differ from others as they see others.
They are skillful at pretending love and devotion, as if they are imitating a
person. Impersonating themselves, their existence is a true parody of life.
They can't distinguish between their mimicked (pseudo) responses of love,
remorse, etc., and the genuinely felt responses of a healthy person.
Full-blown wetikos are emotionally stunted, as their feelings are confined to
the primitive, archaic emotions of anger, frustration, numbness and rage.
Suffering from a deep disorder of feeling in which they can not allow
themselves to consciously feel, they
typically swing between numbness and rage. Fixed in their own limited and
myopic point of view, they have no capacity to see themselves as others see
them. Proclamations to the contrary, they have no empathy nor compassion. They
can't see the world through others point of view, only through their own, which
in Hannah Arendt's opinion is a primary characteristic of what she calls the
‘banality of evil.' Wetikos don't
relate to others as autonomous, independent beings, but rather, as pawns to be
used as means to their own selfish ends, objects to be manipulated for their
own narcissistic benefit, rather than as ends in themselves, subjects with
their own intrinsic value and valid viewpoints. Because they have lost
connection to their soul, they cannot hear the pleas of nor see the soul in
others. They refuse to see the harm their actions are doing to others, as this
would injure their overly-positive, inflated narcissistic self-image, which
protects them from consciously feeling their shame and guilt (read more about Malignant
Narcissism). Seemingly unable to consciously experience their guilt
animates more shadow projection, which fuels the wetiko pathogen in a continually self-regenerating feedback loop.
Unwilling to experience their guilt, wetikos
are afraid of being exposed, of being found out, which is an outer reflection
of the terror that the wetiko
parasite within us feels at potentially being illumined.
We secretly feel a sense of guilt when
we shadow project, because we inwardly know we are not in our integrity. This
sense of guilt itself is the very feeling from which we split-off. Our guilt
does not allow us to feel our guilt, which is what we secretly feel guilty
over. To the extent that we don't consciously experience our guilt, we become
caught in an infinitely-perpetuating double-bind in which we project out our
guilt and darkness, which just perpetuates the very thing we feel guilty about,
ad infinitum.
Big wetikos[v] may never
know nor be forced to come to terms with the harm they have caused, as
oftentimes they find themselves in the privileged position of the victors who
rewrite history on their own terms. Many of our society's historians,
themselves infected by the wetiko
virus, exalt aggressive and exploitative behavior, categorizing as ‘primitive'
and ‘backwards' those who don't forcibly ‘conquer' others, thereby subtly and
subliminally brainwashing the young into the ways of the world of wetiko.
The Self-Destructive Evil of Empire
Being a field phenomenon, wetiko psychosis doesn't just express
itself individually, but its nonlocal tentacles are continually manifesting
collectively throughout the underlying field of consciousness. The multi-headed
hydra that is the wetiko collective
psychosis materializes itself in families, groups, nations, and in whole
species such as ours. Wetiko's ‘body
politic' has an intrinsic and
insistent need for centralizing power and control, fueled by the bottom line of
corporate-driven profits. Speaking about the monster of ever-expanding empire,
Forbes writes, "imperialism and
exploitation are forms of cannibalism and, in fact, are precisely those forms
of cannibalism which are most diabolical or evil"[vi] A
‘front' for the underlying wetiko
virus, the military-industrial-criminal-complex, with its ultimately
self-destructive, built-in need for endless expansion is like a systematic
runaway in cybernetic theory. The Frankenstein monster of ever-enlarging empire
is like a runaway locomotive gaining speed, approaching the event horizon of
its inevitable ‘crash,' all under the deceptive banner of ‘progress.'
Meanwhile, this ‘progress' destroys people, families, communities, and
potentially, the biosphere itself upon which human life depends. "Wetikos," Forbes writes, "have taken
their Satan to the four-corners of the world, and they have made him their
God."[vii]
Evil is like a pathogen that enters a
system, be it an individual, nation-state, or world-system, and exploits the
system, knocking it off balance. Such disturbances can transform something
wholesome, such as the drive to reproduce, into something evil – the drive to
rape. Etymologically, the meaning of the word ‘evil' has to do with ‘excess' as
well as to ‘transgress boundaries.' Full-fledged wetikos are rapists of the human soul. The word ‘rape,'
etymologically speaking, is derived from words that mean to overwhelm, to
enrapture, to invade, to usurp, to pillage, and to steal, which are all
characteristics of someone who is taken over by the wetiko virus.
Wetiko
disease is a self-devouring operating system that leaves nothing unmolested. It
is a living death sentence that, if left unchecked, destroys everything within
its dominion, including itself. Wetiko
psychosis ensures that everything is sacrificed on its altar of death and
destruction. From a galactic perspective, our planetary so-called
‘civilization' is a living, spreading outbreak of wetiko psychosis that is threatening to destroy not only its human
host, but the entire planetary biosphere which makes life on earth possible as
well. Speaking of wetikos' ravenous
hunger, Forbes points out, "It's voracious, rapacious, appetite will cause it
to literally eat itself."[viii] Forbes
continues, "The rape of a woman, the rape of a land, and the rape of a people,
they are all the same…Brutality knows no boundaries. Greed knows no limits.
