Denying the Power

 Amazing Polly did an interesting video using Scott Peck's book "People of the Lie" as a catalyst to try to create a bridge in understanding in people who are given to the cold rationalizations of "Science," and in that cold rationalization have been emotionally and spiritually stunted to the point that when they act on inhumane science, they think they are doing good. I find this premise woefully inadequate to account for the MEGA picture of the obscene condition of Western Civilization. These dupes operate on such a low spiritual level that they believe their actions, based on "humanism and secular liberalism," are good. They are merely the tools of brilliant evil, and humanity is not its origin or source.

In light of what we know of the Three Paths of Theology/Spirituality, we know that such people operate upon second path spirituality, either by mild or demonic pride in their own rationalism, creating illusion and delusion or their own unchecked emotional passions, which also creates illusion that quickly becomes demonic delusion. Psychology/Psychiatry has no answer to this, as Scott Peck proved in his writing.

Peck, in his book "The Road Less Traveled," he does a Jordan Peterson-level call to The Disciplines of
(1) Delaying gratification: Sacrificing present comfort for future gains.
(2) Acceptance of responsibility: Accepting responsibility for one's own decisions.
(3) Dedication to truth: Honesty, both in word and deed.
(4) Balancing: Handling conflicting requirements through the discipline of the first three.

You have to admit this is rather Jordan Peterson-esk, without the whiny voice and manic presentation.

One powerful lesson Peck taught in the first book was the understanding of Kathexis and Katharsis, which was an attack on the brainwashing power of romantic love, that in Second Path, rationalism, and emotionalism have significantly damaged the institution of marriage and the family in Western Civilization, making the central focus what is actually a psychosis (falling in love) and painting that psychotic episode over relationships of all kind, claiming that love wins. Actually, true love was all but banished many years before the psychotic substitution of romantic love came to rule and debase marriage and family. Just as Jordan Peterson's extreme wisdom and manic presentation arrived from an addiction to drugs, Scott Peck's wisdom about Kathexis and Karthesis was lost in his own life where while married, he bounced from one romantic relationship to another and even divorced his wife and married "the love of his life" about a year before he died. Despite the lack of discipline Peck himself displayed his call to discipline was worthy of note, and his attack on the culture of Romeo and Juliette-style psychosis was needed. The extreme hormonal reaction to the opposite sex and the process of Kathexis is simply a little trick in the makeup of humanity designed for the species' survival. Not meaning to be crude, but it corresponds to the mammalian trait of going into heat. The media feeds us a constant dream world, beginning with the romantic plays of the Elizabethan era, to the romantic novels of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to the onslaught of so-called "chick films" of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Let me briefly explain Kathexis and most honest people will relate to having experienced some form of it. This is true even of Romantic Religionists, but that is a story for another time. When two people meet, and there is a natural and powerful attraction on the part of both, this is classic Kathexis. People look on and say, "What does she see in him?" or the opposite, "What does he see in her?" Many parents of teenagers have silently asked this question when being introduced to "the love of her life," etc. This phenomenon causes the two lovers to be blind to each other. They have experienced Kathexis, having taken into their own ego circle not the reality of the other person but a romanticized idol of the other person, a model of their own ego's creation plastered over the image of the other person.

We've all heard the saying, "Love is blind." Deep love, true love, is not in the slightest way blind, and never projects its own ego upon the other person, but instead sees them, takes the time to discover how different from them they indeed are. It searches for the truth of the person, warts and all. But for the person who has experienced only the psychosis of Kathexis, they have instead absorbed the person and projected idealized perfection upon them. When the actual person begins to act in surprising and unexpected ways, then comes considerable pain. You see, if you picture that idol taken in as a foreign object inside one's ego boundary, the result is painful swelling and even infection. In other words, that person begins to struggle for the health of their own identity against the assault of the foreign object.

As that real person bounces around in the psyche of the other, it causes pain. "Why would you do that?" "I can't believe you would say that!" "I can't believe you would do that." "I thought I knew you!" "How could you possibly think . . . act . . . do . . . be, etc."  I don't even know you anymore."  This is the language of Katharsis, as the idol is removed from their psyche, as the person painfully comes to sanity, realizing that their previous knowledge of the person was false. "How could you do that to me?" "I don't even know you anymore." For young honest people who fall in love, the reality of the love, or lack thereof, between them only happens when the Kathexis becomes so painful they expel each other, removing the romantic blinders and then asses if they can have a future with the other, and in fact, will they be strengthened or weakened by the relationship, whether the relationship increases their health and life experience, or whether they are headed down a suicidal path. Now, I'm painting in stark terms, and we know this experience has myriad degrees.

Every ordinary "user/controller" who makes victims of so-called romantic interests operates on the principle of Kathesis while immune to it. The ugly, exploitative, and enslaving relationships happen when one side thoroughly understands the hormonal, psychic, and spiritual reality of Kathexis and uses it to ensnare—every prostitute in love with her pimp witnesses this fact. Every widow enamored of a handsome man and bilked out of her life savings is also a witness to it.

In this sick culture of Romantic love, people float through life on an endless cycle of experiencing the ecstasy of falling in love, only to grow disappointed and break up. Scott Peck's exposure of this common psychology was beautiful. Another form of this is the married person constantly looking outside the marriage for the "thrill of romance." This is different than just the pursuit of lustful sex, but the addiction to Kathesix.

