You Are Brainwashed - Is There No Escape?

You ain't kidding. At this point, however, we're stuck with it as we helped to get it here.

we're all conditioned, always have been. Ever wonder why advertisements are several decibels higher in volume than the TV shows? This is all on purpose. It is to grab your attention. While the subconscious mind can pick up affirmations by up to -40 DB there can be subtle hidden influences in adverts. Hypnosis language used in catch lines to get it stuck in your head, certain vibrant colours to catch your eye... etc etc. This is all well known, yet overlooked always. And this is JUST adverts.. let alone music, entertainment, media, curriculums, religion, etc. I can go on.

It is ALSO possible to retrain your own mind, and re-program yourself through meditation, and affORmations, done and recorded by yourself to ensure no subtle bs. The divide of humanity through belief values has always been the way. Humans have always manipulated each other (for good or bad) without even being aware of it, this is most likely from instinct.. our "intelligence" is what makes us different from other animals.

originally posted by: daskakik

originally posted by: muzzleflash
Ahhhh.... See what I mean?
I'm totally brainwashed from multiple directions!

What I can't figure out is where you got the notion that these things are bad?

It was there even before you chose to use the word "brainwashing".

Why couldn't the $4.50 shake be an expression of your free will and doing it with nothing but $20 be your refusal to be filled with fear at the thought of running out of money?

I could argue it's a little deeper than that.

For $4.50 I'd presume in the US you could get 2-5 litres of milk (upto a gallon) and maybe a bit fruit or flavourings. You could probably make upto 10x more milkshake.

I know I've gotten a bit depressed in the past over financial decisions made in haste, when I'm not acting logically and appealing to my conscious and subconscious.

A few times I've ordered a takeaway when I didn't really have the money to waste on one. I've usually always got food in and I'm not a bad cook, so it's kind of illogical to spend when you really didn't need to.

Ultimately I've never enjoyed the food I've ordered and need to convince myself sometimes that I enjoyed it or didn't needlessly waste money. Knowing I could prepare better with 30 or so minutes never helps either.

I'm guessing muzzleflash could make a milkshake, he mentions he went out of his way to acquire one and it was expensive. Consciously and unconsciously these things can play on you.

Why couldn't the $4.50 shake be an expression of your free will and doing it with nothing but $20 be your refusal to be filled with fear at the thought of running out of money?

I'd honestly say that it's more about regret than fear. It's natural to have anxieties in regards to money, so the decision to buy a milkshake or takeaway when in reality their is better options is illogical. This is played out daily by millions of people and most fail to grasp why.

Enjoying things isn't brainwashing, doing things that are illogical but enjoyable could be construed as such though. Because something made muzzleflash buy a milkshake, he didn't need a milkshake and I don't think he's addicted to them but something appealed to him. His desire.

I'd think he'd agree he fell for his desires, hook, line and sinker.

Free will?

Indeed buying the milkshake technically was an act of free will, on the outside. On the inside he was a slave to his desires, namely a milkshake.

Is that not "brainwashing"?

Muzzleflash, did you enjoy your milkshake?

LOL with you Muzzleflash: Yeah, I feel you, and more, know you are right in a myriad of ways. Known it for some time, in fact. There is no debate about this, with me, anyway.

My question goes beyond that, and is what I was ultimately searching for on ATS: What can we do about this? Anything? Is it all hopeless once having realized this essentail fact, or is there something else to learn or to gain? Or do we just go one trudging through the slough, being monitored and controlled?

I try to sell myself on the idea everyday this isn't hell, but .....

well, I'm sure you get what I'm trying to say. Sorry it's so dark, but that's the topic, is it not? Unless, perhaps, we're brainwashed for our own good? I always love that one: It's for your own good. Like the Doc says, "It won't hurt a bit...."
LOL
Take care.
tet

a reply to: muzzleflash

I've thoroughly enjoyed this thread.

I like your analysis, we all do the things you mention and I do try to be aware of this. Admittedly, I've disliked posts by you but I always have attempted to engage on ATS with it's motto in mind. We can't learn when we ignore people due to their stance or who they are.

I've had some enlightening conversations here with people on the opposite side of the fence, I often challenge the norms by attempting dialogue with members here who are usually famous for their one liners and found myself pleasantly surprised by receiving comprehensive posts in reply.