Perversion knows no borders. Arrogance knows no frontiers. Desire knows no
edges. These characteristics all tend to push towards an extreme, always moving
forward once the initial infection sets in."[ix]
Untreated, this psychic infection gradually takes hold of the wetikos' being, corrupting their heart,
poisoning their psychic body politic from within. Like the virus of evil
insinuating itself into the soul in incremental, un-noticed steps, at a certain
point this leukemia of the soul becomes irreversible, inevitably leading to its
host's destruction. The wetiko
virus's pathogenic effects within an individual are a microcosmic fractal
iteration of the collective, macrocosmic dynamics of the disease; how wetiko works within each of us is synchronistically
mirrored with stunning perfection in how it is playing out throughout the
greater body politic.
Unchecked by a psychic vaccine, the
disease, like an addiction running rampant, is progressive and is thus getting
worse over time. Forbes writes, "The wetikos
destroyed Egypt and Babylon and Athens and Rome and Tenochitlan and perhaps now
they will destroy the entire earth. But neither the ‘junkie' looking for money
for a shot of heroin nor the capitalists destroying Amazonian forests for big
profits are able to stop their own destructive behavior."[x] Wetikos can't help themselves. Suffering
from a compulsion to destroy, if left to themselves they are unable to stop
their suicidal behavior. Having lost their internal freedom, they are
singularly lacking in options.
Having mesmerized themselves, wetikos have, ultimately speaking,
become their own victim. Running like a tape that loops back into itself in
endless iterations, their self-hypnosis is dedicated to forever forestalling
the prospect of the gnawing anxiety of confronting and dealing with the
insanity of what they are doing, both to themselves and others. Like the
subject of a master hypnotist, their attention becomes attenuated, narrowed and
constricted to their limited and particularized viewpoint. After a certain
point, wetiko disease becomes so
completely internalized that the person so afflicted, as if compulsively
repeating their initial moment of trauma, moment by moment recreates their own
psychosis without any external stimulus at all. Having unconsciously identified
with the aggressor, they become their own perpetrator, police state and control
system. Their pathological inner state in-forms their actions in the outer
world, which becomes the channel through which their ravaged inner landscape
plays itself out and takes on embodied form.
An inner sickness of the soul, wetiko is unique in that it is a
boundary-dissolving disease, collapsing the distinction between the inner and
the outer, between dreaming and waking. Wetiko
nonlocally materializes itself in, as and through the medium of the outside
world, which becomes the canvas for its full-bodied revelation of itself. Wetiko nonlocally in-forms, gives shape
to and configures events in the world so as to synchronistically express
itself, which is to say that just like in a dream, events in the outer world
are symbolically expressing an inner, psychological situation (please see my
article The World is
Psyche). Wetiko can only be
‘seen' when we snap out of our literal way of interpreting our experience and
start seeing with symbolically informed awareness. At the same time, wetiko itself can become the impetus for
expanding our consciousness and recognizing that the world itself is a
continually unfolding, living revelation of itself that is speaking
symbolically, which is the language of dreams.
A Cult(ure) of Madness
People have to be cured of their
spiritual sickness before they can build a just society. Forbes says, "to
adjust to a wetiko society is to
become insane."[xi]
It is no great accomplishment to adapt to and be considered sane in and by an
insane society. The culture of wetiko
promotes the systematic destruction of the human heart, which when fully internalized,
alienates us from everything in ourselves, save what reproduces the conditions
of the system. Adopting the values of our oppressors, however, insures the
continuation of our own dehumanization. The system is set up to be a set up
such that, to quote Forbes, "a person oppressed by wetikos adopts the values of wetikos
as he ‘rises' in position. The wetikos
taught him well, but they taught him falsely."[xii] Big Wetikos learn to exploit every situation
to their advantage and sacrifice in themselves everything that doesn't advance
this motive. To become a "Big Wetiko,"
Forbes comments, "requires a lot of back-scratching, back-stabbing, drinking,
and maneuvering. It also requires the corruption of other young men (and
women), who in turn, will become hooked into the system."[xiii]
Speaking about how "very, very easy" it is to become a wetiko in our society because of all of the perks and incentives,
Forbes writes, "they do get promoted, they do get better salaries, and they do
get testimonials (and a gold watch) when they ‘retire.'"[xiv]
Because of all of the ‘benefits' of the role, there is not merely a passive
disinterest, but rather, an active resistance and counter-incentive for wetikos to self-reflect, a contraction
which simply feeds their compulsion and further reinforces their addiction to
power.
