The Transubstantiation of Formative Virtue and The Consecrated Eucharist

In John 2:1–11, Jesus is said to have changed water into wine.

Early Christians referred to the Eucharistic elements, during ceremonial Mass, as “The Body and Blood of Jesus” which were represented symbolically as unleavened bread known as a communion wafer and red wine made from grapes respectively. The Didache, one of the earliest Christian texts outside the New Testament to speak of the Eucharist says, “Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord, for concerning this also the Lord has said, “Give not that which is holy to the dogs.”

Image: Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius of Antioch, a founding church father and the priest who would systematically compile the Bible as we now have it today, wrote to the Roman Christians in AD 106 saying: “I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterward of the seed of David and Abraham, and I desire the drink of God, namely His Blood, which is the incorruptible love and eternal life.”

When the plate of unleavened bread and the cup of red wine are consecrated by the priest during Mass, the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation is believed to have occurred. That is, they believe that an actual changing of the bread and wine into the nourishing substance of Jesus Christ himself has taken place. This is a symbolic ritual that demonstrates to all who observe, the faith of the followers’ belief in the word and teaching of the one true God and his only begotten Son whom he sent to save us from our sins through an ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

Dante Alighieri, who wrote The Divine Comedy, in the Purgatorio speaks of this idea of Formative Virtue. Dante explains to his readers, Formative Virtue is the part of the body’s blood that is responsible for sperm production and the energy transfer that is used to create life (Canto XXV). He explains that Formative Virtue never enters the veins and remains in the genitalia. The idea of Formative Virtue, which is a philosophy that closely resembles the transfer of DNA through the process of meiosis, demonstrates there was a remedial understanding in genetics and scientific knowledge by earlier Catholic followers that blood, as a life-giving force, was capable of transmitting genetic characteristics to offspring. Dante explains through his character Statius in Canto XXV, that the process of Virtue Informative occurs in the “natural vase” (a woman’s womb) when “that part of the blood that creates life” (sperm) enters. It is in this “vaginal vase” where the two types of blood intermingle to create another unique life. Like Sigmund Freud, it was also believed that the female played a “passive” part in all of this and that the male played an “active” role. And through the male’s “active” role, Formative Virtue would be created in the soul of the offspring when life first begins in the woman’s womb. Here we see the misogynistic theme of a male-patterned dominant authority that places the male at the head of the household, and the one being totally responsible for passing the virtues of his heart to his offspring since the females are “passive” to their male counterparts one and only authority. Thus, the logic seemed to be females fully lack this powerful capability of transferring divine knowledge or “divine goodness.”

Statius explains further to Dante, much like a sea-fungus, when the reorganization process takes place in the womb during early gestation, the power of Formative Virtue comes not from the female, but from “the powers whose seed it is.” That is, a sea-fungus will regenerate into another sea-fungus, likewise, a heart full of evil virtues will regenerate into another heart full of evil virtues. Like begets like. “Nature is intent on all its members.” This idea is expressed in Luke 6:43–45 when Jesus says “good trees produce good fruits and likewise, bad trees produce bad fruits.” Thus, the primal Motor, God, brings life into the soul by breathing intellectual life into it. “For without God, nothing is possible”.

It was believed that it was only through faith in God and Jesus Christ, through the study of the bible and one’s faith, one was capable of producing good fruit. As a result, the Motor or God, thru the active male role during copulation brings life into the soul of his offspring and creates three aspects of the soul; (1) Memory, (2) Intelligence, and (3) Will. When freed from our earthly bodies, early Catholics believed Memory, Intelligence, and Will becomes more active and upon death, the Informative Virtue of the body draws on the air around it to produce a visible aerial body or “ghostly” like an apparition. From this philosophy the doctrine of transubstantiation evolved and belief that the dead can walk among us on earth in an ethereal form. This is where belief in God is a schizophrenic symptom. Ghosts and God cannot be proven and so, according to the psychiatric community, represent classic schizophrenia.

Ideologically Motivated Violence

Sir John Falstaff. Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character in four of William Shakespeare’s plays; Henry IV (Part I), Henry IV (Part II), Henry V, and Merry Wives of Windsor. Sir John Falstaff’s character is based on the non-fictional character of Sir John Oldcastle who was a distinguished soldier that served in the Welsh wars and who became a martyr of the Lollards, a late medieval English sect derived from the teachings of John Wycliffe. Oldcastle was less Falstaff-like than how Shakespeare chooses to portray him. That is, as a fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight who spends most of his time drinking at the Boar’s Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. However, Falstaff, like Oldcastle, was a friend of King Henry V. Oldcastle had befriended “Hal” in the Welsh wars in which both men served. Through the lens of medieval English politics, it is believed that Oldcastle was probably more widely perceived as a “criminal”.

Eduard von Grützner’s painting of Falstaff

In a confession of his faith, Oldcastle declared his belief in the sacraments and the necessity of penance and true confession, but he would not assent to the orthodox doctrine of the sacrament as stated by the Bishops, nor admit the necessity of confession to a priest. He also said the veneration of images was “the great sin of idolatry”, and, on 25 September, he was convicted as a heretic and sentenced to death for his beliefs but not before escaping several times and being re-captured several times until that faithful day on December 14. On 14 December 1417, he was hung over a fire that would consume the whole gallows. It was not clear whether or not he was burned alive or not.

What made Oldcastle so tenaciously successful in eluding English authority? Secrecy and supporters. The number one characteristic of any successful military campaign is “silent invisibility” and the ability to blend in within a crowd, and possessing secret supporters who hide their allegiance with you. This is how many successful undercover operations operate as well as the clandestine use of electronic targeted harassment and psychotronic torture, the only element that establishes similar types of acts as criminal, rests solely in the power of the ability of spies who keep your secret clandestinely covered up. How you justify killing or murder, even mass murder, depends on which philosophical lens you conduct your analysis.

Here we see a historical reference and a similarity to what we have come to know in modern history as “ideologically motivated violence.” In religious persecutions, where many are killed for adhering to their faith and disobeying the superior ruling orders or ruling class, can be perceived no differently. Religious or political persecutions/executions that are carried out by the more powerful ruling majority or powerless minority are nothing new to human history. We can view these as another example of how conflict is handled, a conflict that was moving towards a change or a revolution within the society by utilizing the enlightened knowledge of evolving philosophical thought based on a different interpretation of Orthodox religious philosophy and the true meaning of Christ’s teachings.

Thus, the transfer of values and virtues (aka Formative Virtue) are not, in fact, actually transferred to Christian followers who consume the consecrated “body and blood” of Christ during Mass. It is transferred during the educational process of learning and study, early child-rearing, and academic learning. This is where Ignatius of Antioch was fully committed to providing the future Christian community with a Bible that expressed, in his opinion, the best teachings and texts that had circulated following the crucifixion of Christ, with the ritual of Mass being more symbolic of the commitment made by Christian followers to Christ than an actual act of cannibalism. It symbolically demonstrates their learned faith and belief in Christ as the Son of God, it also demonstrates that they have digested the teachings of God and Christ and are attempting to actively demonstrate their beliefs to others through direct example. This is the beginning of the transubstantiation process, that process that transforms and elevates lowly men into a higher being with a higher purpose rooted in the best interest of the community and the Church. This is the food that Ignatius wanted future followers to “eat” and “digest”. You might say it was “food” capable of inspiring “ideologically motivated peace.”

Similar to the transfer of values and virtues, that is, the transubstantiation of formative virtue is the transfer of emotional states. Emotional states can be transferred to one another quite readily. Christ addressed this issue in Luke 6:29, “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well.” This is a concept that is at the heart of “the cure” in psychoanalysis and the transfer of emotional states. It is the job of the analyst to guard against emotional triggers that may set him/her off. One of the first signs that a person has done the work of mourning is an objective awareness of how one thinks, and what one says, and how one acts, and if it is not validating or supportive toward another person or persons. I believe this is a continual process and one that is supported in faith-based learning practices that are continued throughout one’s life. It can be said similarly of the continual learning process through reading, writing, and study.

