Brian Hite

7 November 2011

                                                     Death to the Individual

Society dictates individuals must conform to the social norm; they must be successful, have a good paying job, have a college education, and compete in a materialistic existence for clothes, cars, and electronics. Society expects individuals to marry and procreate. Society expects individuals to teach their offspring the “necessary skills” to recreate this pointless cycle of “life.” Why is it people desire these things? Is this to better their life? Does the individual want these things because it is truly their desire? On the other hand, does the individual blindly seek out the things society has dictated makes them a successful person and thus normal? Who decides what is normal? Where does this prejudice come from? The answer to these questions could decide the fate of the individual. This prejudice tells humanity to participate in the materialistic society, to be like everyone else. The expectation of people to assume the prefabricated identity given them is enforced without question. This prejudice, overlooked by nearly everyone, is possibly the most important prejudice one will ever come across. First, it is impossible to be an individual and conform to society at the same time. “The problem is that everything about conformity is based on the repression of completely natural things like individuality” (Mohr 1). In order to conform, the individual must utilize self-sacrifice for society. Most individuals will never know who they truly are because they spend their life deluding themselves into believing they are who society tells them to be. This sounds so very tragic, yet nearly everyone participates in this materialistic socialism on a daily basis without realizing it. This prejudice has roots in man’s primordial history. For prehistoric humans, survival was more than working nine-to-five, five days a week. For them staying alive was a traumatizing daily struggle producing certain evolutionary survival defense mechanisms to ensure the continuance of the species. These same defenses, hardwired into human DNA, pass down through the millennia to aid in survival. Conformity is one such survival device. Individuals see their predecessors conformed in society to stay alive, so logic dictates they follow suit. Conformity is no longer about staying alive; it is merely a way to avoid discomfort or anxiety.   A prejudice such as this quickly receives the label controversial. What would happen to the superficial mechanics of society if its participants abandoned their time-honored posts in search of their own identities? This implies individuals are not who they believe they are, or who society tells them they are. The ability to transcend this enshrouded barrier is of upmost importance to any and every one. Because conformity is forced down the throats of individuals, the race of man is doomed to sacrifice identity and knowledge to society, who enforces immense prejudice against individuals using evolutionary defense mechanisms, materialistic capitalism, and ego.    Individuals, from the beginning of their life until the end, strive to conform to social normality partly because this is a survival tactic hardwired into their brains because of a traumatic evolutionary past. What is conformity? “Conformity is the willingness to put one’s own personal beliefs, values, and morals aside and accept someone else’s in order to better fit in” (Mohr 1). In ancient times humankind had to compete for every meal and death lurked around every corner. When competition for daily food can easily end in death, it tends to be traumatic. Traumatic events such as these are hard to forget. The method of staying alive passed down from person to person. If one prehistoric man discovered avoidance of certain animals kept him alive, then it certainly would be imitated. This “imitation” would be learned and others would “conform.” This is the source of our defense parameters including the need to compete and to conform. “Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms” (Downes 1). Defense devices have their place; the human species would not have made it this far without them. These defense mechanisms are responsible for the feelings humans get when they step too close to a ledge with a long drop. The same devices tell humankind when danger is eminent and causes the body to respond by producing hormones to raise the heart rate, allow for prime breathing, and narrow the field of vision to increase the person’s odds of survival. However to blindly follow them is not advisable. Some of these devices are very beneficial, and some are outdated and of little use.  “What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations-products of natural selection-that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive, and reproduce” (Downes1). Survival is still a very real situation for much of the world. In America, the need to fight for every meal or constantly elude danger is not very realistic. The survival tactic remains nonetheless. Without the dire need to conform, why does it so heavily saturate society? One possible explanation is human evolution happens slowly. Although most humans do not have a strong need to conform in order to survive today, quality of life has not been this hospitable for very long. Thus, humans have yet to adapt to a life where survival is not as cutthroat. Another explanation is conformity to social norms is a way to reduce and even avoid anxiety. Martin Hoffman carried out a series of experiments using a wide variety of test subjects and instrumentation measuring galvanic skin response, and he proved resistance to conformity produces anxiety and conformity the opposite. “Although reaction formation is a process of personality development, it has implications for the functioning of the developed personality as well. That is, the content of reaction formation becomes part of the system of defense mechanisms which serve to ward off anxiety by keeping impulses in a repressed state” (Hoffman 413). In other words, people go through life steadily conforming to social norms in order to save themselves embarrassment and anxiety at the expense of individuality. Is there a real cost to wasting time conforming to society? If individuals spend their lives conforming to society instead of discovering their selves and learning what it truly means to live, when their time on earth is up, will they look back at their life and be happy? Alternatively, will they look back, see an empty shell of a life dedicated to self-delusion, and realize they have no idea who they are? The world is full of such examples. Countless people, at the pinnacle of old age, fall into a horrendous depression upon realizing they wasted their life serving the system instead of dedicating their time to the things that truly matter. How well can individuals know themselves if they spend their time masking the inner self with the delusions of conformity? How well could they possibly know their friends or family? This, the heart of the prejudice that crushes the essence of individual spirit, is the unspoken prejudice of society against the individual. Conform to the ways of everybody else or risk being different and becoming an outcast, a crackpot, or the laughing stock of the community.

