"Only put your best foot forward."
Then test in your mind - which is the next best foot to put forward - put your intuition in a space where you can discern a pathway of prominence within the group and then walk there - following it without reserve. How many people of fame have created their towers of perception this way? Creating value in the group mind and the ability to harness and access that value - is a skill. The best performers recognize this and honest admissions from some of the most prominent among them expose the fragility of fame - which is dependent upon shared perception above everything else. Dare not express yourself honestly - you've got to keep living that role the group has given you.
In an age of lack of authenticity with an ever increasing thirst and search for the mystical grail of the 'true authentic self' by the group - finding authenticity then becomes directly dependent on knowing yourself and being able to differentiate from the group mind by having a fundamental understanding of its patterns.
Once the veil of perception is lifted from a certain percentage of the group mind and it is seen explicitly how 'value' itself in all its many forms is dependent on perception and how real physical value can be created solely by perceptual means first - a smoke and mirrors before it is a reality - and once it is seen how many people in almost all industries (especially the creative industries) have manufactured value building brands in this game and have succeeded by doing so - then... this reality will start to fall apart.
The group will not see it willingly. The group wants to stay where it is - it wants to keep exchanging value in this way and it wants to keep stamping 'authentic' and 'unique' on these cyclical reruns of human thought - which is entirely boring from an observer's perspective, "Oh look, humans are doing that value thing again - look at the clever people harnessing desire again and putting themselves above others using their knowledge of the way the group generates value!"
It is clear to me, having observed people from a group mind perspective in a great many travels having lived in many contexts - that the control of perception is indeed the control of the population. If perception is limited to what you receive online and what is online is a purely controlled medium - what has value is altered and decided for you today more directly and precisely than it ever has been in human history. In order to successfully guide someone in a direction - their particular situation must first be empathized with - their value spectrum, individually and in the groups they are in - needs to be mirrored in order to give them acknowledgement - then slowly over time, their value spectrum can be altered through slow but sure subtle algorithm manipulations. If they resist attempts to coerce them using this kind of non-consensual system of control - then it's the shadow echo-chamber for you. If you're not aware of the power of subliminal messaging, the subconscious mind and the isolation of awareness - best become so.
I remember one of my favourite lessons about this tendency within the human group was a magician clip by Derren Brown years ago that stuck in my head about guiding marketing experts minds by driving them past certain things before they got to their destination where they met with Derren to discuss ideas for marketing. Through utilizing this mind-priming method he successfully implanted imagery in just the right way that the path of least resistance for inspiration for these marketers was to access the most recent, relevant, original, authentic imagery and data in their environment.
After watching such thing - wouldn't you want to get to know your own mind? To understand the mechanics of your preferences? Wouldn't you want to invest in developing a memory so great that you can differentiate between the transient information provided to you by an undeveloped intuition and true creativity based on a much broader information pool?
Living and traveling as a street musician, I see magicians and illusionists at times, and also mix with them - I see how people react and I saw how their awareness was harnessed. I saw how the group mind was accessed and utilized with mesmerism - then that part of the mind was borrowed for a while - a coin squeezed out - and then give them back their free-will and send them on their way. It's not a terribly abusive use of someone's free-will but it does rely on a total ignorance of group mind mechanics within the individuals. Watching people consistently behave in groups in certain ways and then observing the same behaviours within cows at dairy farms - it's a part of the mind that is very much animal and is related to survival.
These little lessons stuck in my head. I see the same thing happening over and over again. Whether it is a subtle working of the music industry in order to project perceived popularity - or whether it is utilizing key words and phrases that happen to be prominent within the group mind in any specific time of year.
I see so many individuals within creative industries that have fluid personalities that have trained their intuition to the direction of 'high energy'. Often they consider they are invisible Not to me, because I am one of them - I have developed a very keen sense to understand and know this behaviour. In tuning in to the 'high energy' reciprocated from the group, triggered from their behavour they intuitively find a way through accessing a survival circuit within themselves (making money from a performance to live for example) to focus this energy and direct it - creating skill and infamy. Not of course without a bit of elbow grease - and those that work harder and have a little less entitlement tend to go further because they can back up that group perception they've harnessed with the skills and value they once claimed to be.
Accumulate this energy over a long period of time and spread it around to more than one part of the world and you have fame. People then directly attribute association with you - with their survival - because in being associated with you they increase their perceptual value which then increases their energetic yields which can be translatable into real world substance.
Recognizing specific archetypes within consciousness and then deliberately embodying those archetypes to allow the perception of directing focus. It's like a continuous running stream of energy that is 'hooked into' by the performer and if they deviate from the behaviours of the archetype they loose access to that energy and stream.
Many also do this unconsciously and find although their personality has changed - they remain that way for long enough to believe that is really who they are.