On The Formation of Subjective Power (Part II)

“That there is a God, many deny: for the fool says in his heart, There is no God, Ps. 14.1. But he has left so many signs of himself in the human mind, so many traces of his presence through the whole of nature, that no sane person can fail to realize that he exists.” ~John Milton, Selection from Christian Doctrine, Chapter 2 “On God” (1)                                                                  

Updated: 1/25/2019

The Reality of the Unseen (Part II)

I have two older siblings, an eldest brother and an eldest sister both of whom are deceased. When my eldest brother died tragically in a car accident I felt a presence surround me. As I sat alone in my upstairs bedroom, I suddenly became aware that some one with me. This presence persisted with me for about 3 or 4 days. Then it seemed to have gone. I don’t what it was that I was experiencing just that I felt an unseen presence around me. Since clairsentience is an extra sensory perception we all posses, in order to promote a species survival success as an evolutionary adaption to avoid being eaten by a predator, I wondered if a hidden camera was planted in my home and wondered if someone might be watching me remotely from some clandestine source? I remember the feeling like it was only yesterday. Then, when my eldest sister would die prematurely as well due to complications surrounding heart disease sixteen years later. When she died I did not immediately feel the on-set of any presence. It felt as if she was still alive with us. As if she had not even died. She had graced our home with so much love and many memories and mementos that her essence permeated our living spaces. This was a marked difference in my experience with the “unseen” than when my brother died. My brother, whom we only had intermittent contact, left the nest when me and my twin sibling were only a few years old. He married, had a child, and then went into the military to make something of his life. He had no prospects for college as my parents were uneducated themselves with limited avenues for economic support. After the military, he lived abroad for almost a decade in his lifetime and when he returned home he resided in other states, Maryland and then in West Virginia. Which in my opinion was more of a move away in terms of its remoteness. His life was some what “detached” from the rest of the family’s life. Even though I admired him because he was my “big brother” it turned out there was a lot I was not been aware of about him. The reasons I felt closer to my eldest sister was due to very real socialized gendered reasons. The gendered experience can be quite a unique, yet common, experience. My eldest sister took on the role of “little mother,” a role she would come to resent as she was only 13 at the time.

Perhaps one of the consistent characteristics of many religions is the belief that there is an unseen order. Part of the characteristic of religious ritual is a consistent attenuation to modes of behavior that are in line with the “supreme order” that allow one to be more in line with the supreme goodness of that harmonious system. Part of the psychological peculiarity of religious faith is belief in an object which one cannot see. A belief in an unseen almighty God the Father. A belief in the existence of Eden known as Heaven. A belief in one’s own immortality that allows one to live even after death. The belief in an object we cannot see is a consistent trait found in human behavior though. For example, man has never traveled to the core of the earth yet he believes it to be made up of a liquid mantle and solid iron core. Man believes this liquid rock to be rotating around the core of iron thus producing our electromagnetic sphere that protects the earth from solar radiation. This fundamental belief is a core principle operating in every classroom that teaches environmental physics. And in Part I, I spoke of Plato’s Cave metaphor in which Plato renders the female womb a mute matrix, a non-speaking subject in his philosophical discourse. Woman becomes the “unseen” force that propels men to their future.

Part of the “supreme order” of the human psyche, with regard to family relations and behavior, is the psychoanalytic theory of Oedipus in which Freud outlines the castration complex as well as castration anxiety and to which Sigmund Freud attributes the symptoms he observed in the child’s game of “Fort-Da”; the compulsion to repeat which helps the young child manage the anxiety he feels during times of separation from his mother. (2) The throwing away from him his toy object, only to cry for its return and rejoice upon its glorious reunion. It is also the foundation of our sexuality and it is also found in the manifestation of psychosis in psychiatric disease. This theory helps to support forensic analysis of the criminal mind because it helps us to understand those mechanisms and process which oppress. Michelle Boulous Walker in the Philosophy of the Maternal Body writes:

“I shall argue that psychosis represents a much broader state; it constitutes the parameters of so-called normal masculine identity. This understanding of “normal” psychosis is defined by a masculine desire to be, or stand in for, the mother. It enables us to read the major texts of our patriarchal culture as psychotic texts, i.e., not as deviant or abnormal works, but more poignantly, as “normal” masculine ones.” (3)

Sigmund Freud’s “Fort-da” and the criminal conspiracy of mind control and the many various accounts of individuals’ experience with the “unseen” forces of technological power, otherwise known as electromagnetic frequency is an important one. It is reported that this technology targets individuals’ to the subjective power of another’s will. It is this use of advanced technological tools against victims which are designed to twart, attack, and divert a person life in a systematic orchestration, is of particular relevance when we are discussing the formation of subjective power, the notion of the “unseen” as aspects of the universe and human experience, and the manifestation of religious and secular power which sometimes produce war.

Let us compare, in contrast to concrete religious objects such as the church, the crucifix, the rosary, and holy medallions, the other various abstract objects of religion that remain unseen. Religion is full of abstract notions which prove to have an equal power but are in fact unseen from the naked eye. The abstract words such as “soul”, “God,” and “immortality” cover no distinctive sense-content what-so-ever, it follows that “theoretically speaking they are words devoid of any significance.” (4)This is a very important fundamental statement which was outlined by Emmanuel Kant that “theoretically speaking they are words devoid of any significance” because this idea as a concept set forth by Kant, provides the philosophical foundation of understanding Lyotard’s The Differend. In contrast, let us discuss the various reports of individuals who believe to be targets of a form of mind control or targets of some type of “unseen” advanced technology that tortures them. Let us consider how these reports have never been officially addressed and answered publicly, and, let us too consider Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Differend and discuss the feminist philosophy of rendering an individual a mute matrix as non-speaking subject that usurps their power away from the individual by signifying them as “devoid of any significance,” which has historically been seen in the oppression of women, African Americans, homosexuals, and various other minority groups.

It has been my experience that individuals who report being targets of mind control, have been stigmatized by others with the label of “mental illness.” It is believed the people suffering from these experiences are schizophrenic or are afflicted from some other type of mental illness that involves paranoid delusions. Part of the problem in raising awareness to this invisible crime of victimization is that many people do not understand psychopathy or, perhaps more correctly put, refuse to believe that this, as a criminal activity, is actually occurring. That is, that some invisible enemy can take possession of their body and mind through remote technological means. Since our society has moved into the iGen generation with all its wireless devices and android technology, with all its advancements in medicine and industry, and the fact that we are being “listened” to by the very computers and cell phones we use to assist us in our daily lives, I wonder how one cannot believe in these case reports? For example, the iPhone has a new application that can turn the iPhone into a hearing aid in combination with wireless ear buds. Its purpose was to help two individuals at a restaurant, cafe, or other loud and boisterous location to hear one another in conversation. One could, technically speaking, become a spy by placing their iPhone in a location that the individual wishes to surveil, walk away from their iPhone with their ear buds in place and listen to what is being said. How To Make Your iPhone a Live Listening System

But back to my argument. Let’s look at Lyotard’s The Differend which helps further the philosophical argument of victimization.

“Language” has no exterior because it is not in space. But it can say space. It can say the body. It can say that the body “says” something, that silence speaks.”~Jean-Francois Lyotard (5)

Lyotard’s description of the victim’s dilemma, the paradoxical logic that makes it impossible for the victim to be heard, is the philosophical concept that helps prove guilt in the litigation of wrongdoing. Here is a lengthy quote which captures the victim’s (impossible) trial:

“It is in the nature of a victim not to be able to prove that one has been done a wrong. A plaintiff is someone who has incurred damages and who disposes of the means to prove it. One becomes a victim if one loses these means. One loses them, for example, if the author of the damage turns out directly or indirectly to be one’s judge. The latter has the authority to reject one’s testimony as false or the ability to impede it’s publication. But this is only a particular case. In general, the plaintiff becomes a victim when no presentation is possible of the wrong he or she says he or she has suffered. Reciprocally, the “perfect crime” does not consist in killing the victim or the witnesses (that adds new crimes to the first one and aggravates the difficulty of effacing everything), but rather in obtaining the silence of the witnesses, the deafness of the judges, and the inconsistency (insanity) of the testimony. You neutralize the addressor, the addressee, and the sense of the testimony; then everything is as if there were no referent (damage). If there is nobody to adduce the proof, nobody to admit to it, and/or if the argument which upholds it is judged to be absurd, then the plaintiff is dismissed, the wrong he or she complains of cannot be attested. He or she becomes a victim. If he or she persists in invoking this wrong as if it existed, the others (address or, addressee, expert commentator on the testimony) will easily be able to make him or her pass for mad.” (6)

In The Differend: Phrases in Dispute Lyotard argues that the differend marks a wrong which results in silence; he speaks of this as the violence of silence. It is “a damage accompanied by the loss of the means to prove the damage.” For the philosopher, an agenda that makes it imperative that the philosopher not only identify the domain of radical silence associated with (and marked by) the differend, but more importantly to seek idioms, new ways of saying, this silence.

