”There are four lights!” Anyone familiar with Star Trek the New Generation will know this exclamation. It is the last words from captain Jean-Luc Picard when he is finally released from inhumane treatment. The goal was to break him down, humiliate him. By stating the wrong number of lights Picard would get treated well. But he would go against his principles and this would leave him defeated.
There is a movie from the time of black and white movies called “Gaslight”. This movie has given name to a procedure often used by toxic people, narcissists/psychopaths. The victim will over and over again be bombarded with false information. The victim knows it is false, but the abuser will keep stating the same false statement until the victim gives in. The abuser can use mental or even physical means of pressure and threats.
The Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairy tale(?) “The Emperor´s New Clothes”. The vanity and stupidity of the Emperor and his servants are finally exposed. The tailors make them believe that only intelligent people can see the clothes. The Emperor makes a parade to show off his invisible clothes and the young boy cries out: “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”
I remembered these episodes from my past, some episodes that came forth over the last few days. Is it a coincidence, maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes you get to see the connection between the dots.
In the last years, there has been some focus from the mainstream media on fake news. Back in the days, there were discussions about JFK, then the mass destruction weapons in Iraq. Then discussions about 9-11. Later on, we heard medias telling us that the Russians had hacked or infiltrated the 2016 election in the US. We have been for the last 20 years or so yearly been informed about the hazards of the new virus of the year.
I have no interest in questioning the interests in how, when, why, what, and who publishes the statistics and news in the mainstream media. My interest is knowledge. Sometimes, though, I have a sense of connections between the artistic expressions and metaphors, and reality as we perceive it. Like remembering the novel “1984”. That is all for me.
My interest, apart from Knowledge, is education. Education is not only to read ABC and do the math, 1+1=2. My interest is education where you learn to read and understand, then read, understand, and ask questions. Proper education is not learning to read between the lines. An educated person will read and do the math, then ask the questions for the missing information. In some of the media platforms I visit, people have asked questions like “what is a virus?”. There have been some informative videos about the biological facts. Unfortunately, some of these information videos have been deleted. The mentioning of viruses and certain technologies in the same sentence will get a video deleted, and often the whole platform is deleted. Why that? Then there are other questions like the sliding definition of a pandemic. Or the calculated numbers of death compared to actual numbers.
We have learned from early on to accept authorities. It can be parents, priests or shamans, governments, and institutions with long names or fancy abbreviations. It is time now to learn to read and do math again. Each one of us is responsible for what we trust and thereby help grow.
My hope is to grow from this experience and to find a newly awakened world on the other side of the lockdown. We can grow by meditating, by resting and finding our own inner peace. Then we can look at the world, read and do the math from a calm and awakened state of mind.
Author: Mrs. Anne Margrethe Dahl Dideriksen is our fellow writer of Rishikesh 24 Family. She is a mental health practitioner having a Master in Psychology with experience of 19+ years. She is an NLP Coach, Reiki Healer & practices Quantum Healing Hypnotic Therapy/ Past Life Regression.
Also Read: Trapped by a Narcissist? – BREAK THE VICIOUS CIRCLE