"To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so." - Timothy Snyder, "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century"
I saw a T-Rex eat people on my TV. There must really be an island full of them critters like it said. I looked into buying a 50 Caliber rifle in case they swam over and got in my back pasture. Couldn't afford the gun or ammo so I guess I will have to risk becoming a dinosaur turd.
Now the only real incriminating convicting evidence in our possession is having a cell phone locating where we are, 24-7.
If they are looking for you, and you are wanting to hide Toss it on a passing freight train unless of course yuh done took the jab and are like one of them that got the game tag stuck in yuh supposedly for preventing the Fauci flu.
This is where we had better start leaning into one of the most important gifts God gave each of us, the gift of discernment.
To be in communion with God is to be impervious to deceptions and lies. If we haven't done it yet now is the time to hone and honor that gift. With practice and faith, devotion to the Lord who protects his children. He made sure we would be capable of surviving deceitful times such as these. Discernment.
Learn it. Develop it. Practice it. Use it. Those who don't will follow false gods to their own demise. They may point their spears at our necks for not following their false gods. But we must stay with truth no matter the consequence. Having faith in God that he will protect us and welcome us in his kingdom, so long as we don't forsake him. Discernment
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
The blurring of reality and fantasy has already been endorsed and encouraged. Part of the population now believes that there is no such thing as innate physical gender. Did anyone think there was no ulterior motive in that? Just a crazy thing that happened? Call it a trial run. If you can convince people that what they see in another person’s body is not what they thought it was, you’re well on your way to completely disconnecting them from reality.
Your point is well made. I feel sorry for the kids who are not strongly based in reality as all this kicks in. Confusion isn’t a strong enough word for where they’ll be
A few years ago (well, now it is about 5 years ago) I used to believe that most that we saw happening in the culture was organic, meaning it was coming about naturally without external coercion. This was very upsetting to me. Now I no longer believe this. I believe that most that we are seeing is the result of a conscious agenda.
Yes, the agenda merely plants the seeds, and the culture nurtures and the seeds grow in fertile soil, so there still is a defective organic element to it all. But I don't think, for example, the gender insanity would be to the point it now is without the agenda pushing it, supporting it, and even having been responsible for planting it to begin with.
The Apostles Peter and John each note (2nd Peter 1:16-21, 1st John 1:1-10) how they were eye- and ear-witnesses to Christ in His incarnation. Yet each goes on to explain how the TRULY reliable thing is NOT their sensory testimony to His brief earthly ministry, but the written Word of God (a.k.a., the Old Testament) which prophesied His coming, as well as the New Testament which, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were in the process of completing.
Jesus traces the same path in meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, after His resurrection. He chastises them for not seeing or hearing properly (being deceived, as Eve was, by poison eye- and ear-candy in Genesis 3:6) what was written in the Scriptures.
So, reason with me here, if the very Apostles who hung out with Christ 24/7 for several years and even saw great visions of transfiguration and resurrection could not trust their fleshly impressions, why are we surprised that, at the pinnacle of our technological age, we come to a point where it is obvious that fakery surrounds us... that deep fakery is in the hands not only of tyrants with expensive airbrushing staffs and Orwellian one-channel propaganda radio stations, but in the hands of... everyone?
What Isaiah conveyed, from the LORD, in the book which bears his name remains true. 40:6c-8 --
"All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades..." (I.e., eyes and ears are prone to deception and then they rot, due to the curse for trusting eyes and ears instead of God's Word, in the Garden.) "...But the word of our God stands forever."
You make a very valid point here. The senses are not the arbiter of truth. The Word is, the heart is. The material world is illusory, it is but an "appearance." Trust your heart.
Oops...that's too bad. I am not a Bible scholar like you or a lot of folks on this substack!! I do think there is a difference between following your heart and following your feelings. But if the avoidance, as you say, is to include "natural wisdom" and "inner sense" then I guess what I believe does contradict the Bible.
I am curious to know what your take on "if you have eyes to see, and ears to hear"...??
