MIND CONTROL: Moving Beyond Belief

“We all suppress the wanderer that waits to travel the unbroken road. We all fill our minds to tell the stories of old in a new way. But it is indeed a question of matter and truth. As adults, what do we expect to attain from religion? What do we really ask ourselves to realize? Do we threaten our minds and hearts to believe a certain way? Or do we ask in earnest to believe what we once felt to be true in the first place? In many ways, answers have found ways to reach our questions? But it is within our questions, within our silence, that we can find the attunement of sanctity. What should we ask?—that is a question that goes far beyond any answer. Do we ask for what we already have? Manifestation is nothing more than thought. With thought can the world find peace. Through thought, solutions manifest themselves. When conquered by judgment does the separation occur, and hope finds its place among doubt. Life becomes separate from its living. Separation is without connection. We all let pain reign over life. But life is full of pains to bear if not managed with grace and love.”

   I had been isolated for many years, not intentionally, but by being put into an unnatural situation, or rather, a religion that expected it. I will not specify the religion because I don’t want to degrade any belief that in one way or another can benefit someone, but I don’t feel that separating yourself from your non-religious family and friends in order to be saved by God is beneficial or healthy for anyone.

   I remember the days when all I wanted to do was to play outside, feel the crisp breeze that invited my imagination into realms of adventure. I never played with other children my age, let alone many children at all. So my joys were simply to be allowed outside in my own fantasy where, if I had ever felt lonely before, I would conjure up a world that would consume my mind for hours. These were the best moments of my childhood that I can still remember dying out one late spring day.

   I began to learn that I was forbidden to salute the flag, recite a pledge of allegiance, celebrate my own birthday, or even Christmas. At that time my father taught me that I should "look forward" to God's "Day of Judgment."

   I remember the days when my thinking was altered into wanting nothing more than to wait for the end of the world. It was a time that could never come in this life, nor had ever occurred in the lives of before. No one had ever experienced it. But all who knew prayed for it to come soon.

   At such a young age, I became judgmental and arrogant toward “worldly people”; therefore people judged me and treated me the same way that I treated them. You can imagine the troubles I had in grade school. It wasn’t until I was older that I began to realize what I was doing.  A child is not taught to think for themselves. A child born into a religion simply doesn’t have a choice to believe any other way.

   It is common throughout history and its still continuing today, the staggering amount of children each year that are being physically abused by strict religious beliefs. But how many children are being abused mentally by organizations that claim to have “The Truth”? 

    It is tragic that, for example, some Muslim children as young as eight years old have scars on their backs from beating themselves with zanjeers (long chains with sets of curved knives attached at its end). But what’s more heartbreaking is what these children grow up to believe about life.          

   Although I was never physically beaten, I spent several hours a week studying a “newly translated” bible and going to “meetings,” being emotionally pounded by Man’s opinion of God. Everyday I was to consider that, if I had any friends that were not of our religion, they could be killed by God’s wrath -- perhaps within a year. So when I did befriend any worldly kids, I’d feel guilty about it, scared that God would reject me from his kingdom on earth. I ended up believing that everybody I knew could soon be slaughtered by God’s wrath as He cleans his planet.

   But at around sixteen years old… well…, things begin to change…

    According to Adherents.com, 33% of people in the world are Christian. That includes: Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, Latter-day Saints, Evangelical, SDAs, AOGs, Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses. During the late 19th century, a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity when he wrote: "Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's?"

   Buddha once said: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." (Quotations: God/Religion)

   The long-term effects of growing up in an environment of pending disaster are hard to predict, but since I experienced it first-hand, I can say that the processes of deprogramming such beliefs are difficult if rarely possible.

   I happen to be a survivor of such a mental tragedy.  It began when I started thinking for myself, asking questions that neither my religion nor my father could answer. I went though a process of feeling as though I’ve lost my ground. I was lost from God, if He even existed. I went through a time of rejecting God. I would have gone through a complete mental collapse if it wasn’t for the people who fought to reach me and help me along the way. But it took several years of isolation from religion and other people’s opinions before I could allow such contact from the outside world. For me to be able make my own decisions was a great accomplishment.        

   In conclusion, I can only wish that others could discover the power of being silent. To realize how quickly fear and judgment can reign over your life without you even being aware of it. I can only wish that adults in religious organizations would realize what they are truly teaching their children, and in turn, the generations to come.

    But perhaps that’s all that is needed. The power of even the slightest thought can propel great things. “Though thought do solutions manifest themselves.”  As adults, what do we really expect to attain? What do we really ask of ourselves to realize? If we could only realize the true power in one loving thought… our lives could be much different. 

L. Starling

http://www.starlingbooks.net

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Works cited

Halloran, James.  “Quotations: God/Religion” The Quotation Station. Posting date      unknown.  Sept 6th, 2005 

Tentmaker Ministries. “Quotes”  Tentmaker.  Sept 6th, 2005. Sept 6th 2005.            

Wicks, Robert.  "Nietzsche, Friedrich."   Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  AUG

            26th , 2004.  Sept 6th 2005. 

 Adherents.com: National & World Religion Statistics - Church Statistics - World Religions,       “Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents” Posting Date: August             24, 2005. Sept 14th 2005