That's the key though isn't it?

Communication and interaction, being closed-minded does us no favours and we rarely learn from ignorance.

Nice post, BTW I star and flagged this thread and several of your posts, being superficial isn't something I'd ascribe to myself, but we're only human.

We can't see when we're willfully ignorant. Cheers for this thread, it's gave me a lot to think about, in a time when this topic has been needed to be visited by me.

It's very much appreciated

a reply to: tetra50

Self-control. Awareness. Respect.

Your hell may well be heaven for another. But that doesn't mean you can't coexist.

How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood, then just be in a good mood?

Sometimes reality is that simple, you can change it. Especially if you're willful about such decisions.

originally posted by: daskakik

originally posted by: muzzleflash
Ahhhh.... See what I mean?
I'm totally brainwashed from multiple directions!

What I can't figure out is where you got the notion that these things are bad?

It was there even before you chose to use the word "brainwashing".

Why couldn't the $4.50 shake be an expression of your free will and doing it with nothing but $20 be your refusal to be filled with fear at the thought of running out of money?

LOL daskakik

You and I are no strangers. However, that you could spin this in such a way that it may not be a bad thing gives me great pause.....

The only possible way I could see it as a good thing, is that we are forced to look for and hopefully find the Spirit of Life, and quintessentially grasp that meaning all at once, and have a resulting epiphany. Even so, does that set anyone free? For what we are truly discussing is a slavery so subtle and pervasive, with being sold an aggregate portion of representative republic of freedom, which is so completely and pervasively cognitively dissonant, most cannot even cope with it.....in order to retain some sanity to even look for "the spirit" of life, much less, even believe in that possibility.....

Yeah, I go out and enjoy a milkshake, a drink, I'm a friggin' master at making that cognitive dissonance work for me, somehow, though I feel it's nothing to be proud of, just another way I have to "give something up" to make it work, what I'm given and have absolutely no choice in....

But....that's just me.
lol
tet

originally posted by: RAY1990
a reply to: tetra50

Self-control. Awareness. Respect.

Your hell may well be heaven for another. But that doesn't mean you can't coexist.

How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood, then just be in a good mood?

Sometimes reality is that simple, you can change it. Especially if you're willful about such decisions.

Ray:

Yeah, while that is certainly true, that's truly only an effectual solution to a much bigger, deeper issue. Having read your response to mine, I would have to ask how old you are, as it becomes important there in what your suggested solutions are. There is a time in our lives, where we've made a stand....and in saying that, I'd have to add to that, that this arrives in all our lives at some point....the point where we are required to "make a stand." Once we do, your options may become extremely limited.

Don't neglect to notice that pointing out how brainwashed we are, necessarily accompanies with it, the idea that if you don't go along with the program, so to speak, there will be a punishment.....not that you did anything wrong, or anything is wrong with you, inherently, though it may be made to seem that way.

I wonder, have you read the threads about The Messenger, Freeway Willy, the developemnt of smokeable coc aine, for instance? How many suicides are you aware of, for instance, which are about TWO shots to the head and deemed a suicide?

It isn't really about your ability to enjoy a milkshake once you've realized where you are and what's afoot....it's about far more than that. This realization is just the beginning.
sincerely
tet

originally posted by: RAY1990
I could argue it's a little deeper than that.

You could but it also may not be.

Enjoying things isn't brainwashing, doing things that are illogical but enjoyable could be construed as such though.

I do believe that is how it is being construed but is it logical to construe it that way?

Free will?

Indeed buying the milkshake technically was an act of free will, on the outside. On the inside he was a slave to his desires, namely a milkshake.

Is that not "brainwashing"?

You are your desires. You can even construe negation of your desires as brainwashing.

a reply to: RAY1990

Thank you.

Umm the milkshake was ok but I think I really wanted two of them. One wasn't enough lol.

I don't consume much milk so I think it was both desire combined with a need, which made the purchase nearly irresistible.

I want to thank everyone for their insightful comments so far, especially for analyzing the milkshake incident as it is a good example. I think it's good because such behavior is emblematic of our culture. A hallmark even (buying what we can't afford for a quick fix that ends up being shallow).