This energy created and directed by the group - becomes a kind of frequency the performer locks into - and in this it also becomes an addiction and later a prison - because if they make their art their job - when they want to be something that is different again - be 'themselves' (whatever that is now) - they can't. They must maintain this personality archetype which is now by default owned by the public - they are required to behave as a commodity owned by the public in order to make their living. If they falter in remaining true to the archetype after claiming a permanent place as it for a long enough period of time - the public turns on them.
So little see these dynamics because they simply ignore it. Most want to live in wonderland and stay there.
It is on every level - even the lowest - people start to work their way up the tower and their behaviours changes - their thinking changes - they change. The justification for this change and lack of integrity is 'success'. The false idea that success is a noble pursuit does not specifically entail what method and what morals you use to get there. But if you end up on top at the end of it - then you are virtuous and respected within society - then regardless of how you snaked your way to the top - you can suddenly change personality again and reciprocate the projection of being virtuous back to the people. This thirst for achievement intoxicates and gives way to a society with no backbone - no morals - less and less values aligned with direct physical needs - because attention has become the most ideal outcome.
The path that you focus on, is the path that lights up. Where you put the light of awareness within you is what gathers energy and value through your attention - and if you don't direct that light consciously - it is directed for you by your environment and social spheres - then what has value is something that you don't make a decision in - yet you come out the other end believing you are an individual that has the capacity to make individual rational decisions.
Guard your senses. At some point, we get sick of not-knowing - we get sick of being hoodwinked and we get sick of being gullible and naive. So we learn - pain teaches us. We are forced to learn.
The most vulnerable in society are attracted to the roles of the greatest influence and power - they're also the most corruptible - and that power corrupts. It is a denial of a commonly repeated principle throughout history to believe that you are somehow different and can maintain integrity in a high power setting. It is of utmost importance if it is your aim to serve the people truly - to create systems of decentralization that decentralize all energy and all attention by default in order to subvert this tendency within the human which does not and has not gone away for over many thousands of years.
To believe you are different is to be deceived by this part of the self.
The human is only as stable as the group maintained around it. Remove all groups, remove all family, change its environment - on a long enough time line - identity shifts and dissolves away. So many are unaware of how much of their identity is entirely powered on the group perception of those around them and how much this shifts and changes in a very energetic volatile way according to the ever shifting perspectives of this group - the stability of which is largely an illusion. Solid character can be made and maintained by principle and virtue alone - a society with no respect of the sincere is a society whose identity is controlled by the control of its environment - how flimsy that is - yet the self-same are convinced of how solid they are in their defiance against principled living and how permanent their very important role in this community is. It's quite the paradox. Identity, free-will, individuality and the concept of democracy having understood group politics better - are all fallacies.
To dissect a Biblical verse in a very practical group mind way from a non-religious person's perspective:
We put ourselves in the temple of God (the perceptual throne room of God in the minds of the people), showing ourselves that we are God (receiving levels of attention and adulation equal to a God), saying to ourselves we are God (embracing an archetype and locking into an energetic stream). So many started on this path believing it was the right way in order to accumulate enough authority in order to change something - then they themselves were changed by the energy they embodied.
(As an ex-Christian I still maintain a principled approach and respect for gnosis - I have gone around and come to the point of being able to respect people's belief systems again. I now also see the value as well as the persecution caused by these belief systems. It is important now as it is ever - to never throw the baby out with the bathwater.)
For the famous and tower devotees a great deal of energy is spent on maintaining the footing on that tower. Keeping your level - stay there or climb higher - do not deviate from the dictates of the energy or you will fall. Fame, seen in its fullness, is not a desirable thing.
It's time we lifted the veil.
Here are some practical questions to ask yourself to purify your value spectrum. Pick an item or anything at all that you place value on and write out your answers to these:
- Why does this have value?
- Was there once a time when I first perceived this 'value' in this thing that I considered 'why is this valuable?'
- Was my impression of the 'value' of it changed when I became aware of how friends or the public felt about it?
- Can I honestly say that I remember that moment of first impression? If not, make a commitment to yourself to make a snapshot of your first impression of something new to remember that snapshot and keep it separate from the rest of your thoughts - especially thoughts and value generated after associating with others in your mind. It could be an artwork in the Louvre or a new type of dish cloth - anything. Make a note to remember your first honest impression of something before you associate that with how others would think of it. This is not always accurate to the true value of something but provides some very valuable insight and an important reference point if used correctly.
- What is the intrinsic value of this thing? From a social perspective, from a raw survival perspective, from a societal or national perspective - add more perspectives to find more answers and be as honest as possible.
- Does the value of this thing depend on the value of other things? What are those things? Now ask the same questions for those things.
Add to these questions along the same vein of getting to the nitty gritty of value. Deliberately place your awareness in the thought train of dissection of value - start to see through value in everything that has been decided for you - which you may well believe you chose. Be humble, be open to questioning and allow yourself forgiveness.**