“It’s just part of the image. The Elders helped a guy with a luxury car business a while back. He lets us borrow his cars when useful. Today, I’m just getting a little used to the Jag so I can look like it’s my “daily driver” in the future.”
“More James Bond stuff?”, Nate was increasingly aware that Sally was whomever Sally wanted to be, when she wanted to be.
“More likely, I’ll be James Bond’s chauffeur. Either way, it’s the details that allow you to paint a picture so well that the mark doesn’t question anything.”
“So what’s on today?” Nate was getting more comfortable with the idea that Sally was a spymaster for the Old Ones. It was kinda cool, once he got over the surprise that they were into stuff like this---and that Sally was one of the experts they relied upon to do it.
“I’m trying to help you relax a bit about this by letting you tag along. We’ll be visiting a tailor. More importantly, I want to introduce you to something that we want you to do. While we’re getting there, I’ll introduce you to some of the theory. First of all, I want you to listen to a recorded message that I got off the Web a few days ago. Luckily, the sound system is so good on this car that I think you can get something of the feel that this would have on a person at home with a good stereo or ear-buds to listen.”
It started with some spacey electronic music and a subtle, yet obvious, recording of a heart-beat behind it. Then there was a voice over: “Sit back, relax, close your eyes and take deep breaths. Still your mind, and let what follows flow over you.” This instruction repeated several times, then stopped---leaving the music and heart beat.
Moments later, another voice came on. It was calm and eased slowly into a rhythm.
“I started into this with an experience that is probably pretty common. I had an intuition that what we are told is ‘normal’ and ‘real’ just isn’t that at all. ‘Normal’---as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right-- and, ‘life’----as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right, and, ‘reality’---as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right. I intuited that that there is a ‘wrongness’ in the world and as a result I was reluctant to participate in the world.”
“Different people express that reluctance in different ways. Some by lashing out and acting up. Some through depression and with-drawl. Some through self-sabotage---or it could be laziness and procrastination. Getting drunk, getting fucked-up on drugs. Different ways of diverting some of your life energy away from ‘The Program’---let’s call it ‘The Quest’.”
“The Quest” is learning what is wrong with the world, why we feel alienated. It’s the intuition that niggles away at the base of your being and leaves your life---as we’ve been offered it---as not being just quite enough.”
At that point Sally shut off the recording. “That’s enough of that nonsense.” Then she asked Nate what he thought about what he’d just heard.
“I don’t know. Somebody who doesn’t understand what life is about and is honestly searching for the truth?”
Sally sighed. “Yeah, that’s what it’s supposed to sound like. But think about this. He sounds like he doesn’t understand what life is about, but if so, why is he broadcasting on the Web? Don’t seekers seek?”
“Well, it is just an intro and you shut off the recording before he could have gone on to say that he’d found some big thing that he was going to share with us.”
“Good. You are still skeptical of my narrative. Let’s let that question hang in mid air. We’ll get back to it---but not right now.”
She paused as she changed lanes, merged into the collector, and, then made the transition from the 401 to the street that would get them where they were going in Toronto.
“Let’s get back to the clip I shared with you. Think about the intro and the words that he uses: ‘experience’, ‘intuition’, and the repetition of that phrase ‘as I’d been offered it---wasn’t quite right’. He’s being intentionally vague so the listener can ‘fill in the gaps’ with his or her own words. That’s similar to how a stage magician conducts a ‘cold reading’. Do you know what that is?”
“Not really. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term before.”
“We’ll get into this in more depth some time in the future, but a cold reading is something like that game ‘20 Questions’. You ask vague, open-ended questions, one after another, and invite a person to fill in the blanks. After a while, a skilled practitioner can hone-in on information that the subject has given him, repackage it in a new way, and it looks like he’s just read their mind.”
“If you are too specific in your language, you cannot cast your net very wide because it gives listeners an opportunity to say to themselves ‘Oh that doesn’t apply to me. My experience is different’. That’s why this fellow uses vague, open-ended terms so much---such as ‘intuition’ and ‘wrongness’”.
“Beyond the content of the words, think about the form. Do you notice all the repetition? This isn’t a standard talk about a factual subject. Instead, it’s more akin to a magical incantation. Or the patter of a hypnotist who is suggesting to a subject that it’s OK to feel, believe, or, do something that they would never ordinarily do because they think it might be foolish. Think back to the introduction: ‘---relax, close your eyes and take deep breaths. Still your mind, and let what follows flow over you---’. Isn’t that ultimately nothing more than a suggestion to turn off your critical faculties?”
“One last thing. Think about those last words where the Voice is suggesting that people ‘act up’, or get depressed, drink too much, are depressed, or procrastinate, etc. What exactly is going on here? It sounds to me like he’s trying to appeal directly to people who have significant problems and who might be particularly vulnerable and susceptible to someone who wants to gain some control over them.”
Nate was kinda freaked by what Sally was suggesting. “Why would you say that about this talk? What you say could be true, I supposed, but that’s a pretty negative spin to put on something that just sounds like an intro to harmless, New Age crud.”
“Well, I’d agree with you except I happen to know the ‘back-story’ to the fellow you hear blabbing. He’s a pretty prominent on-line influencer who’s been pretty instrumental in convincing a lot of people that the US government has been taken over by a conspiracy from outer space. He’s convinced a lot of people that vaccination against childhood disease is a conspiracy by Bill Gates to control the birth rate. This has led to a significant number of children dying of things like mumps, measles, lockjaw, etc. Oh, and in the process, he’s made a very good living off leading various ‘spiritual workshops’, selling books, recordings of lectures, etc. He also makes a ton off advertising on his podcasts. It’s true that this is empty, New Age crud. But I’d hardly say it’s harmless.”
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