Speaking of trademarks, for any of you who have witnessed my recent behavior in the last few years you'll note that I've been somewhat erratic and I never seem to finish what I start.

I even explicitly say, multiple times, that I'll do this or that, then it may take another year to even start trying to do it.

I know I'm a freakin disaster right now. I'm just hoping I won't always be. I know I'm slipping. I'm not happy about it.

I spent all day trying to get a specific job and I just moved into a house a few days ago. I've been super busy. I'll try to find time to go back to some threads and finish them sometime soon.

I'm so overwhelmed.
I'm sorry I take forever.

And what will I do next? What pattern have I established?

I'll post a new thread, it won't be one of the ones I've been working on instead it'll be something off the top of my head, and I'll only finish half of it - then I'll repeat that.

Ugh....

This has been a topic I began questioning my freshman year of college two years ago. I mean, to a degree, I've always questioned it, but there's something about paying thousands of dollars to be indoctrinated that really gets the gears working.
And now that I've seen it, I can't un-see it. It's literally everywhere. Religion, Media, Money, Politics, Technology, Science, Food, etc. It's all just one big, multilayered prison. Now I'm still personally searching for the "why" of it all, and if you guys have any suggestions on reading material or watching material, let me know.
But regardless of the why, it's something we seriously need to start discussing. Because it's a form of enslavement. It's wrong. It's costing people their livelihoods, their health, their brains, and their freedom. It's not as simple as "Oh, an advertisement said I needed this, so I'm buying it." It's become "So the political agenda said I must think and act like this, so this is now my core beliefs, and this education system taught me this about the world, so this is my perspective, and these are societies standards-so therefore I must adhere to them. And because this is my life, I will pass it down to my children."
Rinse, repeat, new slave. That's what it's come down to.
And the sad part it, you can't just outright tell people this because then they'll think you're an idiot, a bigot. They'll, in essence become Mr. Smith on you. Which, that definitely does a number on your social life.
So then, what do you do? Is escape only available to yourself because nobody else wants to see it? And if so, how do you obtain that freedom?
I've personally been making small decisions that improve the situation or at least fix the most aspects of the problem. Minimalism, Not having a TV, non-dogmatic religion, Veganism, looking into Tiny Living, home schooling, but it seems even in those communities they are trapped to. And even they create their own dogma.
I'm at an impasse here.

originally posted by: RisingNightengale
So then, what do you do? Is escape only available to yourself because nobody else wants to see it? And if so, how do you obtain that freedom?

Escape from what?

I've personally been making small decisions that improve the situation or at least fix the most aspects of the problem. Minimalism, Not having a TV, non-dogmatic religion, Veganism, looking into Tiny Living, home schooling, but it seems even in those communities they are trapped to. And even they create their own dogma.
I'm at an impasse here.

Well, at least you recognize that changing one set of chains for another doesn't get you anywhere.

a reply to: daskakik

The mass amount of brainwashing. How do you escape from it? Is it a simple matter of ignoring it? Is there a way to combat it?
It seems impossible on both fronts. And combating it just makes you seem like a crazy, pessimistic, asshole. So then how do you escape it?

originally posted by: RisingNightengale
The mass amount of brainwashing. How do you escape from it? Is it a simple matter of ignoring it? Is there a way to combat it?
It seems impossible on both fronts. And combating it just makes you seem like a crazy, pessimistic, asshole. So then how do you escape it?

I guess my question was, what do you mean by brainwashing?

For example, the "brainwashing" that makes you a compliant consumer is nothing. That is why giving in to consumerism or taking a firm stance against it makes little difference, if any.

The "brainwashing" that gives you faith in institutions and authorities is a bit more important but it doesn't make much of a difference either.

Think about it. There have always been people who don't believe sales people or politicians. What did that ever do for them? What universal truth did it reveal to them? None. There is no special knowledge. All there is is this holier than though attitude that people get, as you pointed out, that can make them off-putting.

So what exactly do you think you need to escape from? Learning to recognize marketing or political propaganda and not be taken in by it is good but it isn't going to free you from basic needs.

It's these basic needs that allow control of the masses by those in power.

So you decide to go off-grid. Great, you still need to fulfill those basic needs, you never escaped from them. You just changed the way you fulfill them.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Yes that is why the elite hate me. I am like a kicking child to their agenda. They wish people like me would shut up. I am constantly rebelling against them with my voice of word because I hate people that lie to others as a means to control them.