The differend is, amongst other things, an observation about judgments. It raises difficult political questions about who judges, whose authority is presupposed in such judgments, in fact it questions the applicability of universal criteria of judgement. He argues that: “A wrong results from the fact that the rules of the genre of discourse by which one judges are not those of the judged genre or genres of discourse” and that “a universal rule of judgement between heterogeneous genres is lacking in general.”

For Lyotard, in as much as there is something unable to be phrased, there is something, and this is feeling. Lyotard talks about putting unspeakable phrases into language, and in this he includes the negative phrase of silence. For me, the differend represents the radical silence of reasons and explanations behind the various reports of mind control, the reports of people being tortured and targeted by some form of advanced technology.

There are many people who harbor resentment and hatred towards organized powers of authority like religion and/or political leadership. They look at the history of the various religions and political sovereigns and observe the persecutions, the inquisitions, and bloody wars which have plagued these various organized powers, and so reject its very nature. Religious wars have created great blood shed in search for an absolute position, as too has political sovereigns. It is for this reason, that people who do not believe in the organized power structure of religion consider those that do believe in them mentally ill. They are considered mentally ill because of their blind belief in something that is unseen and can not be proven in concrete terms. I used to be one of those blind faith followers until the advent of my “Inquisition through iGen.”

“Standing in the back of that church, I recognized, uncomfortably, that I needed to be there. Here was a place to weep without imposing tears upon a child; and here was a heterogeneous community that had gathered to sing, to celebrate, to acknowledge common needs, and to deal with what we cannot control or imagine. Yet the celebration in progress spoke of hope; perhaps that is what made the presence of death bearable. Before that time, I could only ward off what I had heard and felt the day before. I returned often to that church, not looking for faith but because, in the presence of that worship and the people gathered there – and in a smaller group that met on weekdays in the church basement for mutual encouragement – my defenses fell away, exposing storms of grief and hope. In that church I gathered new energy, and resolve, over and over, to face whatever awaited us as constructively as possible for Mark, and for the rest of us.” (7)

Why does god endure without being seen? To reiterate, quite simply put, god endures without being seen because of inspired feeling and positive outcomes. Having sentience as a characteristic of the human condition, that is feeling, is the main reason God has endured without being seen. Being a student I will never under estimate the power of the written word. The power that literature possess in influencing religious groups and political movements. I’m reminded of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf which helped to power his abusive totalitarian regime as a Nazi party leader. There is no difference when it comes to the inspired feeling of religious literature or the inspired belief in political manifestos. What we read and digest into our minds can have a profound effect on the outcomes of our individual lives. It is what we are taught or “feed” to understand that allows us to place faith in, or non-belief in that which we are asked to evaluate. The following are some accounts involving the religious experience of the unseen. These are actual account of a person’s religious experience:

“One day, while standing in my living room, I recognized a new feeling. A peculiar feeling I had never felt before. As I stood there I felt like my body was a vessel and that the heavens above had opened. It was at that moment I felt the spirit of god fill me with the power of his being, the power of love. It was the power of unconditional love. As a result I finally felt it disquiet my anxiety and produce in me a calming state of mind.” ~An account from an active bible student studying a religious faith

Another example,

“I felt myself to be in to this fundamental cosmical. It. It was on my side, or I was on Its side, however you please to term it, in the particular trouble, and It always strengthened me and seemed to give me endless vitality to feel Its underlying and supporting presence. In fact, it was an unfailing foundation of living justice, truth, and strength to which I instinctively turned at times of weakness and it always bought me out.” (8)

Here we see two separate religious experiences of inspired feeling with positive outcome.

It is these types of experiences elicited from religious belief, feelings of not being alone in the world and being guided by something larger than ourselves that makes a person believe in the existence of god. This inspired feeling is strong and profound, so much so that when individuals report losing their faith, they report feelings of loss. It is as thou they experienced the death of a loved one. These individuals go into states of mourning. They may experience feelings of being terribly alone, isolated in the world, isolated from a world in which they previously felt connected.

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen as its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.” ~E.M. Forster (9)

Torturing an individual with “unseen” wireless radio signals is the exact opposite of the “pre-Oedipal connection and the “writing in mother’s white ink” that Helene Cixous wrote so poetically about. (10) It is the psychotic script of Freud’s “Fort-da” and the castration complex of Oedipus. It is the act of punitive castration and torture that seeks to imprison and isolate the individual being targeted, even though death may not be instantaneous, they will die prematurely from its side-effects. A person has a U.S. Constitutional right to be formerly addressed, charged, and violation made known to his sentence, free from cruel and unusual forms of punishment.

In Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault discuss the history of the modern penal system. Foucault seeks to analyze punishment in its social context, and to examine how changing power relations affected punishment. He begins by analyzing the situation before the eighteenth century, when public execution and corporal punishment were key punishments, and torture was part of most criminal investigations. Punishment was ceremonial and directed at the prisoner’s body. It was a ritual in which the audience was important. Public execution reestablished the authority and power of the King. Popular literature reported the details of executions, and the public was heavily involved in them. (11)

The eighteenth century saw various calls for reform of punishment. The reformers, according to Foucault, were not motivated by a concern for the welfare of prisoners. Rather, they wanted to make power operate more efficiently. They proposed a theater of punishment, in which a complex system of representations and signs was displayed publicly. Punishments related obviously to their crimes, and served as an obstacle to lawbreaking.

Prison is not yet imaginable as a penalty. Three new models of penality helped to overcome resistance to it. Nevertheless, great differences existed between this kind of coercive institution and the early, punitive city. The way is prepared for the prison by the developments in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the disciplines. Discipline is a series of techniques by which the body’s operations can be controlled. Discipline worked by coercing and arranging the individual’s movements and his experience of space and time. This is achieved by devices such as timetables and military drills, and the process of exercise. Through discipline, individuals are created out of a mass. Disciplinary power has three elements: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and examination. Observation and the gaze are key instruments of power. By these processes, and through the human sciences, the notion of the norm developed.

Disciplinary power has three elements: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and examination. Observation and the gaze are key instruments of power. By these processes, and through the human sciences, the notion of the norm developed.
Disciplinary power is exemplified by Bentham’s Panopticon, a building that shows how individuals can be supervised and controlled efficiently. Institutions modeled on the panopticon begin to spread throughout society. Prison develops from this idea of discipline. It aims both to deprive the individual of his freedom and to reform him. The penitentiary is the next development. It combines the prison with the workshop and the hospital. The penitentiary replaces the prisoner with the delinquent. The delinquent is created as a response to changes in popular illegality, in order to marginalize and control popular behavior.

Criticism of the failure of prisons misses the point, because failure is part of its very nature. The process by which failure and operation are combined is the carceral system. The aim of prison, and of the carceral system, is to produce delinquency as a means of structuring and controlling crime. From this perspective, they succeed. The prison is part of a network of power that spreads throughout society, and which is controlled by the rules of strategy alone. Calls for its abolition fail to recognize the depth at which it is embedded in modern society, or its real function.