Forbes writes, "the wetiko disease has so corrupted European
thinking (at least of the ruling groups) that
wetiko behavior and wetiko goals are regarded as the very fabric of European
evolution…if we continue to allow the wetikos
to define reality in their insane way we will never be able to resist or
curtail the disease."[xv] It
should be noted that indigenous people are not free from the wetiko virus as well. There are
indigenous cultures that are governed by wisdom, but there are also indigenous
cultures that are ruled by wetiko. We
should be careful to not romanticize and idealize indigenous, aboriginal
cultures as opposed to European cultures, which would be too simplistic, and
dualistic of a view.[xvi] When wetikos possess power in any culture, or
more accurately, when power possesses them, they are in a position to
influence, define and create a certain level of reality that, though based on
falsehood, operates as if it is real. In words that would be just as relevant
with regards to the current Obama administration, author Ron Suskind quotes a
neocon in the previous Bush administration as saying, "We're an empire now, and
when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality?judiciously, as you will?we'll act again, creating other new
realities."[xvii]
If left in positions of power, wetikos
will ultimately become and dream up into full-bodied materialization their own,
as well as our, worst nightmare into reality.
Evil can take many forms – political,
social, economic, militaristic, and psychological. Forbes says, "predation can
lurk under many guises, such as ‘patriotism,' profit-seeking, ‘protecting our
way of life,' and ‘investment returns.'"[xviii] Many
‘isms' themselves are simply thought-forms used by wetikos themselves to justify their rape, criminality, murder and
evil. Wrapping their cause in the mantle of goodness allows Big Wetikos, who are in fact full-fledged
predators, to sleep at night, seemingly guilt-free. In a form of
self-entrancement, they have so thoroughly convinced themselves of the
rightness of their actions that they rarely, if ever, have any ethical qualms
about what they are doing. Where the evil of wetiko is endemic, there tends to be an ethical, developmental
arrest in both individuals and throughout the society.
Full-blown, big Wetikos are morally insane, and abuse power simply because they
can. This is why, to quote Forbes, "the development of rigid patriarchy follows
the wetiko disease."[xix] In
other words, cultures dominated by wetikos
tend to organize themselves around the calcified, archetypal mythic pattern of
the ‘negative patriarchy,' which, simply put, is based on domination over
others (read about The Archetype of
the Negative Father). To quote Forbes, "'Might makes right' is the wetiko belief, but it is often
accompanied by self-serving doctrines of ‘divine will,' ‘manifest destiny,'
‘providence,' ‘the march of civilization,' ‘doing God's work,' ‘stopping
communism,' or comparable slogans."[xx] These
slogans are the mantras, or words of power, by which the collective spell of
group-think is disseminated throughout the collective psyche. Any
rationalization will do, as long as it serves as cover for the wetikos to continue to exploit others,
centralize power and feed their sickness.
Interconnected Roles in a Nonlocal Field
Speaking about how our species has
never been able to get a handle on what is at the root of our self-destructive
behavior, Forbes comments, "Unfortunately, most of these efforts have failed
because they have never diagnosed the wetiko
as an insane person whose disease is extremely contagious. Nor have they,
generally, understood that the [seemingly] non-wetikos,
whether flunkies, pimps, or the most oppressed, are often ‘secret carriers' of
the disease."[xxi]
The wetiko virus can only thrive in
the global human family if, just like in any family system, each member enables
and is complicit in the abuse. Being a field phenomenon, wetiko incarnates by em-bodying itself through various
interconnected, form-fitted roles arising in the field, all at different stages
of the disease. Each of these figures are various re-presentations of the
multiple faces of the underlying pathogen. Wetikos
can be hard to recognize because the people who are its instruments seem like
normal, well-intentioned, innocent looking people, and yet, it is these
seemingly regular people, just like you and me, who often become the ‘secret
carriers' of the disease. To the extent that we are not aware of this
insidious, nonlocal, psychological disease, both in others and potentially
within ourselves, we can very easily become its ‘secret carriers,' its
unwitting accomplices.
Forbes writes, "But this we must
emphasize over and over, that the whole
wetiko disease is not limited to the brutes and goons who handle the gun, the
lash or the instruments of torture. The nice people in the offices, the
typists, the lab technicians, the clerks and, of course, the owners, directors,
stockholders, senators, generals and presidents who use, profit from, and feed
on human exploitation are also cannibals to one degree or another."[xxii] The
Big wetikos could never get away with
the murder that they do without ‘the nice people in the offices' enabling them.
These ‘typists, lab technicians and clerks' are just ‘following orders,' and
yet, are complicit in the insidious evil that is being spread throughout the
world with their co-operation. Modern, corporate, technological systems are set
up to distance us, both physically and psychologically, between what we do for
a living and the ultimate, potentially destructive consequences of our actions.
Even ‘the nice people in the offices,' people just like you and me, to the
extent that we are not aware of how we are feeding, and being fed by, the wetiko virus, are tiny cogs in the great
predatory machine, complicit in the impersonal evil of the faceless system and
in the destruction it wreaks upon all life.