Dear muzzleflash, you've been brainwashed to start this thread)) (a joke with a grain of truth, or vice versa).

About a year ago, I was going to write a similar thread. It supposed to be a megathread with tons of links and info. The main theme was a bit different, though: it was our minds and what was conditioning and limiting it. I wrote something like 90% inside my private site (as a draft), spend weeks to re-read, update and complete the article. It was huge, contained thousands of words.
But one day I decided to press the "delete" button. I'm not sure why exactly I did it, but today I feel like I made a right decision. Was it a worthless article? No. Indeed, I acquired some knowledge writing it. But the main thing I knew without reading tons of religious, philosophical and scientific sources, and maybe realizing this fact made me so cold about finishing and publishing my work.

So, what's the "main thing"?
Those who choose to be "brainwashed" (yes, it is a CHOICE), will always be slave. You cannot change it. You are unable to wake them up (and even you must not). That was a conscious choice each of them (or us, if you like) made. They are responsible for their action (karma, if you like).
If I feel like I am different, I will never make fun of them, publicly or secretly, because they are "stupid", "inferior" or something like that. They made their choice. It is truly silly to make fun of someone's choice.
And those who choose to start cleansing their minds will always find ways to do it. In fact (or call it my belief system, not the fact, if you like), everyone is given abilities and instruments of self-improvement and insight. And usually those instruments are quite simple: the ability to ask oneself and answer honestly, the ability to look, to see and watch carefully, the ability to help free of charge, etc.

But what does not cease to amaze me, is that with all the ease of transition from the first group to the second one (only one's WILL is enough), how rarely you can see such a transition in practice.

a reply to: JedemDasSeine

That is why, even though we want to wake people up so much because we love them and we want to help save their soul, there are too many demons in them and around them provoking the delusion and creating the denial that it is actually a trusted responsibility given to us from the universe to keep wisdom secret, which can be sort of a dilemma. The wisdom f the sages before John the Baptizer and Christ kept that wisdom secret from the world for 1,000s of years before the "Last Remnant" appeared on earth and it was revealed. But as you can see, or you may not be able to see at this time, when the truth is revealed, it was torn apart like a pelt in the struggle of 10 hungry dogs, and the truth was stolen by the elite of the world and distorted, then given to the world, so that they might not be able to find salvation. So the point was for the world to find salvation through the truth, yet the elite, powerful, and rich of the world confiscated the truth and then distributed false versions in the name of the truth, or forgeries.

I know I have been brainwashed.

Yes I believe ATS has given me a sort of awareness that helps me defend myself from the various tricks played by the media.

I'm not into religion but I believe God is the answer to freedom from the conditioning

I have been completely depressed and miserable since about six months ago when my wife cheated on me, and chose to start using heroin and meth every day. I was already feeling very low, but that took my despair to a whole new level. The type of unhappiness that causes one to welcome the end of the world.

Much of that despair miraculously lifted unexpectedly the day I moved into a mission and took God off the back burner of my mind and put him in the forefront.

The despair was replaced with contentment and motivation to accomplish goals.

This happened in a way that seemed to come from somewhere else. Just a few days ago I felt it was impossible for me to ever feel better yet out of nowhere I underwent a radical change for the better.

Now I would have to go out of my way to be exposed to the typical brain washing techniques. Rather than indulging in any negativity that controls us, all my energy is directed to self improvement and growth.

Yes I believe religion is one of the greatest conditioning tools out there, but God is not a religion......he is just there to help if we need it and honestly seek his help and have a true desire to change.

I believe all the brainwashing techniques come from satan who is constantly fighting to keep us from figuring this out.

It is very easy to let him control you and dictate your everyday life. He has been guiding my path my entire life. Now finally at age thirty I am starting to take control back, with the help from God and the knowledge I have gained through hardships.

I know this concept will be laughed at and called BS, but if anyone of you felt a radical transformation in your thinking and feelings in the manner I have, you would probably be more inclined to believe God really is out there......he is not a religion and does not seek to control us.......he just wants to help.

a reply to: muzzleflash

There is another category....I was so enthralled I simply forgot to flag.....
Thanks for reminding me..