So we can see the manifestation of Freud’s “Fort-da” manifest itself as a very real element operating in the social order of today. Society throws away from itself those that are in violation to its interest through the use of its civil codes and through the sanction of prison sentence. Society has historically also thrown away from itself those which do not represent the controlling parties interest and represent a clear and marked difference. The Klu Klux Klan was such an organization. It was a group of organized males that sought to promote their white supremacy with the elimination of those who possessed a clear and marked difference to its beliefs. Individuals who typically have been seen as representing a clear and marked difference to their philosophical views have been; homosexuals, prostitutes, drug dealers, women seeking independence, African Americans, and minority groups such as people of Jewish decent. These groups were seen as people who possess no merit because they violate the social fabric of white brotherhood. In the very real network of power that seeks to employ the ruling authority’s ideal. For a deeper understanding of what this ideal means we turn our discussion to the work by Eric L. Santner, Stranded Objects: Mourning, Memory, and Film in Postwar Germany:

“To millions of Germans the loss of the “Führer” (for all the oblivion that covered his downfall and the rapidity with which he was renounced) was not the loss of someone ordinary; identifications that had filled a central function in the lives of his followers were attached to his person. As we said, he had become the embodiment of their ego-ideal. The loss of an object so highly catheter with libidinal energy – one about whom nobody had any doubts, nor dared to have any, even when the country was being reduced to rubble – was in deed reason for melancholia. Through the catastrophe not only was the German ego-ideal robbed of the support of reality, but in addition the Führer himself was exposed by the victors as a criminal of truly monstrous proportions. With this sudden reversal of his qualities, the ego of every single German individual suffered a central devaluation and impoverishment. This creates at least the prerequisites for a melancholic reaction.”(12)

References:
(1) John Milton. The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton. New York. The Modern Library. (2007) pg 1145
(2) Michelle Boulous Walker. Philosophy of the Maternal Body. New York. Routledge. (1998), Chapter 3 Reading Psychoanalysis: Psychotic texts/maternal pre-texts, “Fort-da” as the compulsion to repeat, pg. 55.
(3) Michelle Boulous Walker. Philosophy of the Maternal Body. New York. Routledge. (1998), Chapter 3 Reading Psychoanalysis: Psychotic texts/maternal pre-texts, Psychosis: foreclosing the mother, pg. 51.
(4) James, William. The Varieities of Religious Experience: A study in human nature. Barnes & Noble Classics, New York. (2004), Lecture 3 The Reality of the Unseen, pg. 58.
(5) Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Interview” with Georges Van Den Abbeele, Diacritics 14(3) 1984, p.17.
(6) Michelle Boulous Walker. Philosophy of the Maternal Body. New York. Routledge. (1998), Chapter 4 Philosophy and Silence: The Differend, Figuring woman: the idiom of sexual difference?, pg. 76.
(7) Pagels, Elaine. Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. New York. Random House. (2003)
(8)James, William. The Varieities of Religious Experience: A study in human nature. Barnes & Noble Classics, New York. (2004), Lecture 3 The Reality of the Unseen, pg. 66.
(9) Wallin, David. Attachment in Psychotherapy. New York. Guildford Press. (2007), Quoted before “About the Author” and a very significant quotation regarding the formation of subjective power and the reason (mens rea) behind the vindictive infliction of punishment. Are the reasons for individual punishment aimed at personal growth, or are the reasons more closely aimed at self-serving satisfaction rooted in restoring a person sense of ego /manhood? Does it represent a symbolic exchange for the perceived victimization received through a wrongful act that corrects with the use of abusive authoritarian power?
(10) Michelle Boulous Walker. Philosophy of the Maternal Body. New York. Routledge. (1998), Chapter 7 Collecting Mothers: Women At The Symposium, Mother’s white ink: Helene Cixous, pg. 138.
(11) Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punishment. New York. Vintage Books. (1999)
(12) Eric L. Santner. Stranded Objects: Mourning, Memory, and Film in Postwar Germany. New York.  Cornell University Press. (1990).

The Psychic Life Of Power: Theories in Subjugation Subjection, Resistance, Resignification Between Freud and Foucault

Michael Foucault once said, “Power is everywhere.” Art work by Raul Leon

“My problem is essentially the definition of the implicit systems in which we find ourselves prisoners; what I would like to grasp is the system of limits and exclusion which we practice without knowing it; I would like to make the cultural unconscious apparent.” ~Foucault, “Rituals of Exclusion”

Consider, in Discipline and Punishment, the paradoxical character of what Foucault describes as the subjectivation of the prisoner. The term “subjectivation” carries the paradox in itself: assujetissement denotes both the becoming of the subject and the process of subjection – one inhabit’s the figure of autonomy only by becoming subjected to a power, a subjection which implies a radical dependency.

In Discipline and Punishment the prisoner’s body not only appears as a sign of guilt and transgression, as the embodiment of prohibition and the sanction for rituals of normalization, but is framed and formed through the discursive matrix of a juridical subject. The claim that a discourse “forms” the body is no simple one, and from the start we must distinguish how such “forming” is not the same as a “causing” or “determining,” still less is it a notion that bodies are somehow made of discourse pure and simple.

Foucault suggests . . . . The individual is formed or, rather, formulated through his discursively constituted “identity” as prisoner. Subjection is, literally, the making of a subject, the principle of regulation according to which a subject is formulated or produced. Such subjection is a kind of power that not only unilaterally acts on a given individual as a form of domination, but also activates or forms the subject. Hence, subjection is neither simply the domination of a subject nor its production, but designates a certain kind of restriction in production, a restriction without which the production of the subject cannot take place, a restriction through which that production takes place. Although Foucault occasionally tries to argue that historically juridical power – power acting on, subordinating, pre-given subjects – precedes productive power, the capacity of power to form subjects, with the prisoner it is clear that the subject produced and the subject regulated or subordinated are one, and that compulsory production is its own form of regulation.

Definition of Subjection . . . . The act or fact of being subjected, as under a monarch or other sovereign or superior power; the state of being subject to, or under the dominion of another; hence gen. subordination . . .The condition of being subject, exposed, or liable to; liability . . . . Logic. The act of supplying a subject to a predicate. ~Oxford English Dictionary

“To be dominated by a power external to oneself is a familiar and agonizing form power takes. To find, however, that what “one” is, one’s very formation as a subject, is in some sense dependent upon that very power is quite another. We are used to thinking of power as what presses on the subject from the outside, as what subordinates, sets underneath, and relegates to a lower order.” ~Judith Butler, The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in subjugation

. . . What Foucault describes as the full siege and invasion of that body by the signifying practices of the prison – namely, inspection, confession, the regularization and normalization of bodily movement and gesture, the disciplinary regimes of the body which have led feminists to consult Foucault in order to elaborate the disciplinary production of gender. [See Sandra Bartky, Femininity and Domination (New York: Routledge, 1990]. The prison thus acts on the prisoner’s body, but it does so by forcing the prisoner to approximate an ideal, a norm of behavior, a model of obedience. This is how the prisoner’s individuality is rendered coherent, totalized, made into the discursive and conceptual possession of the prison; it is, as Foucault insists, the way in which “he becomes the principle of his own subjection.” [see Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Random House, 1979] This normative ideal inculcated, as it were, into the prisoner is a kind of psychic identity, or what Foucault will call “soul.” Because the soul is an imprisoning effect, Foucault claims that the prisoner is subjected “in a more fundamental way” than by the spatial captivity of the prison. Indeed, in the citation that follows, the soul is figured as itself a kind of spatial captivity, indeed, as a kind of prison, which provides the exterior form or regulatory principle of the prisoner’s body. This becomes clear in Foucault’s formulation that “the man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection [assujettissement] much more profound than himself. . . The soul is the prison of the body.”

Butler, Judith. The Psychic Life Of Power: Theories in subjection. Standford, CA. Stanford University Press. 1997. pg. 85.

What Is Your True Seat Of The Soul?

Every thought, feeling, and action is preceded by an intention, and that intention is preceded by the effect of the outcome. So you can’t participate in the cause; the action or doing without participating in the effect. And the intention is going to determine what the effect is. The honesty to which you come to a conclusion regarding your true intentions over the action will determine whether you have false moments or not with your true self.

Your intention is a motivation. It is the energy that you infuse your deeds and/or words with. It is the real reason why you do or did what you said or did. And when you get to the bottom of the real reason why you did what you did, you will find only two (2) things there; Love or Fear.

Fear is at the heart of why we don’t give people the tools they need to have a voice. Once you realize this, it may become a life changing moment for you.

When your personality comes to serve the full energy of its soul that is your authentic power, you will begin to live a life enlightened that is your true authentic self.

A lot of people confuse external power with authentic power. External power is the material possessions you think you possess. I have a big house. I have a great career. I have a hot beautiful wife. I have the car of my dreams. But this is not authentic power. This is one’s ability to manipulate and control. And when you experience a frightened part of your personality, that is what the frightened part of your personality does to defend against the fear. It’s pursuing external power. It’s trying to cover a very deep pain, the pain of powerlessness. The pain of wanting to belong, and not belonging.

External power; beauty, wealthy, success, political power, clothes and attire. When one thinks of the highest position of external power one might think of our political structures in politics and business. Some people who work in these capacities have the attitude, “I own this building. I own you.” But this isn’t true power. This is the essence of deep powerlessness. We tend to think that those with power have the most power, when in fact, they have the least amount of power. What we see is a person who is being controlled by the frightened parts of their personality. When this happens our authentic power is not realized. It’s not easy to say no to something you are addicted to or have a deep unconscious need to fulfill. It’s hard to say no to people when you are a “people pleaser.” It’s hard to say no to a symbol or iconic brand name you think is going to reinforce your image. But this is not authentic power.