Wetiko
is an entity that becomes co-dependently entangled and inextricably coupled
with others in its environment in order to survive. It serves us to
differentiate the interdependent roles in the field which ‘conspire' (which
literally means to ‘breathe together') to create and sustain the wetiko disease. All of these figures
collaboratively enable the bug of wetiko to
play out its reign of (t)error. Forbes writes, "The most guilty of the wetikos are, I would think, those who
mastermind, justify and profit most from such systems. Such persons are the
‘master predators."[xxiii] The
full-blown, Big Wetikos, the ‘master
predators' in positions of power, can be suave and sophisticated, with refined
tastes, highly intelligent, educated people, with offices in places like New
York and London, and can be highly respected by society, all of which makes
their malady hard to recognize. Others are cast in the role of ‘protecting' the
abuser?the master predator's
handlers, minions, sycophants, enablers, supporters and followers?while others are complicit by simply
remaining silent and looking away. Some pick up the role of feeling powerless,
thinking ‘what's the use?' Some politically active sorts can pick up the role
of attempting to fight the disease in a way that simply strengthens the
diabolical polarization in the field, which just feeds and is the signature of
the disease itself (please see my article Spiritually-Informed
Political Activism). Whatever the role, it's all just multiple guises
wearing the same underlying uni-form.
All wetikos,
including the Big Wetikos, are
themselves just pawns in the hand of the underlying archetype
itself, however. It is like when Toto, in The
Wizard of Oz pulls away the curtain, but instead of their being a man
behind the curtain, there is no one there but the formless archetype itself. If
the master predators are removed from their positions of power, but if the
underlying system which spawned them remains in place and not dealt with, over
time others will simply pick up their ‘vacant,' and vacuous roles. These
power-mad roles exist as potentials in the field waiting to be filled,
fleshed-out and incarnated, as these roles are an expression of the full
spectrum of possibilities implicit in the underlying field, reflecting, as it
always does, this same range of potentials within ourselves. The nonlocal field is seamless, and the roles do not, and cannot,
exist in isolation, but rather, in co-relation to each other, as well to the
whole field itself, in an interconnected web of infinite relatedness.
It is important to see the whole
system, rather than only fixating on, and demonizing, one of its parts as
separate from the whole (please see my article Danger: Fasci-Nation
with Bush). Focusing on an individual person is analogous to contemplating
one finger on a glove without recognizing the underlying hand in-forming and
animating all of the interconnected, and fundamentally inseparable fingers in
the glove. To concretize a localized manifestation of the pathology in an
individual would be analogous to only seeing the circle that a
three-dimensional sphere makes as it passes through a two-dimensional plane.
The circle is a lower-level reflection of a higher-dimensional entity (the
‘sphere' of wetiko's influence), just
as the person taken over by the wetiko
bug is a surface expression of a deeper, more fundamental pathogen that
pervades the underlying field. To use another example, the person momentarily
afflicted with wetiko is like a
shadow on a wall?cast from a globe
hanging from the ceiling?relative to the
globe. The shadow on the wall is a re-presentation and projection of the
higher, three-dimensional entity of the globe into a lower dimension of space.
Studying the shadow within its proper context relative to the globe is the way
of understanding the object casting the shadow (the higher-dimensional entity
of the ‘global' wetiko psychosis). In
these examples, the point is not to focus on the personal manifestation of the
disease, but rather, to see the deeper, nonlocal field that is giving shape to,
in-forming and pervading the particular, localized outbreaks of the disease in
the greater body politic. Seeing, in Jung's words, "the numinous character of
the reality in the background,"[xxiv] IS
the very expansion of consciousness which becomes the doorway connecting us to
a deeper part of ourselves, as well as to each other. Recognizing the
underlying field paves the road to healing.
In the culture of wetiko, people at various stages of the disease pick up seemingly
different and separate roles from each other, but when the deeper, underlying
pattern comes into focus and is seen, it can be recognized that all of these
inter-locking roles fit together like a higher-order mosaic. This process
couldn't play itself out without all of its parts reciprocally co-arising
relative to each other. The whole field, with all its myriad, fluid and unfixed
roles?each of us at various
moments in time picking up the different roles?are
mutually conditioning each other in a seamless, interpenetrating net of
relations, as if appendages of a higher-dimensional organism that is revealing
itself through our nonlinearly orchestrated and coordinated interplay.
Stepping Out of Separation
The in-spirit-ed organism of wetiko is a field phenomenon, and can
only be seen when we snap out of the illusion of imagining we exist as a
separate self and recognize and become conversant with the deeper, underlying
and more fundamental nonlocal field in which we are all indissolubly
inter-connected. "The field," as Einstein once succinctly put it, "is the only
reality." In modern physics, the field?the
invisible organizing principle of the universe?has
become more fundamental than matter. Instead of relating to any part of the
field as an isolated entity, it's important to contemplate the entire
interdependent field as the ‘medium' through which wetiko manifests itself. The native American concept of wetiko disease is a social phenomenon, a
relational dynamic of the field itself that can not be understood, and does not
exist in isolated individuals apart from the social milieu in which they move,
interact and have their being. Seeing the nonlocal field drives a stake into
the very heart of the prevailing scientific, materialistic perspective, which
ironically enough, still attempts to see the world as ‘machine.'