I personally believe that all we need to know is found through our connection with God within us. Thanks for the links! I will check them out.
Hey Todd. Appreciate your honest replies. I am not a Bible scholar by any means; I hated it with a passion until I was almost 40 y/o... but I hadn't really read it. My elite education was directed elsewhere. Then a friend challenged me to read it and see for myself. I challenge you that way also!
Re. God and us, we have to wrestle with what happened at the fall. We all die. That's the proof. We know death is wrong somehow. The Bible says it's b/c we rejected God's word. Texts such as John 8:44 and Deuteronomy 32:5 make very clear that God is NOT in everyone. In fact, in our fallen state ('natural' from birth), we are essentially animals. He is not in anyone unless and until they are reborn with His Holy Spirit dwelling within them. See John 3:3-8.
Gotta go walk my dogs! Praying you ponder with the seriousness this matter demands. The stakes really are perma-life or perma-death (not lights-out, but as in Luke 16, eternal conscious torment b/c we committed high treason against the perfectly holy God of everything.)
I've have always been interested in ancient scripture and other writings...and I do believe there is more to the Bible, of course, than just "wise writing"...I will study this further, but I have a hard time believing that man can be separate from God. He certainly can be 100% UNAWARE of God, but he cannot remove God from himself. That is what I have a hard time with. ALL is God, all is created by God, therefore God is IN all. IMHO. I am not quite sure how Jesus would have believed that some men did not have access to God. Anyway...good stuff to think about. I will check out those links...THANKS...say hi to your pups!!
Read John 8:44 as just one example of how Jesus articulated that separation. Romans 1:18+ is another good example. In essence: everyone knows there is a God; but in our enjoyment of our sin, we suppress that knowledge. In another sense however, you are correct. Many people think that hell is total separation from God whereas it is actually the eternal experience of His wrath. The big question (back to where we began) is whose word/thoughts you're going to trust: man's (including your own) or God's, as collated in the Bible and validated by Jesus' resurrection and the pouring out of His Holy Spirit to form up Christendom, the edifice of sanity which allows us to even have this conversation.
A lot of food for thought. For a fairly long time now, I ceased to believe most of what I see in videos and photographs, which we know can be made to look "real" when they are not. Also, as you suggest in a section of your article, I have begun to have certain doubts about many things that I was taught were "scientific facts" (including viruses, molecular structures, astronomical phenomena...). I am not yet ready to throw away everything I learned from a lifetime of studying conventional science... but I have become more critical about the validity of many "scientific techniques" that have supposedly allowed us to "see" phenomena that are beyond our physical senses.
The thought of having holographic technology that will "make us believe" things in front of our faces is mind-boggling and very scary.
Yes, but maybe ultimately this is a good thing. The blind man is wise, and depends on other "senses" to find truth. Maybe this is the time for us to develop those "senses."
The implications of what is described in the article is so scary, but important to be aware of. The manipulation of people who do not investigate further into what is real is the scariest aspect of all of this.
Scrolling Facebook, Instagram and TicToc have replaced research and thinking. Who has time to dig deeper into things when status updates rule. The fools showed themselves to be ripe for the picking during the plandemic, and it will only get worse with more technologically sophisticated ways to lie.
Reality: "anything ... having objective independent existence". Interesting. I, and this is my inner quantum mechanic speaking, would define Reality as something "having subjective and dependent existence." You know, wave functions (probabilistic potentials for existence) collapsing into Reality under observer's inquisitive eye (mind). That would make the photoshopped version of a dragon actually not real (or would it?) From this perspective, Faith and religions are/were a very important concept. They used to orient us and to synchronize our expectation of reality (and to bring it about?)
So yes, "the real danger [is] whoever or whatever gets a hold of the collective psyche and can convince ..." Currently, we live in a splintered world of a myriad of personal, individual, mutually incoherent realities. It is this, IMHO, that will make Cosmos uninhabitable for humans.