To live an authentic life means you are lined up with the flow of your life, serving the energy of your soul. So when your personality comes to fully serve the energy of your soul, you are living an authentic life. This authenticity is at the root of your spirit and becomes the spiritual essence you exchange when dealing with others. It is when you use your personality to honor you, and to harmonize with, to be in alignment with your soul. In order to do that you need to do the work of discovery, and that is the work of discovering your authentic self and what you were put here on Earth to do.

Authentic power is the ability to distinguish from within yourself the difference between Love and Fear. Always choosing to respond with Love instead of Fear.

Are you a universal human? Have you created or are you in touch with your authentic power?

We are living in a world of fear based leadership and this will only create more fear and more fear, unless we the people can authentically align with ourselves. Our governance is based in fear. If you look at all of our social structures, and governance is one of them, they’re all based on fear. So our system of governance, representative, constitutional democracy is not broken. It’s perfect. It is doing what it was designed to do; but what it was designed to do is harness conflicting pursuits of external power for the common good. Now, what happens when the common good is counter-productive to our revolution? What happens when the pursuit of external power only produces violence and destruction? That is what is happening right now. So, how can you change a world that is built in external power? You can try to change other people but that is the pursuit of external power. So you are just adding more to the world of what the world is already made of. You aren’t changing anything. The only way to change it is to contribute something new to it and this comes when we create and are in touch with our authentic power. That is Love. If you hate those who hate you, you step into the darkness with them. If you have no compassion for those who have no compassion, there is not much difference between you and them. So the only way to change the world is the change yourself. Once this recognition comes to you it will change your life. We are each vehicles for global transformation.

The soul is huge. Likewise, your affect can be huge. How do we respond to bigotry, racism, political abuse, homosexual bias, or some other form of social injustice? When we respond to these events with unconscious fear we are adding more of that to the world. We have to put authentic power into practice. There is n o such thing as race only ethnic difference. There is no such thing as gender, just sexual differences between male and female. And what causes these distinctions of sex and culture is rooted in Fear. A true community wouldn’t exclude anyone. When there are no distinguishes based on exclusions then, and only then, do we become the biggest community.

The next time you are going through a power struggle remember; “This is the time to create my authentic power.” This means that you have arrived at a moment where you must reach for the most healthiest, most grounded, most wholesome part of your personality and act from Love no matter what you may be thinking or feeling.

When Conceit Is At The Root Of Assaultive Action

“Where there is power, there is resistance.” ~Michael Foucault, The History of Sexuality

The per formative conceit at the root of many assaultive actions, in actions and statements that declare, “Get the fuck out!”, is the melodrama of hostile brut orders that become a “last resort” in response to some perceived “horrible civil transgression.” We see the underlying themes of prejudice, hate, and intolerance in the actions of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman that murdered Trevon Martin. We also see these same underlying themes of hatred against women in episodes of domestic violence. We see them in the military actions of one nation in response to another. But in reality the demands echoed by these types of melodramatic statements reveal the opposite is more likely to be true. Often a real conversation would illuminate nuances and correct misunderstandings. The real question is: Why would a person rather have an enemy than a conversation? Why would they rather see themselves as harassed and transgressed instead of having a powerful and illuminating conversation that could reveal them as an equal participant in creating conflict? In my opinion, it is the power possessed in holding the “upper hand.“ The power of ultimate omnipotence in exalting one’s righteous power over another man that restores one “mighty rightful place” as being vindicated. Shouldn’t there be a relief in discovering that one is not being persecuted? Actually, however, the relief is in confirming that one has been “victimized” by another. This affirmation comes with the relieving abdication of responsibility that one is also some how responsible, too, for the problem. Or differently stated, that one holds power in defusing a potentially volatile situation. There is something in the person who hides behind these prosecuting statements that wants these offenses to be true. It is because relief does not come from giving back another their power. Dehumanizing statements like, “She is a whore.” “He is a nigger.” “She is white trash.” “He is a lower life form.” These statements all scream, I want to feel victimized. Then, and only then, can I restore my position of righteousness and wash my hands of any and all responsibility for the situation. In this way, they don’t have to look at themselves critically or think about the other person with complexity. There is no guilt or responsibility when one is a victim of another, by some perceived “horrible civil transgression” they themselves had no control over. Sometimes that only transgression is being black, being gay, being a woman, being a child, being beautiful, being smart, being wealthy, being talented, being sexy, being too successful, or simply just being alive. Sometimes there are no valid reasons when one makes it into the crosshairs of another person’s envy or rage.

In an episode of Super Soul Sunday, Tim Storey stated the biggest wound for humanity is misunderstanding. And this is so true. If this statement were not true, “Human misunderstanding is humanity’s greatest wound,” then we wouldn’t have the negative reverberations of wounded egos trying to affirm their wounded masculinities. We might not have so many failed marriages. We might see a decline in suicides and intimate partner murder. We might not see so many of the human failures we witness each year. Listening is a pre-requisite, though, to correcting human misunderstanding.

One of the biggest reverberations of human misunderstanding has had a sensational impact on mainstream news coverage. It is the random mass gun violence we have seen in cases of Murder-Suicide (M-S). We see these human failings when young white males vindicate themselves by taking up arms and ammunition and randomly opening fire on innocent victims. Sadly, we also see these same types of human failures when young black males join gangs and do the same.

In this same episode of Super Soul Sunday, Oprah Winfrey stated that she controls what comes in to her sphere of listening. What one watches, what one reads, what one listens to over main stream media and to what other people are saying, slowly seeps into our souls and our brains. And sometimes, many times, the messages we are receiving from these broadcastings and spoken words aren’t beneficial food for our minds and our souls. To listen to Oprah Winfrey’s full interview with Tim Storey click on the link below.

Tim Storey: “How Do You Turn A Setback Into A Comeback?”

The Didache: Can We Trust It?

“Appoint therefore for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, meek men, and not lovers of money, and truthful and approved, for they also minister to you the ministry of the prophets and teachers.” ~The Didache, Chapter 15:1

Several proto-orthodox authors in the early church mention with approval the “Didache (literally, “The Teaching”) of the Twelve Apostles”; some of them view it as standing just on the borders of the canon. But the book was eventually lost from view, until a copy was discovered in 1873 in a monastery library in Constaninople. Since then the book has made a significant impact on the way scholars understand the social life and ritual practices of the early church. For this is the first “church manual” to have arrived from early Christianity.

The first part of the book describes the “Two Paths of Life and Death.” The Path of Life (chapters 1-4) is paved with upright behavior; the author’s readers are to love one another, avoid evil desires, jealousy and anger, give alms to the poor, obey God’s commandments, and generally lead morally respectable lives. Many of these instructions reflect the teachings of Jesus from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (e.g. praying for one’s enemies, turning the other cheek, and going the extra mile). As might be expected, the Path of Death (chapter 5) involves the opposite sorts of behavior; “murders, adulteries, passions, sexual immoralities, robberies,” and sundry other transgressive activities.

The bulk of the rest of the book gives instructions for the ritual practices and social interactions of the Christian community (chapters 7 – 15), including directions for how to perform baptisms (preferably in cold, running water), when to fast (every Wednesday and Friday), what to pray (the Lord’s Prayer, three times a day), and how to celebrate the Eucharist (first giving thanks for the cup, then the bread). Near the end of these instructions the author addresses the problem of wandering “apostles,” “teachers,” and “prophets” of dubious moral character; evidently, some scoundrels had become itinerant Christian preachers simply for financial gain. The communities are to test the sincerity of the wandering ministers and to limit the length of their stay at the community’s expense, moreover, the communities are to appoint leaders of their own to direct their affairs.

The book concludes with a kind of “apocalyptic discourse,” an exhortation to be prepared for the imminent end of the world, to be brought by “the Lord coming on the clouds of the sky” (16:7)

The Didache’s anonymous author appears to be familiar with earlier Christian traditions such as those embodied in Matthew’s Gospel, but he does not evidence any familiarity with the rigid form of church hierarchy that had developed later in the second century (even though he speaks of bishops and deacons). For these reasons, scholars tend to date the book around 100 or 120 CE. It is probable, though, that the author compiled his account from several sources written at earlier times.