Seeing the field, and stepping out of
the perspective that we are separate from each other converges into being the
same experience. Seeing ‘through' the illusion of the separate self, rather
than seeing ‘through the separate self' as a lens through which we view the
world, entails recognizing that even the full-blown wetikos, the master predators themselves, are not separate from us.
The Big Wetikos are fully em-body-ing,
in person-ified form, a pathological tendency that exists in potential within
ourselves. It is as if they are the externalized materialization of this
potential within ourselves that we've projected outside of ourselves and
literally collectively dreamed up into manifestation. Recognizing this
generates compassion for this part of ourselves. It is only through compassion
that we immunize ourselves from the virus.
Paradoxically, although wetiko disease doesn't exist in isolated
individuals separate from the field, someone taken over by the wetiko bug, though merely its instrument
and not, in the ultimate sense ‘who they are,' literally can be said to be ‘the
incarnation' of the disease in human form. The person so possessed (think of,
like I did in my book, George W. Bush, as one example) is the ‘revelation' of the pathology in living flesh and
blood. The person so stricken is showing us, in fully embodied, personified
form, the underlying infrastructure and dynamics of this trans-human disease.
When someone is so possessed, they are the local crystallization ‘in form' of a
nonlocal, and ultimately ‘formless' phenomenon. The person taken over has been
dreamed up into materialization to be a living, breathing ‘symbol' of the
nonlocal disease, an embodied reflection of an archetypal, and yet
pathological, part of ourselves. Recognizing this is to realize that this
person doesn't exist as an isolated, discrete entity, a skin-encapsulated ego,
separate from the surrounding field. Seeing the person so possessed in their
true context?as literally
inseparable from all of us?becomes
a portal through which we can refine our inner vision and see through the
transparent illusion of the separate self. Seeing that the person so taken over
is not separate from the field is a reflection of our own condition. Seeing the
other's transpersonal nature enables us to not person-alize ourselves.
Holographically enfolded within the
psyche of every human being, the wetiko virus
pervades and underlies the entire field of consciousness, and can therefore
potentially manifest through any one of us at any moment if we are not mindful.
The wetiko bug is something that we
all have unconsciously acted out in our lives at one time or another. We've all
had our wetiko ‘moments,' that's just
the way it works. Recognizing this cultivates humility, which helps to
psychically immunize us from the pernicious effects of the disease. This
realization ultimately collapses the boundary between those who have the
disease and those who don't. Wetiko's
nonlocal nature ultimately makes the question of who has the disease
irrelevant, as we all have it to varying degrees, or rather, it has us. We are
all in the soup together. This realization engenders both compassion and
forgiveness. This does not mean, however, that the Big Wetikos are not ethically, spiritually, and legally responsible for the unimaginable carnage they have caused.
The primary line of distorted code
through which the wetiko virus
deviates our mind is the presumption of the separate self. The un-reflected
upon acceptance of the axiom of separation is what makes all of the other
delusions that make up wetiko
possible. Seeing the diabolical nature of the disease entails realizing that it
is the bifurcating ‘us' vs. ‘them' mind of duality which splits the world into
opposites, that is itself the generative root of the wetiko germ.
This series of articles began by
invoking the spirit of wetiko through
our shared act of inquiry. As we shed light on wetiko, we become sensitive to its movements within ourselves. At
this point the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, for there is no place for
the spirit to hide. We are then in a position of having access in our lucid,
self-reflective awareness to a sacred vessel which can nourish the very spirit which
is to be venerated. To come full circle and successfully accomplish the
original, healing intent of our magic ritual, the hidden, powerful spirit of wetiko needs to be ‘contained;' this is
the archetypal point behind the sacred alchemical idea of a mystical vessel
which transforms the entire universe.
As people who are becoming wise to the
wiles of wetiko help each other to
step out of the illusion of separation together, a psychic alchemical
container that is greater than the sum of its parts gets created. This holy
grail-like vessel of collectively shared lucidity is reciprocally conjured up
through our shared realization. This higher-dimensional mystic container is
forever stimulating, stabilizing and strengthening itself in a positive
feedback loop which literally gives birth to and inspires the creative spirit.
