By Rahasya Poe
As some of you know, I recently wrote a book that explores the cognitive and neurological functions behind the mental process of believing something irrational and that lacks evidence or experience. As you might imagine, there are always a few who feel attacked; I actually cover extensively in my book why they feel this way. When we have a belief that is irrational and not backed up with a personal experience, we process it through our emotional networks and tend to intensely identify with it, unlike rational and logical information that we simply store in memory and that is open for discussion. When identification happens on this level and someone says something about your belief, you feel attacked and take it personally. Then it becomes a matter of defense and if that doesn’t work, and it seldom does, it becomes a matter of offense to rid the world of the antagonist (the person who doesn’t believe the way you do). This is and has been behind almost every religious war and wars between national ideologies since the beginning of time, not to mention the suppression and subjugation of women.
Is There Evil In The World?
Does this mean that your religion or nation is wrong or evil? No, of course not. However, it does point out that you may have mentally processed the information incorrectly if you feel threatened or angry when someone questions it. I know this is a tough subject and if it weren’t for the obvious dilemma we find ourselves in globally I probably wouldn’t write about it. But I, along with many others, feel a need to speak out against what we see as a dangerous situation as we shrink our world to a global village with cultures that are no longer isolated from each other. When Jesus said, “Love your enemy,” it wasn’t just something to do to make ourselves feel good; it may be the ultimate advice on how to transform our thinking, our hearts, and our world to have a sustainable future.
Think Critically and Take Action
But the focus of what I’m saying here and in my book goes much deeper than religion or politics. Publishing a magazine has made me very aware of the responsibility to fact-check what we print and in the process I have found that most of the information out there is misleading at best and usually has an agenda attached to someone’s wanting control or money. This is where discernment comes in—learning more about how we process information and making sure we don’t process something through our emotional circuits. This is why the Dalai Lama said that the most important meditation we can do in today’s world is to “think critically and then take action.” It’s only by taking stock of our world and what’s wrong with it that we will find our place in the solution and take appropriate action, and there is no action that’s too small.
If you visit Amazon.com, you can see that most of my book’s reviews are four and 
five stars, written by everyone from spiritual seekers to archaeologists and researchers. Most of us are craving some sense to be made of the world we live in because the world we see no longer matches what we’ve been told to see by power figures and organizations in our lives.
For instance, almost everyone by now knows what many have known all along; the banking system is corrupted and the Federal Reserve system is illegal. Our congressmen and representatives read like a CEO list from Fortune 400 companies. Our tax dollars are constantly being squandered on things that are completely irrelevant for our well-being. Our industries have all but disappeared and been moved to other countries. Our small farms have been swallowed up by huge megafarming conglomerates. There is a well-planned attempt to privatize the world’s water supply. Our seed stock has been corrupted by Monsanto—you know, the company that gave us Agent Orange and a wide variety of other chemical agents meant to kill and devastate us and our world. Recently the Federal Reserve printed 100 billion dollars worth of $100 bills that ended up being worthless because they were so complex; didn’t anyone check as they were being printed? It now costs around 12 cents to print a bill so figure that little mistake out. Printing money was about the only thing we had left that we could do right and now we can’t even get that right.
The Common Denomiator
So before I drive you all a little crazy, let’s look at the common denominator for most of what is going on in the world today that isn’t right. As it turns out it’s two things: One is corporations and the other is our insane tendency to “believe” everything that we are told without checking the facts. I hear people say we are at war with terrorists. Think for just a moment on this. We have created more terrorists than ever existed before by occupying a foreign country. We are fighting a war that most top generals openly admit that we will someday simply need to walk away from. There are some months when suicide among soldiers was higher than the number that the Taliban killed. According to military statistics 51 percent of the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are from friendly fire (our own soldiers). Now ask yourself who is making a profit off the war—corporations, and as it turns out, the same corporations that have ex-CEOs and management installed in our government along with high-powered lobbyists. It’s estimated that there are more than 60 lobbyists for every congressman and woman, so even if they were all honest men and women, we know what enormous amounts of money does to the best of people, let alone the worst (watch the documentary Why We Fight).
Stop Believing the Media Machine
Now we get to the tendency to believe these people and organizations without questioning their motives. As it turns out, we are at war, at war with global corporations that have no allegiance to anything but power, money, and most important of all, control of information. Why do you think there was such a big deal made of WikiLeaks? If Julian Assange (the creator of WikiLeaks) did anything that was actually illegal do you think he would have been arrested for a condom’s breaking during sex? (Is that even against the law? This may be why the charge was upgraded to rape as of December, 2010) I heard Amy Goodman of PBS Democracy Now saying that the fact that authorities have gone to this length to stop him shows the urgency that they feel to shut WikiLeaks down. CNN and FOX News said there was a manhunt by Interpol to find him; there was not. In fact, Julian turned himself in when a warrant was put out for him. Should WikiLeaks let out all confidential information to the public? Of course not. Some communications need to stay confidential, but the world governments are worried about the other information that’s leaking out that exposes backroom deals made with the IMF, World Bank, and global corporations (read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins).
So how do most people know what’s going on? From the mass media, of course. Who owns the mass media? Yep, corporations, the same corporations that have vested interests in wartime manufacturing and the privatization of war itself. Do you remember the solution to the 911 economic crisis? Go out and start shopping again, spend money on anything and everything. We have fallen into the belief that consumerism/greed is good. What can we do? Stop believing everything you hear and have been told all your lives. We are waking up to a different world than the one we were told about as children. This is why media outlets such as LINK TV, PBS, and locally sponsored radio and magazines are so important because this, along with the Internet, is the wild card no one was counting on. This is why control of the Internet is so important, and if you think it’s the government in control you haven’t been listening; it’s corporations, which is almost the same thing now. Pay attention to how everything is being linked, such as YouTube to Google (Google lets the Chinese government censor what can be watched), for instance. Read the who’s who on the board of directors of every government agency that is supposed to be looking out for us and you will understand what’s really going on. Follow the money of things such as who’s paying for most of the research in the Food and Drug Administration, and you can probably figure this out without me even telling you—the pharmaceutical industry of course.
We Are the Silenced Majority
We live on a beautiful planet where most of the people would never want to go to war and with the correct information would never dream of it. War is an ancient way of dealing with conflict that is no longer viable given the many other ways of dealing with people and nations that represent a threat to global peace. Once we the people wake up to what’s going on, such as 1 percent of the people now control 70 percent of the world’s wealth, we will be able to “be the change” we are wanting “out there.” The conflict, the injustice, all of it is within each and every one of us and that’s where it needs to be healed. In every present moment we are planting the seeds of our future so having our eyes wide open also requires us to have our hearts and minds open. The devastating state of the world only proves that we are powerful beings. Imagine what we can do from a place where decisions are made from the heart, where if something doesn’t “feel” right we simply wouldn’t do it. Maybe it’s time to follow the advice of spiritual leaders and masters such as Jesus, Buddha, Rumi, Ramana Maharshi, Yogananda, and more recently the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, and a long list of authentic human beings wanting to help transform the world. You’re not alone. As a matter of fact, you are part of a “silenced majority” and I for one am not going to be silenced.
This is my view but don’t believe me—open your eyes, wake up, and check it out for yourself.
Watch my 5 minute video of A Dream Within a Dream
For more information on these thoughts and many more you can visit www.RahasyaPoe.com, where you can view my latest interview with David Icke and listen to an interview I gave to BBS Radio. Rahasya is the author of To Believe or Not To Believe: The Social & Neurological Consequences of Belief Systems, available online and at bookstores everywhere.