Since it contains directions on how to conduct religious rituals such as baptisms and interact within the Christian community, the Didache is studied by many scholars, including the clergy, and other persons interested in the pursuit of religious philosophy and history. I would say one can most definitely trust it’s authenticity as it is a vein sprung forth from much earlier texts which share many similar themed passages.

The first chapter of the Didache begins, “The teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles to the Gentiles…… There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference between the two paths is great. This then is the path of life. First love the god who made you, and second, your neighbor as yourself. And whatever you do not want to happen to you, do not do to another.”

To read the text in it’s entirety click on the link:  The Didache

Evaluating Evil Intent, Violence and Disorders of the Will (edited)

There exists a wide variety of psychopathic personality types. This posting will evaluate the personality type of the paranoid pathological narcissists, which is the most dangerous of all sub-types in the spectrum of personality disorders. Versions of this personality type fall under the malevolent psychopath which are individuals who are quite vindictive and hostile. They are known for their retributive impulses, are hateful, cold-blooded, and exhibit destructive defiance of conventional social life. These individuals stand alongside other sub-types, or variants of psychopathy, for examples individuals who possess passive-aggressive narcissist forms of defiance like the disingenuous psychopath. But for the most part this essay is a broad spectrum of PPD types. The pathological identifications and renunciations of the paranoid narcissist type, both at the unconscious level of object relations and at the conscious level of belief systems and values, engender intentions centered on aggression and destructiveness. This evil intent, or ill will, becomes essential to the individual self cohesion. These extreme cases exhibit an inversion of normal conscience, which punishes good intentions and rewards evil actions and intentions (Syrakic, McCallum, & Milan, 1991). Such disorders of the will significantly attenuate the individual’s freedom to “choose life” over destructiveness. Articulating this broad spectrum concept will require exhuming and revitalizing the relationship between psychopathy and paranoid phenomena, especially the projection of potential negative self-evaluations, as well as restoring angry affect and hostile mood as cardinal features of paranoia. The paranoid type of psychopathic variant possess a potential for violence that is particularly salient, compared to the potential for violence with other psychopathic variants.

In contrast to the malevolent type, the disingenuous psychopath will show a superficially good impression upon acquaintances, this psychopath frequently shows more characteristics of unreliability, impulsiveness tendencies, and deep resentments and moodiness among family members and other close associates. Some of these types of psychopaths raise to levels of power and control as political leaders, business owners, and other public servants. Despite their recognition, they attempt to persuade themselves that their intentions are basically good, and that their insincerely motivated scheming is appreciated for its intrinsic worth. Not likely to admit responsibility for personal or family difficulties, this psychopath manifests a cleverly defensive denial of psychological tensions and conflicts. Interpersonal difficulties are rationalized, and blame is projected upon others. Although self-indulgent and insistent on attention, the disingenuous type provides others with erratic loyalty and reciprocal affection. A flagrant deceitfulness is a principal prototypal characteristic of this variant of psychopathy. These individuals are more willful and insincere in their relationships, doing everything necessary to obtain what they need and want from others. Moreover, and in contrast to other psychopathic variants, they seem to enjoy seductive play, gaining gratification in the excitement and tension thus engendered. Often they are calculating and guileful when someone else has what they covet, be it the attention of a person or some tangible possession. Their basic underlying characteristic resembles only a manipulative and cunning style. Beneath the surface, such psychopaths’ greatest fear is that no one will care for or love them unless they are made to do so. This psychopathic variant seems to be more passive-aggressive rather than physically violent than the malevolent or explosive types of psychopaths. I simply delineated between to variants of the paranoid personality disorder also known as paranoid narcissistic personality disorder.

Factors which are common to personalities in the paranoid spectrum include impediments to developing the will to be morally responsible, an abnormal or defective moral conscience, ineffective inhibitory mechanisms, the habitual use of aggressive and destructive strategies, and unique motivational and catalytic dynamics in which self regulation hinges largely on the use of aggression.

Because there are many faces to the psychopath the groundwork for a much broader spectrum of analysis has been laid out. The psychopath is one who is perceived alternatively as person with an inordinate amount of aggressive drive, as an individual with a defective superego, as a malignant narcissist, as a barely sealed-over psychotic masked as a person with character disorder, and, more recently, as suffering from a subtle dementia. Fenichel, in 1945, emphasized the distortions of early identifications and spoke of “instinct-ridden characters.” Friedlander, in 1945 as well, emphasized the pleasure principle orientation of the psychopath, which suggested both disinheriting and deficient reality orientation. In addition Aichorn, in 1925 and 1935, have noted the contribution of narcissism with Oedipal configurations and a failure of incorporating mainstream traditional parental ideals as a necessary precursor to a developed superego in psychopaths. Horney in 1945 eloquently described the use of exploitation and sadism to increase a sense of power and importance. Horney came to an understanding of the use of aggression and destructiveness in the service of self-enhancement. In 1951 Levy distinguished between individuals who had experienced two extremes of narcissistic injury: the deprived psychopath, who had often experienced a harsh upbringing; and the indulged psychopath, who had often experienced parental overvaluation.

The view of the psychopath as a sealed-over or concealed psychotic is another view mainstream traditional thought has thus been lead. Cleckley in 1941 and 1976 suggested this feature of the psychopath. Cleckly suggested that the psychopaths have a selective dementia that involves affect and language. This dementia is difficult to detect because the psychopath adaptively simulates normal reality orientation, normal affect, and interpersonal attachment. Only the shallowness of higher social affects, the absence of guilt and loyalty, and the inability to appreciate consequences indicate a concealed disregard for the value of reality and misunderstanding of consensual meanings. Studies indicating a negative relationship between traditionally diagnosed stable psychotic syndromes, such as schizophrenia and psychopathy, may have prematurely closed this line of theory development, due to an oversimplification of what was traditionally conveyed by the idea of a sealed-over or covert psychotic disorder. These terms traditionally conveyed more than the delayed onset or the late detection of severley impaired reality testing and first-rank symptoms. They implied what would be referred to now as “borderline personality organization” or “borderline personality structure,” following Kernberg’s 1975 revitalization of such concepts.

Cleckley’s clinical criteria coming from a background in experimental psychophysiology, gives an implicit assumption of a neurophysiologic defect in psychopaths. Cleckley’s “semantic dementia” continues to provide a link between earlier formulations and recent advances in studying groups of psychopaths identified through Hare’s PCL-R, such as the learning, language, and physiological differences that discriminate psychopaths from normals and from no psychopathic individuals with anti-social personality disorder also known as APD (Hare, 1991). Although psychopaths appear not to be impaired on traditional neuropsychological test (Hart, Forth, & Hare, 1990), a kind of evaluative semantic aphasia in psychopathy is being investigated through psycholinguistic and cognitive experiments involving emotional response style, attributions, and moral reasoning (Reiber & Vetter, 1994). These experiments in cognition are, and have been carried out in the name of scientific knowledge. I question if they are morally sound in their ethical context.

In recent study, psychopaths inappropriately substituted attributions of happiness or indifference for appropriate guilt in judging the emotions of protagonists of emotional vignettes, but appropriately attributed happiness, sadness, and embarrassment to protagonists (Blair, Sellars, Strickland, & Clark, 1995). In another study utilizing narratives (Blair, Jones, Clark, & Smith 1995), aggressive transgressions and transgressions of moral convention were indistinguishable to all of the psychopathic subjects (n = 20), whereas all the no psychopaths (n=20) made the appropriate distinction these results suggest that psychopaths understand the letter of the law, but not its spirit. That is to say, these studies indicate psychopaths understand the letter of the law but fail at understanding why it is wrong morally.

The belief in a higher power, a belief system, and the value of virtues and ethics could only bring the “spirit” of this understanding into context. It has been noted that the effects of infantile and early childhood experience, combined with biological predispositions, set the stage for the development of psychopathy. It is for this reason that spiritual belief systems may become crucial for early childhood development by instilling values and virtues early on as well as the study of morals, ethics, and virtues. It is also for this reason that ungoing recovery and rehabilitation of the individual requires “getting in touch with one’s higher power” and cognitive learning approaches.