This jewel-like higher-dimensional entity composed of consciousness itself is a
lucidity generator that is tapping into the zero point energy of the mind, a
form of higher-mind technology that attracts the rest of the universe into
itself. When we recognize that we exist not apart from, but relative to each
other, our connection with each other is ‘hermetically sealed' with the stamp
of Hermes. We then relate with each other in such a way so that none of our
projections unconsciously leak out into the world, for the simple reason that
the world is recognized to be our projection. This is the very realization
which bonds us together and through which we are united with the world, each
other and ourselves. Becoming ‘tight' in this way, we are ‘blessed' by the
master magician ‘Hermes/Mercury,' the God of the sacred art of alchemy (please
see my article The
Sacred Art of Alchemy). ‘The Force' is then with us. Empowered, we are able
to trans-fix, trans-mute, trans-form and liberate the vampiric spirit of wetiko, while simultaneously snapping
out of our en-trance-ment of ourselves.
Emptiness
Supposedly the greatest ruse of the
devil is to convince us that he doesn't exist. Or on the other hand, is the
suggestion that the devil does exist that is implicit in the previous statement
a deception of the devil (who is, after all, considered a liar), and as such,
is a disguised form in which the devil has insinuated himself into not only our
conversation, but into the world at large? It is important to shed light on
this murky area: An evil, archetypal figure like the devil doesn't exist in the
way we have been imagining he does if we have been imagining that he exists
objectively, as something apart from ourselves.
The devilish wetiko virus, like a vampire, if left to its own devices, would
die, as it is only able to exist if there is someone outside of itself on whom
it can feast. A vampire has no intrinsic, independent, substantial existence in
its own right, it only exists relative to us. The pathogenic, vampiric,
mind-parasite called wetiko is
nothing in itself, yet, it has a ‘reality' such that it can destroy our
species. The fact that something that only exists as a function of ourselves
can destroy us is pointing at the incredibly vast invisible power that is
inherent within our being. Ultimately speaking, in wetiko disease we are not being infected by a physical, objectively
existing virus outside of ourselves, but rather, the origin of the wetiko psychosis is within us. The fact
that a vampire is not reflected by a mirror can also mean that what we need to
see is that there's nothing, no-thing to see, other than ourselves. The fact that
wetiko is the expression of something
inside of us means that the cure for wetiko
is within us as well.
In the Gnostic Dialogue of the Savior, it says, "Whoever does not know the root of
evil is no stranger to it."[xxv] Wetiko forces upon us the evolutionary
responsibility to come to terms with the evil within our own hearts. To the
extent we have not rooted out the wetiko
bug within ourselves we are complicit in the co-creation of the evil playing
out in the world. The part of us that is colluding in the creation of a
collective psychosis like wetiko is
the part of us that is mad, for why else would we be doing this? To the extent
we're not fully awake, we each have a part of us that's mad, which gets acted
out in our life. How can we not have a part of us that's mad, living in a world
gone mad, a world that is not separate from, but rather, a reflection of
ourselves? It is only by confronting what is insane and inhuman in ourselves
that we become truly human. It is important to face how we have been deviated
by wetiko, for if we cannot see how
we have been set off course, we can't orient ourselves to find our true path in
life. Seeing how we've been led astray is a form of illumination. To see how wetiko operates with our co-operation is
to gain critical insight into the elusive workings of our own mind.
We capture within ourselves and truly
‘see' the nature of wetiko disease?‘Vampire/Cannibal
Psychosis'?when we realize that,
just like a dream, its full-bodied manifestation in the world theater is a
reflection of a process going on deep within our very soul. We are all dreaming
up the wetiko epidemic together.
Seeing through our experience in this way gives world events a certain transparency,
as well as rendering us transparent to
ourselves. Seeing through ourselves makes it unlikely that we would fall
prey to and be seduced by any wetiko
inspired impulses that pulsate through us. This intimacy with ourselves enables
us to step into and embody a role in the field of being like a ‘psychic T-cell'
that helps to heal the malignant cancer in the collective body politic of the
world soul. Seeing the dreamlike nature of the world and ourselves helps to
generate a culture of compassion, which is a ‘wetiko dissolver' par
excellence. Compassion can, however, when necessary, set a fierce boundary,
displaying itself in the most fearsome of ways.
The Solution
Just as a vampire can't stand the light
of day, a bug like wetiko can't stand
to be seen. Flooding light on wetiko's
machinations takes away its seeming autonomy and alleged power over us, such
that it can no longer compel us to act it out unconsciously. Paradoxically,
‘seeing' this vampiric parasite is to relate to it as other than ourselves,
while at the same time recognizing it within ourselves. Though the vampire is a
figure within us, it is not us. In
differentiating ourselves from the vampire, we recognize the difference between
ourselves and it. Seeing the vampire, we don't identify with our subjective
experience of the vampire within. This is to say that in seeing the vampire, we
free ourselves from our unconscious identification with and possession by it,
and step back into ourselves.