Your comment reminded me of something from Castaneda's book "Journey to Ixtlan"...here is something I wrote about it long ago...
"Both he and his mentor, Don Juan, are in the desert at night searching for a spirit. They come across what Castaneda “observes” to be a calf like creature with the ears of a wolf and the beak of a bird. It is curled up in their path and screaming as if about to die. Castaneda, at his first encounter with his creature, is terrified. But soon after his reasoning powers kick in and assure him that the existence of such a creature is “impossible” he “sees” that it is actually a fallen tree branch wafting about in the wind. He points this out to the Yaqui shaman and expresses his pride in seeing the “true” reality. Don Juan rebukes him and tells him that in fact the “tree branch” was a dying spirit while it was “alive with power.” It wasn’t transformed into a tree branch until Castaneda doubted its existence."
Other than the fact that all this can be horribly disorienting and disturbing, I am not worried about shrews...we can see it. It is everyone else that is a potential problem.
I also mention in this article an unconscious "giving up" I am afraid will happen in the culture. A sort of "don't bother" to understand the truth since the "material" required to make our own personal decisions about the reality of any given phenomenon will not be trusted or available. The sheep types will rely even more on "someone else" telling them what to believe, since they cannot ascertain reality on their own.
From the NakedEmperor blog-
"To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so." - Timothy Snyder, "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century"
Very good point. I think that is certainly my concern.
I saw a T-Rex eat people on my TV. There must really be an island full of them critters like it said. I looked into buying a 50 Caliber rifle in case they swam over and got in my back pasture. Couldn't afford the gun or ammo so I guess I will have to risk becoming a dinosaur turd.
Now the only real incriminating convicting evidence in our possession is having a cell phone locating where we are, 24-7.
If they are looking for you, and you are wanting to hide Toss it on a passing freight train unless of course yuh done took the jab and are like one of them that got the game tag stuck in yuh supposedly for preventing the Fauci flu.
This is where we had better start leaning into one of the most important gifts God gave each of us, the gift of discernment.
To be in communion with God is to be impervious to deceptions and lies. If we haven't done it yet now is the time to hone and honor that gift. With practice and faith, devotion to the Lord who protects his children. He made sure we would be capable of surviving deceitful times such as these. Discernment.
Learn it. Develop it. Practice it. Use it. Those who don't will follow false gods to their own demise. They may point their spears at our necks for not following their false gods. But we must stay with truth no matter the consequence. Having faith in God that he will protect us and welcome us in his kingdom, so long as we don't forsake him. Discernment
Matthew 13:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
The blurring of reality and fantasy has already been endorsed and encouraged. Part of the population now believes that there is no such thing as innate physical gender. Did anyone think there was no ulterior motive in that? Just a crazy thing that happened? Call it a trial run. If you can convince people that what they see in another person’s body is not what they thought it was, you’re well on your way to completely disconnecting them from reality.
Your point is well made. I feel sorry for the kids who are not strongly based in reality as all this kicks in. Confusion isn’t a strong enough word for where they’ll be
A few years ago (well, now it is about 5 years ago) I used to believe that most that we saw happening in the culture was organic, meaning it was coming about naturally without external coercion. This was very upsetting to me. Now I no longer believe this. I believe that most that we are seeing is the result of a conscious agenda.
Yes, the agenda merely plants the seeds, and the culture nurtures and the seeds grow in fertile soil, so there still is a defective organic element to it all. But I don't think, for example, the gender insanity would be to the point it now is without the agenda pushing it, supporting it, and even having been responsible for planting it to begin with.
This is a good companion to your piece:
https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/the-characteristics-of-witchcraft
thanks
Good and true article, T.H.
thanks!
The Apostles Peter and John each note (2nd Peter 1:16-21, 1st John 1:1-10) how they were eye- and ear-witnesses to Christ in His incarnation. Yet each goes on to explain how the TRULY reliable thing is NOT their sensory testimony to His brief earthly ministry, but the written Word of God (a.k.a., the Old Testament) which prophesied His coming, as well as the New Testament which, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were in the process of completing.