Meloy (1988) intriguing discusses the psychopath as a predator (example, as a human functioning from the “reptilian brain”) is a creative combination of clinical, scientific, and popular notions. However, this animal image obscures the depth of psychopathic deviance. It is not that psychopaths are predators, but that they themselves deeply identify with, and will to possess and to become, the destructive, aggressive, evil intentions and malicious powers that have been historically attributed to the “ignoble beasts,” especially the serpents (Midgley, 1978). Again, the incorporation of a belief system is still used as an avenue in recovery, and it has been recognized that the absences of a belief structure (psychopaths have been considered structurally defective in psychological terms of their psychiatric structuring) as a way in which the re-learning of values and faith based love can and may revitalize a disenfranchised childhood. However, this requires, an active ongoing learning on the part on the individual. Individuals suffering from forms of psychopathy are at risk for relapse, just as cancer patients are at risk of re-occurrence once they enter remission. This therapeutic approach may be combined with medication to help foster recovery.

It has been said that the psychopath pursues power just for its own sake. However, those who pursue power for its own sake are neurotics, entangled in confusion by habit in destroying their own lives. Hobbes realized this:

So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all man-kind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in Death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to; or that he cannot be content with a moderate power: but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more.

This puts power in the place of an insurance. But Hobbes still made it central and probably never realized how much this circular psychology limited the value of his political theory, I suspect that Marx’s position was similar. Nietzsche, when he made the Will to Power a primary motive, did try to give it a more direct meaning. He thought of power as straightforward dominance over other people – indeed, more specifically still, delight in tormenting them – which is certainly clearer, but happens to be false except in terms of psychopaths. 

So, whereas the neurotic, or the psychotic, seeks power as a mode of insurance of one’s self-enhancement and superior worth, the individual pursuing a spiritual path seeks something quite different. He seeks to become fulfilled with enlightenment. The kind of enlightenment that is derived from a spiritual connection with one and nature and the surrounding people in their environment; peaceful. The neurotic/psychotic on the other hand seems instinctually driven by chaos and destructiveness. This manifestation of evil intent which is a disorder of the mind, may manifests as physical or passive-aggressive violence.

The question now becomes, “Have we a nature?” That is to say, “A nature which we are born in full possession?” Further more, “Does this nature predestine us to become the people we are today, and can this be said for the psychopath?”

Subnote: It is important to note these are only some theories in the field of psychoanalytic study and psychiatry. The implementation of various forms of interventions have, and can be used when trying to perform corrective therapy. But it is the authors opinion, that one of the best approaches is a cognitive approach in relation to the relearning of behavior, and medication may also be needed.

Sources:
Cleckley, H. The Mask of Sanity. St Louis, C.V. Mosby (1976)

Midgley, Mary. Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature. New York, Cornell University Press (1978).

Millon, Theodore, and Davis, Roger D. Ten Subtypes of Psychopathy. Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal and Violent Behavior (Ed.) (pg, 161-187). New York, The Guilford Press (1998).

Richards, Henry. Evil Intent: Violence and Disorders of the Will. Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal and Violent Behavior (Ed.) (pg. 69-93). New York, The Guilford Press (1998).

 

Why The Act of Love Can Be Called A Delusion and The Schizophrenia of Religion

By Karen Barna

“Anne Hutchinson’s greatest crime, was the source of her power.” ~Eve LaPlante, American Jezebel

Possession and Ecstasy as a Sexual Manifestation

Possession and ecstasy as religious rite, like baptism, confirmation, or marriage, is what psychologists believe is a psychological hallucination bought on by intense feelings of love for one’s god, and was usually perceived, or at least interpreted as, a precursor to ordainment in the orders of faith. Some people have called it an “orgasm” bought on by God himself; “a god orgasm” if you will. In my study of human psychology and sexuality I have come to understand that this phenomenon manifested in the various faiths known as “possession and ecstasy” is the manifestation of religious sexuality in union with god. I had experienced something similar to a “god orgasm” except I only experienced a partial reduced external awareness, as the sensation I was experiencing made me focus on the expanded interior awareness of the mind and soul which was brought about by the profound sense of spirit (love). This made me feel at the time, that what I was receiving and experiencing was a profound sense of unconditional love (spirit), a very pure uncorrupted proclivity of love. No woman or man has ever left me with more of a profound feeling of complete acceptance of being loved. It is important to comment that I was in active study in the faith of the Jehovah Witnesses at the time of my experience.

Possession and Ecstasy and The Act of Falling in Love

Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. There is no other scientific proof of it being anything else than a hallucination or delusion brought about by intense feelings of love for one’s god.

Strangely, a similar state of altered consciousness is seen in the human experience of first falling in love. This altered state is brought about by an influx chemical reactions to the brain chemistry. This makes it difficult for one to objectively evaluate their “love” in terms of flaws and defects possessed. Historically it has been described as when one individual fall under the “spell” of another.

The Difference Between Love and Psychotic Delusions

Yet another state of altered consciousness is seen in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is not brought on by intense feelings of love resulting from one’s sexuality. Rather, PTSD stems from intense feelings of fear, fear of losing one’s own life. PTSD is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to trauma. Events that threaten a person’s life like assault and battery, sexual assault, traffic collisions, domestic violence, and warfare. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alternation in how a person thinks and feels, and increases in the fight-or-flight response.

I just want to state, that people who have developed their spirituality through faith are evolved individuals. They are spiritually evolved individuals who do not typically go around poking and prodding people with electro-magnetic frequency! They have cultivated the seeds of leadership. For example, parents should be diligently teaching their children by age five the following leaderships skills: Honesty, Justice, Determination, Consideration, and Love. As the child progresses other values come into the picture like Tolerance, Self-Discipline, Charity, and Chastity, to name a few more. When these values are reinforced in the home environment, they become ingrained in the individual and become part of their personality constellation. This is the form the power of leadership takes, and those who fear its manifested presence are maddened by it.

“Denounce it’s hypocrisy! Speak morosely of its silence! It creates great pain to repress the things one cannot say. Liberate yourself from the laws that have made it function. Its perversion belongs to the tyranny of monarchs.”

Many people feel that religion is a mass delusion. Like Karl Marx who commented, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Like Marx, many people feel that religion drugs mass into submission and thus retains a hold on a person’s freedom to expressed will. Some advanced scholars in psychiatry consider religious followers schizophrenics. Schizophrenia, however, is another form of mental illness whose symptoms manifest in delusions and manifestations. People with this disorder also exhibit changes in behavior and can be accompanied by delusions and hallucinations. Some other illness are schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, Othello syndrome (not classified as a mental illness), shared psychotic disorder, and substance-induced psychotic disorder.

Evidence of Conflicting Information

Religion has been viewed by men science as a Shared Psychotic Disorder. This is an actual mental illness. It is a type of mental illness that occurs when one person in a relationship has a delusion and the other person in the relationship adopts it, too. Thus, they carry out the fantasy. The conflicting evidence is that men of science like doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, psychologist, and addiction counselors will advise individuals suffering from mental illness or disease in general “to get in touch with their higher power.” If the higher power holds potential for further delusions and hallucinations why would a men of science recommend it?

The reason for this is because the promenades, hallways, and vestibules of religious faith hold a curative effect and one which is less likely to produce further illness. Although, it definitely holds this potential.

If religion is such a cause of mental illness than why hasn’t the freedom of religion been abridged? Why do countries still enforce civilians’ civil right to this freedom of expression? Why haven’t we denounced the hypocrisy of this grand delusion suffered by the masses call religious faith?

First, to be called mentally ill is a label that stigmatize one to particular peculiar class, just like the label Jezebel. It degenerates and humiliates the person who wears it’s brand like a scarlet letter. During one of the grandest delusion in the history of the United States, which occurred in 1692 in the village of Salem, the book American Jezebel, is an account of the life of Anne Hutchinson who was driven from the Salem colony for the crime of having better understanding and a better interpretation of scripture then the men of the church’s order of the time. She was feared for her influential and astute perception of the written work of God. Thus, the men feared her power. Her power to take over and rule above them as a influential power figure on the subject of religion. Here we see the power structure of a bureaucratic institution and how paranoia and fear crept into a the quiet lives of a Puritan village. It is the manifest fear witnessed as a delusion of someone else’s otherness. It is the same fear that crept into the United States of America following the 9/11 terrorist attack. Fear that the other will annihilate or “do us in.“ It is a defensive response in the face of fear.

 

Character Test Assessment

By Karen Barna

Approximately around one year ago while perusing the books on my library shelf I came acrossed one on the topic of leadership. This book discussed what it meant to be courageous. It was one of the many time I found myself reflecting on courage and leadership, but the first time I really forced myself to do an introspection and inventory to think critically about my own skill set. When one thinks of courage, many of us think of the courageous soldier in battle, but this isn’t a quite accurate image. To be truly courageous means to practice daily “inclusivity.” What I mean by inclusivity is simply acts that extend respect, understanding, boundaries, support, and love to all individuals, not just those we like. It requires true objectivity towards oneself as well as others. Behaviors that display themes of malice and deceit are almost always destine to fail.  These themes  do not support leadership. Assessing those behaviors and taking steps to change them can lead one out of the shadows of cowardice and into acts of leadership that are courageous.