Forbes laments, "One of the tragic
characteristics of the wetiko
psychosis is that it spreads partly by
resistance to it. That is, those who try to fight wetikos sometimes, in order to survive, adopt wetiko values. Thus, when they ‘win,' they lose, or at least, the
people lose."[xxvi]
When we see people who are taken over by wetiko
and we feel superior to them, our feeling of superiority is itself a symptom of
the disease. If we unconsciously
react against wetiko, having
judgement, anger, hatred, etc., we are then acting out, however
well-intentioned, the same process of shadow projection that underlies the wetiko disease in the first place –
which is to dissociate from, project outside of ourselves, and react to our own
evil. We are then unconsciously reacting to the unconscious part of ourselves
which the wetikos embody. This
re-action is an unconscious ritualistic invocation and re-enactment of the
initial impulse within ourselves of turning away from and contracting against a
part of ourselves. This is the timeless, primal act which called forth and
spawned the spirit of wetiko in the
first place. To the extent we are unaware of what we are doing, we, as ‘reps'
for wetiko, are compulsively
re-enacting our trauma, participating in re-creating the wetiko virus in this very moment. We are then playing out our
unresolved internal affairs in the outside world by, in and through our
reaction, unwittingly becoming a vector that is carrying the wetiko bug out into the world (please
see my article, Triggered
by Evil). Instead of unconsciously reacting and projecting the shadow
outside of ourselves, when we consciously relate to and take responsibility for
the evil within ourselves, we are energetically withdrawing and dis-investing
from our complicity in the continual re-animation of evil in the world.
The way to engage with wetiko disease is to (at)tend to what it
triggers within us (please see The Lion's Gaze).
Just as the way to cut off the head of the mythic Medusa is to look at her
reflections in the mirror-shield, the way to stalk the vampiric entity of wetiko is to track and sense its
fingerprints within ourselves by looking into the mirror of our own mind. The
evil of wetiko can be too much to
stare at directly, however, just as looking at the snake-haired Medusa face on
turns us to stone. Vampires are ‘petrifying,' which means both ‘terrifying,' as
well as ‘paralyzing' and ‘turning to stone.' They petrify their victim, just
like a mouse becomes immobilized by the transfixing gaze of the serpent.
Vampires are not a creature to be messed with by the frivolous. Mapping wetikos nonlocal footprints, both out in
the world and in the co-responding places within ourselves that are being
touched, is to discover the nonlocal multi-dimensional ‘anatomy' of wetiko. It is impossible to encounter wetiko and not be activated, as wetiko's nonlocal force-field is
activating by its very nature, in that it is co-extensive and interwoven with
our own. Our unconscious, knee-jerk reactivity is the primary way that the wetiko psychosis regenerates and
propagates itself in the field. Like a pathogen invading a body, this virulent
psychic bug strikes and hooks us through our weakest point in the unconscious,
the tenderest and most vulnerable spot within ourselves through which we are
most likely to re-act.
Wetiko
is like a psychic nautilus machine that is continually ‘working' us. Humanity's
highest virtues are called upon when we are confronted by evil. Encoded within
the evil of the wetiko virus is its
own psychic vaccine, a potential inoculation against our own ignorance and
laziness, which if not overcome, will overcome us. The wetiko bug's existence requires us to strengthen our muscle of
discernment. The virus demands that we cultivate impeccability within
ourselves, or we don't stand a chance. Wetiko
literally demands that we step into our power and become resistant to its
oppression such that we discover how to step out of bondage and become free, or
else! Instead of a typical virus mutating
so as to become resistant to our attempts at healing it, the wetiko virus
forces us to mutate relative to it. It is as though the evil of wetiko is itself the instrument of a
higher intelligence. This higher power, through the revelation and
understanding of wetiko, connects us
to a sacred, creative source within ourselves. The wetiko bug is the greatest catalytic force of evolution ever known?as well as not known?to humanity.
Naming is a magical act, typically done
when something new is born into our life. Like Adam naming the animals in the
Garden, we have to name something before it can be formally ‘discovered' and
brought into our shared collective cartography. It was only by naming these
creatures that Adam could differentiate and distinguish himself from them and
realize who he was. Finding the
name for this higher-dimensional, malignant virus of the psyche helps us to
more easily recognize it and get a ‘handle' on it, which is the first step in
taking away its destructive power over us. Seeing wetiko and calling it by its rightful name initiates a process that
resigns it to the ranks of the unemployed, leading to the wetikonomy
that it animates being put out of business. The energy that was being invested
and bound up in feeding the wetiko
pathogen then returns to nourish and be nourished by the creative wholeness of
the psyche. Naming something creates ‘currency' in the economy of the psyche.
To name something is to evoke it, to call it out, which is an expression of an
intrinsic, magical power that we all have within us. This is related to the Australian
Aboriginal belief that we ‘sing' the world into being – that we are creating as
we name things.
Understanding the meaning of the name ‘wetiko' is a form of exorcism. Jung
says, "For mankind it was always like a deliverance from a nightmare when the
new name was found." It will serve us greatly as we introduce the word ‘wetiko' into our planetary dialogue,
making wetiko part of our day to day
vocabulary. In ‘spell'-ing a word, we are casting a spell, calling forth a
spirit, and creating a universe, all while discovering our ability to name. In
divining the true name we are de-‘literal'-izing language, as we create
language to ‘symbol'-ize our experience. The word wetiko, being a sacred name, is like a mantra, a word of power, in
that the speaking of it empowers the idea. Let us therefore ‘spread the word.'