So back to Amazing Polly's use of Scott Peck's work, "People of the Lie." I read this book exactly forty years ago and used it in ministry many times, especially with people who seemed to be their own worst enemy and had no comprehension of evil. Peck's book had much more cultural meaning forty years ago when the entire culture refused to recognize the possibility of any influence of evil. Peck nudged people to accept the idea of "human evil," which was a thoroughly inadequate proposition, as his own life demonstrated. Not to disparage the contextual good Scott Peck did, and he did accomplish much good; using his material, I saw it create a step some people could take, ON THE WAY, but it was not THE WAY. Scott Peck was ultimately deceived, believing, as he articulated, that all evil was, in his final analysis, a character and personality disorder. After all, the full title of his book was "People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil."

I've used that title many times in conversation and writing as an example of the near-total delusion of the mid-twentieth century consciousness, as evil wreaked havoc and blind people could not see the evil that was in plain sight. What is wrong with this idea of mere human evil? Well, it is based on the anthropology of Ape-ostology, which is the divorce of the human from the Creator and Redeemer God, Truth who walked among us and taught us; the removal of mankind from the grand cosmic spiritual battle as is witnessed in this world and a surrendering of spiritual power, severed from the wisdom of Christian Tradition, which includes the Holy Scriptures. In that false paradigm, evil is merely human failure and can be solved by psychological "science." Good luck with that.

Now, Scott Peck's experience of "human evil" led him to investigate further, ultimately leading him to the sure knowledge of Satan's existence. Peck related in "People of the Lie" that he had believed, as did "99% of psychiatrists and the majority of clergy" at the time (Peck, 1983/1988, p182), that the devil did not exist, but after starting to believe in the reality of human evil, he then began to contemplate the existence of spiritual evil. Eventually, after having been referred several possible cases of possession and being involved in two exorcisms, he was converted to a belief in the existence of Satan.
That statement is like saying, "Having witnessed several people run over by a dump truck, I came to believe in the laws of momentum, kinetic energy, gravity, and mass.

Amazing Polly uses excerpts from the Ebook to outline Peck's teaching about the common characteristics of evil people, and it is insightful. Remember, I used to buy this book ten copies at a time and used it in spiritual therapy with great success. But this is kindergarten spiritual understanding, and it risks simplifying a very complex and "creative" structure of evil expression and temptation. This is a cartoon to use, not a complete picture.

Peck says the evil person
is consistently self-deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self-image of perfection

deceives others as a consequence of their own self-deception

projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets (scapegoats) while being apparently normal with everyone else ("their insensitivity toward him was selective" (Peck, 1983/1988, p 105[8]))

commonly hates with the pretense of love, for the purposes of self-deception as much as deception of others

abuses political (emotional) power ("the imposition of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion" (Peck, 1978/1992, p298[7]))

maintains a high level of respectability, and lies incessantly to do so

is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency (of destructiveness)

is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim (scapegoating)

has a covert intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury

In People of the Lie, Peck does a decent explication of the dangers of human possession, that is, being possessed (controlled) by another person.

Amazing Polly concludes that "evil people cause all our troubles" and admits that those same evil people would accuse her of "scapegoating." And guess what? The evil people would be right. Yes, evil people create chaos, lawlessness, carnage, and, as we are experiencing, even GENOCIDE. But these acts of wickedness happen in a world where so-called good people have abdicated their responsibility. Right down to the most personal levels, cowardly people would rather be liked and get along than stand in Truth and confront the obvious evil in front of them.

Again, how do we participate in the sins of others?
Most people can't even name the Cardinal Sins, the unnatural result of Fallen Human Nature.

Let's name them:
PRIDE: The lack of humility befitting a creature of God.

GREED: too great a desire for money or worldly goods.
LUST: impure and unworthy desire for something evil.

ANGER: unworthy irritation and lack of self-control.

GLUTTONY: the habit of eating or drinking to much

ENVY: jealousy of some other person's happiness

SLOTH: laziness that keeps us from doing our duty to God and man.

These sins take horrible and diabolical forms, and what we have stated is a cartoon not the entire ugly picture. So how do we participate in the sins of others?

By counsel

By command

By consent

By manipulation

By provocation

By praise or flattery

By concealment

By partaking

By silence

By defense of the sin committed.

This is Christian moral principles 101, and without God, there is no ethical or moral basis for suggesting any of these principles have merit, much less force. In the world AFTER GOD, we can say that Sodomite Sex is a Moral Good, and why not? We can say, as many have, that billions may be killed for the benefit of millions, and why not? What right do we have to object? Babies may be ripped from the womb; children may be zombified via vaccine poisoning and nano-technology; our food may be rightly poisoned, our water polluted, our skies chem-trailed, our children brainwashed by trans-demons, women driven from their own identity, lives, and society by trans-monsters. And NO ONE, not one person on the planet, willing to accept the "scientific materialism of the Enlightenment has the foundation to rightly object. For if one does, the only foundation is that of a third grader saying, "Just Because." "Why did you break that lamp?" said the shocked parent, "Cause" comes the all-purpose and only answer.

Ultimately Polly does not address the reality of diabolical evil; that which IS chaos, that which IS death, that which IS lawlessness and is proud of it. She ends by talking of those who, as Scott Peck pictured, do all to cover up their faults, failings, and sins. This does not address the malevolent evil that roams the earth seeking whom he may devour. It does not address the evil angelic and demonic powers capable of deception, whose only motive is the destruction of the human. This level of evil is very real, and psychology cannot address it.