It’s important to note that spiritual based education, when taken seriously and put into practice, helps build a person’s character and leadership skills. I have always been a lover of religious philosophy and philosophy in general, thanks to my spiritual education, but character building simply doesn’t end when we leave church or graduate from an institution that supports religious based values. Rather, it is a continuous process. We periodically need to complete assessments such as these in order to re-evaluate our position and present state of affairs, simply because life is so dynamic and our human condition creates a tendency which makes it easy for us to fall back on to  narcissistic patterns of thinking. People who refuse to do the work required to build character, will usually find themselves stuck in their position. Working on ourselves helps us break free from old patterns and habits that have been ingrained by our early childhood development and conditioning. Sometimes this means having the courage to walk away from people who are more interested in hurting than helping. In short, we sometimes have to muster the courage to let people go.

All individuals possess three (3) ego states. One of them is a child ego state which makes us behave like children sometimes. When we feel anxiety or fear, this can cause us to fall back into actions which belong to our child ego. All humans are guilty of this practice. We all do it. It doesn’t belong to just some individuals. It belongs to all human individuals. This is because we all possess ego states. The other two are the parent ego state and the adult ego state. This assessment is a tool that helps develop character and the center to our spiritual natures.

This assessment is an individual discernment tool. It measures three scales:

A. Deep concerns
B. Their impact on your behavior and those of others, and
C. Courageous objectives

First, you ask yourself about your true, deep concerns (A):

What is providing the greatest pressure deep within me? This is something that we normally hide from all others. It’s almost always a fear.

Only you (and perhaps your executive coach) will see this answer. You can afford to be honest. The wisdom is within you.

Then you ask, what is the impact of those pressures on my actions (B)?

This step, like anything important, requires solid reflection. Take your time. Inventory your less than perfect behaviors. Ask for candid feedback on your behaviors from those courageous enough to provide it. (If you receive little feedback, the best way to improve that is to provide encouragement, support, and mostly positive feedback to others.) And don’t question, argue with, or punish anyone for the feedback.

Lastly, you identify your courageous behavioral objectives – the new behaviors you want which is item ( C):

Which are my least courageous behaviors, and which courageous behaviors do I intend to develop in their place?

You should complete this character based assessment alone. Allow yourself sixty (60) uninterrupted minutes. An hour to candidly assess your competence in the first human quality is a de minimus investment.

This assessment is far more enjoyable than getting a root canal, Transcranial Manipulation through electronic Stimulus (TMS) because some jackass with no education or leadership ability thinks you need it! Or spending another month answering depostions related to private or corporate misconduct because of you possessed cowardice, with the active potential for a prison term!

Keep this document in a safe, secure, and private place. This is an opportunity to build your inner spirit and cultivate your inner light. Please take it seriously.

A. Deep Concerns

1. Imagine that someone whom you trust tells you a deep, dark secret. You feel great empathy. It also reminds you of what deeply concerns you, secretly, about yourself. Write that concern here:

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

2. Imagine that you’ve been working on tough issues. You awake a number of times with those issues pressing on you. Name the issues:

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

3. If you looked deep within your private self, where only you can see, what pressures do you find working on you?

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

4. We all have fears. In that same deep and private place, candidly look at your fears and anxieties. Name them.

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

5. Review your answers to the first four questions. Summarize them in three or four words.

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

B. Their Impact on My Behaviors and Those of Others

Now that you have named your issues and fears, you will ask yourself the following questions:

*What is the impact of these fears on my behaviors?
*What is its impact on my habits?
*What is its impact on my primary relationships at work and home?
*How does it affect my work?
*How does it affect my family?
*How does it affect my health?

6. Look at your answers to Question 5. How do these deeply held concerns and fears surface in your (a) daily behaviors, (b) habits, ( c) relationships, (d) work, (e) family, and (f) health?

(a) ______________________________

_________________________________

_________________________________

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(b) ______________________________

_________________________________

_________________________________

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( c) ______________________________

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(d) ______________________________

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(e) _______________________________

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(f) ________________________________

__________________________________

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C. Courageous Objectives

Now answer this question: What new behavior would I like to replace for each fear that I’ve named?

7. Look at your answers to Question 6. Which three behaviors are the least courageous? To which new behavior will you change them? (Don’t select more than three at a time.)

My Least Courageous Behaviors

(a) ________________________

(b) ________________________

( c)________________________

New Behaviors That Will Replace My Least Favorite Behaviors

(a) ________________________

(b) ________________________

( c)________________________

FOLLOW-UP                  STEP ONE

Take your answer from the character based assessment and use them to fill out the chart of Concerns, Impacts, and Objectives presented in the following graph/chart. Use the sample chart provided.

FOLLOW-UP                  STEP TWO

Use your answers from Section C (Courageous Objectives) to complete your chart of Old Behaviors, New Behaviors, and Accountabilities. Use the sample chart provided.

STEP ONE CHART         My Concerns, Impacts, and Objectives

IMPACTS

Concerns&Fear| Behaviors| Habits| Relationships|Work|Family|Health|Objectives
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Anxieties (list one under each above heading)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Concerns (list one under each above heading)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The following is a sample of how your Chart of Concerns should look:

STEP ONE CHART           My Concerns, Impacts, and Objectives

IMPACTS

Concerns&Fear |Behaviors|Habits|Relationships|Work|Family|Health|Objectives

1. Lose Power| Impatience|Not Listen| Stess|Conflict| Stress| Negative| Listen

2. Lose Place| Agry/Depressed| Ctrl Others| Conflict| Conflict| Conflict| ( – )| Ask ?s

3. Divorce| Angry/Depressed| Denial| Withdrawn| Distant| Conflict| (-)| Rebuild

4. Health| Depressed| Binge +/-| Withdraw| Less Eff| Denial| Negative| Courage

5. Conflict| Avoid| Cowardice|Distrust| Errors| Conflict | Negative | Courage

Anxieties (list one under each above heading)

1. Promotion|Dominate|Over Talk|Resentment|Splitting|Lower Values| (-) | Team up

2. Be in Ctrl | Posing | Not Real | Not Real | Distrust | Lower Values | (-) | Share

3. Parenting| Inconsistent|Binge +/- |Inconsistent| Anxiety| Lower Values| (-)| Share

Concerns (list one under each above heading)

1. Exrcs.|Denial |Unhealthy |Personal Habits|Schisms Poor Modeling |(-)| Exrcs/Diet

2. Finances | Worry | Greed | Distracted | Anxiety | Lower Values | (-) | Suprt Others

3. Sleep/Rest|Fatigue| Low Hardiness| Unfocused| Errors|Poor Modeling|(-)| Rest

4. Friends|Favoritisms|Favoritism|Favoritism|Splitting|Poor Modeling | (-) | Honor all

5. Competence|Take Credit|Egotism|Distrust|conflict|Poor Modeling|(-) | Admit/chng

NOTE: If you have a hard time with the fact these items don’t not line up, try printing the page and highlighting the column entries in different colors. For example Concerns and Fears can be Yellow, Behaviors could be Orange and so forth and so on. Sorry for the inconsistent array but I have limited space to work with.

STEP TWO CHART         Old Behavior, New Behaviors, and Accountabilities

Old Behavior                  |     New Behaviors                    |       Accountabilities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The following is a sample of how your chart of Old Behaviors, New Behaviors, and Accountabilities should look:

Old Behaviors | New Behaviors | Accountabilities

1. Give Orders | Listen Effectively |Weekly feedback from A,B,C

2. Impatience | Ask more questions | Weekly feedback from A,J,K

3. Anger | Count to 10 (no yelling) | Weekly feedback from R,S

4. Play favorites | Encourage everyone | Monthly feedback from A,T,X

People:
ABC: Direct reports
JKR: Peers
RST: Superiors
X: Boss

This assessment was designed to help aid individuals in improving their character. It is a tool to help re-determine strengths and weakness in the process of character building. If you do not work as a wage earner, then this assessment can be used with the various family members, wife, children, church friends, etc.

Good luck to all who seek character building practices in order to build their own personal character profile!