Jesus traces the same path in meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, after His resurrection. He chastises them for not seeing or hearing properly (being deceived, as Eve was, by poison eye- and ear-candy in Genesis 3:6) what was written in the Scriptures.
So, reason with me here, if the very Apostles who hung out with Christ 24/7 for several years and even saw great visions of transfiguration and resurrection could not trust their fleshly impressions, why are we surprised that, at the pinnacle of our technological age, we come to a point where it is obvious that fakery surrounds us... that deep fakery is in the hands not only of tyrants with expensive airbrushing staffs and Orwellian one-channel propaganda radio stations, but in the hands of... everyone?
What Isaiah conveyed, from the LORD, in the book which bears his name remains true. 40:6c-8 --
"All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades..." (I.e., eyes and ears are prone to deception and then they rot, due to the curse for trusting eyes and ears instead of God's Word, in the Garden.) "...But the word of our God stands forever."
You make a very valid point here. The senses are not the arbiter of truth. The Word is, the heart is. The material world is illusory, it is but an "appearance." Trust your heart.
You have hit on another fundamental contradiction, Todd, because the Word of God says very explicitly and emphatically, in myriad places and ways NOT to trust your heart (feelings, inner sense, natural wisdom, even spiritual leanings) because, in our fallen state, they will deceive you. E.g., just to pick three (among many): https://nasb.literalword.com/?q=jeremiah+17%3A9 and https://nasb.literalword.com/?q=Rom+3%3A9-23 and https://nasb.literalword.com/?q=1+cor+1%3A18-31
Oops...that's too bad. I am not a Bible scholar like you or a lot of folks on this substack!! I do think there is a difference between following your heart and following your feelings. But if the avoidance, as you say, is to include "natural wisdom" and "inner sense" then I guess what I believe does contradict the Bible.
I am curious to know what your take on "if you have eyes to see, and ears to hear"...??
I personally believe that all we need to know is found through our connection with God within us. Thanks for the links! I will check them out.
Hey Todd. Appreciate your honest replies. I am not a Bible scholar by any means; I hated it with a passion until I was almost 40 y/o... but I hadn't really read it. My elite education was directed elsewhere. Then a friend challenged me to read it and see for myself. I challenge you that way also!
Re. God and us, we have to wrestle with what happened at the fall. We all die. That's the proof. We know death is wrong somehow. The Bible says it's b/c we rejected God's word. Texts such as John 8:44 and Deuteronomy 32:5 make very clear that God is NOT in everyone. In fact, in our fallen state ('natural' from birth), we are essentially animals. He is not in anyone unless and until they are reborn with His Holy Spirit dwelling within them. See John 3:3-8.
Gotta go walk my dogs! Praying you ponder with the seriousness this matter demands. The stakes really are perma-life or perma-death (not lights-out, but as in Luke 16, eternal conscious torment b/c we committed high treason against the perfectly holy God of everything.)
I've have always been interested in ancient scripture and other writings...and I do believe there is more to the Bible, of course, than just "wise writing"...I will study this further, but I have a hard time believing that man can be separate from God. He certainly can be 100% UNAWARE of God, but he cannot remove God from himself. That is what I have a hard time with. ALL is God, all is created by God, therefore God is IN all. IMHO. I am not quite sure how Jesus would have believed that some men did not have access to God. Anyway...good stuff to think about. I will check out those links...THANKS...say hi to your pups!!
Read John 8:44 as just one example of how Jesus articulated that separation. Romans 1:18+ is another good example. In essence: everyone knows there is a God; but in our enjoyment of our sin, we suppress that knowledge. In another sense however, you are correct. Many people think that hell is total separation from God whereas it is actually the eternal experience of His wrath. The big question (back to where we began) is whose word/thoughts you're going to trust: man's (including your own) or God's, as collated in the Bible and validated by Jesus' resurrection and the pouring out of His Holy Spirit to form up Christendom, the edifice of sanity which allows us to even have this conversation.