We are only able to name ‘wetiko'
when we see, and register, its nonlocal
nature, both throughout the world and within ourselves. This can only be done
when we ourselves become acquainted with our nonlocal nature, to the part of us
that is woven into both the evil of wetiko
and the wholeness of the divine. Like that great maxim of medicine states, "Do
not attempt to cure what you do not understand." The famous Greek philosopher
Socrates reminds us that if we want to understand something, we first must name
it. Naming something means to find our experience of its nature within
ourselves. Indigenous, wisdom-based cultures understand the exorcistic power of
finding the right name of a ‘demon,' which is precisely what they would
understand the wetiko pathogen to be
(please see The
Daemonic).
Its simultaneously diabolical and
mercurial energy makes the Native American idea of wetiko disease incredibly hard to describe in words. Whether we
refer to this trickster-like entity as a virus, parasite, tapeworm, vampire or
a demon, or call it wetiko disease or
malignant
egophrenia doesn't matter. These various names are interchangeable, as they
are naming one and the same thing. There is no one definitive model for this
disease, however, as each model has both its utility as well as its limits.
When all of these models are combined and looked at together, it gives us a
greater resolution and capacity to see what no one particular model by itself
can reveal.
The Idea of a Cure
Finding the right name(s) invokes the
sacred, creative and transformative power of the ‘Word.' Wetiko is the word made flesh in its most depraved form. In finding
the name, however, we are accessing the divinely sponsored power of the word to
create an idea, which is a living
psychic organism of real value and merit, with an intrinsic power all its own.
Ideas are ways of regarding things, the means by which we see, as well as
perspectives through which we view the world. The word ‘idea,' etymologically
speaking, has to do with both ‘to see' as well as ‘to know.' In other words, a
novel idea opens our inner eye and helps us know by giving us in-sight into
something previously unconscious. What Plato called the "eyes of the soul,"
ideas are the modes of consciousness through which we envision and create our
life. In finding the right name(s), we are impregnating and incubating a novel
idea. We can then spread and give birth to our meme by sharing it, as we create
our own mind anti-virus, a living antigen to the heretofore unrecognized
mind-virus of wetiko. As Communist
China's Chairman Mao openly confessed, the one thing he was most afraid of was
a new idea. For nothing is more powerful than a magical idea whose time has
come.
Let's spread the word.
May
these words be of benefit for all beings.
[i] Forbes,
Jack, Columbus and Other Cannibals, p.
ix.
[ii]
Ibid., p. 24.
[iii]
Ibid., p. 43.
[iv]
Ibid., p. 60.
[v] People
taken over and possessed by the wetiko pathogen?‘full-blown
wetikos'?might be petty tyrants at home or at
work but might not wield real power in the world. What Forbes refers to as "Big
Wetikos," however, are full-blown wetikos who have climbed the wetiko ladder, jumped through the wetiko hoops, and have risen in the
ranks. ‘Big wetikos' (be they the
super wealthy, CEO's of corporations, bank presidents, or leaders of
nation-states) find themselves occupying positions of power where they can
influence and control events in our world so as to game the system.
[vi] Forbes,
Jack, Columbus and other Cannibals,
p. 24.
[vii]
Ibid., p. 188.
[viii]
Ibid., p. 164.
[ix]
Ibid., p. xvi.
[x]
Ibid., p. 164.
[xi]
Ibid, p. 173.
[xii]
Ibid, p. 60.
[xiii]
Ibid., p. 120.
[xiv]
Ibid., p. 60.
[xv]
Ibid., p. 38.
[xvi] I
want to thank Jonathan Zap for this clarification in a comment that he wrote
after Part 1 of this series. To quote Zap, "There's an anthropologist with a
lecture on ted.com who provides considerable evidence that the per capita war
death rate of an indigenous rainforest tribe is much higher than that of
Western Civilization (even during the 20th Century). Western Civilization
because of its far greater novelty magnifies the outer edge of light and the
outer edge of dark," (please see zaporacle.com for more of his writings)
[xvii]
From the article by Ron Suskind titled "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of
George W. Bush," in the New York Times magazine of October 17, 2004.
[xviii]
Forbes, Jack, Columbus and other
Cannibals, p. 150.
[xix]
Ibid., p. 42.
[xx]
Ibid., p. 48.
[xxi]
Ibid., p. 171.
[xxii]
Ibid., p. 68.
[xxiii]
Ibid., p. 68.
[xxiv]
Jung, CW 10, Civlization in Transition,
par. 886.
[xxv]
(II, 5, 134.5-20)
[xxvi] Forbes,
Columbus and other Cannibals, p.
61.
Image by Frostnova, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