A lot of food for thought. For a fairly long time now, I ceased to believe most of what I see in videos and photographs, which we know can be made to look "real" when they are not. Also, as you suggest in a section of your article, I have begun to have certain doubts about many things that I was taught were "scientific facts" (including viruses, molecular structures, astronomical phenomena...). I am not yet ready to throw away everything I learned from a lifetime of studying conventional science... but I have become more critical about the validity of many "scientific techniques" that have supposedly allowed us to "see" phenomena that are beyond our physical senses.
The thought of having holographic technology that will "make us believe" things in front of our faces is mind-boggling and very scary.
Yes, but maybe ultimately this is a good thing. The blind man is wise, and depends on other "senses" to find truth. Maybe this is the time for us to develop those "senses."
The implications of what is described in the article is so scary, but important to be aware of. The manipulation of people who do not investigate further into what is real is the scariest aspect of all of this.
Well said tiny water shrew.
Scrolling Facebook, Instagram and TicToc have replaced research and thinking. Who has time to dig deeper into things when status updates rule. The fools showed themselves to be ripe for the picking during the plandemic, and it will only get worse with more technologically sophisticated ways to lie.
Yes...rely on your heart, not your eyes.
Reality: "anything ... having objective independent existence". Interesting. I, and this is my inner quantum mechanic speaking, would define Reality as something "having subjective and dependent existence." You know, wave functions (probabilistic potentials for existence) collapsing into Reality under observer's inquisitive eye (mind). That would make the photoshopped version of a dragon actually not real (or would it?) From this perspective, Faith and religions are/were a very important concept. They used to orient us and to synchronize our expectation of reality (and to bring it about?)
So yes, "the real danger [is] whoever or whatever gets a hold of the collective psyche and can convince ..." Currently, we live in a splintered world of a myriad of personal, individual, mutually incoherent realities. It is this, IMHO, that will make Cosmos uninhabitable for humans.
Your comment reminded me of something from Castaneda's book "Journey to Ixtlan"...here is something I wrote about it long ago...
"Both he and his mentor, Don Juan, are in the desert at night searching for a spirit. They come across what Castaneda “observes” to be a calf like creature with the ears of a wolf and the beak of a bird. It is curled up in their path and screaming as if about to die. Castaneda, at his first encounter with his creature, is terrified. But soon after his reasoning powers kick in and assure him that the existence of such a creature is “impossible” he “sees” that it is actually a fallen tree branch wafting about in the wind. He points this out to the Yaqui shaman and expresses his pride in seeing the “true” reality. Don Juan rebukes him and tells him that in fact the “tree branch” was a dying spirit while it was “alive with power.” It wasn’t transformed into a tree branch until Castaneda doubted its existence."
In a strange way, the written word may carry more clout than a photo or a video. (Perhaps because it is easier to dissect?)
Interesting article. Thanks!
I agree...but very few people read these days. Which is a big part of the problem. Remember "Fahrenheit 451"...
What does it matter if Biden is real or a hologram or a double?
Nothing.
We know either way, from the words, it's just a puppet.
I guess we should judge by the message and actions instead of the image.
Maybe this time of easily fake stuff will be a good thing.
Past believable fakes were not common. People fell for them more often.
Today, we know deep fakes are easily made. The more people know, the less they will trust something just because it was on video.
Also, why are we so obsessed with video and audio, even for mundane things?
I much rather read a transcript than listen or watch someone saying it.
Other than the fact that all this can be horribly disorienting and disturbing, I am not worried about shrews...we can see it. It is everyone else that is a potential problem.
I also mention in this article an unconscious "giving up" I am afraid will happen in the culture. A sort of "don't bother" to understand the truth since the "material" required to make our own personal decisions about the reality of any given phenomenon will not be trusted or available. The sheep types will rely even more on "someone else" telling them what to believe, since they cannot ascertain reality on their own.