Another, more inconspicuous aspect of this prejudice, is the pressure to compete in a soul crushing materialistic machine. The individual participates in an exploding materialistic culture that thwarts his spiritual advancement for the sake of its progress. This materialistic mechanism is a cog in the wheel of capitalism; and is an effect of greed. In an effort to achieve conformity, people waste most of their lives spending their well-earned money on materialistic possessions society tells them will make them normal or more popular. People will no longer think individuals outcast if they were to get that new phone, or if they were to get those new shoes. Where does this idea come from? Could this be a delusionary notion created by the twisted minds of the outcasts that fail to achieve popularity? Is it possible this message, conveyed by society, starts at the top of the chain and spirals all the way to the bottom using media as its vehicle? Does a new phone really tell the world who the individual is? What it does is send a strong signal out to society saying this person is conforming. Society conveys the idea that happiness is impossible for individuals until they achieve the social norms of material possessions. Hence, individuals entangled in this struggle to achieve happiness are doomed to a life of failure as this illusionary “happiness” is unobtainable. The survival of this aggressive capitalistic laden society depends on conformity of individuals to social norms. Without this conformity, the wheels of the materialistic machine would come to a grinding halt. Forcefully trained, pressured, and scorned, participants of the system are forced into a futile cycle of endless, soul-crushing race for imaginary happiness. Society prejudges anyone who does not base his or her values on material possessions.

Perhaps the cause most utilized by this tyrannical social system is the ego. The ego is created upon birth. All of the human senses report on the outside influences; the eyes open outwards, as do the ears, touch, smell, and taste. As a result, the individual does not know who he or she is. Individuals use the first outside input from their mother and father as a basis for the creation of “who they are,” or the ego. The individual is not aware of whom he or she is, only the reflection of what others think he or she is, the ego. The ego, fully realized at a very early stage in development, gives way to another false representation of self, the superego (Levin 40). Secretly the individual fears himself and the silent dark within. In a vain attempt to ease the insatiable questioning of the mind, he envelops himself in a comfort blanket of acceptable ideas and beliefs. He creates his mask and spends his life applying his false knowledge to this imposter in order to silence the nagging questions within.  The superego is the filter through which people perceive the world around them. It is the mask they build to appease themselves, family, friends, and society. As people mature, the layers of the superego become many, and the superego becomes very defensive and fearful of change. As refusal to conform creates anxiety by nagging at the false reality of the superego, individuals in society usually conform to what society dictates as normal in fear of challenging their false beliefs. The superego is a tool of the ultimate form of prejudice. Through filters, the superego pre-judges everything in perception. It also creates prejudice in the way others view an individual. If individuals do not know themselves and society cannot tell them who they are, how then can anyone know who they are? Contrary to popular belief, individuals are not their shoes, clothes, haircut, or social status. The actual identity of the individual is only discoverable if they eject themselves from the social norms of the materialistically oriented world of false belief. The superego is resistant to change, and is like a false portrait posing as a mirror. Individuals must take their masks off to discover their true identity. How many are courageous enough to go against the social grain of normality and rebuke a life of servitude to the materialistic mechanism of society only to face the suffocating silent dark within? Within every human, deep in this dark void, hides a divine spark or essence of the individual waiting silently to be set free. Compliance to the prejudice of society insures the individual will never discover the truth lurking behind the iron curtain of conformity. Survival of society depends on the lifeblood of self-sacrifice of the individual.

The importance of this prejudice is paramount. Individuals in society see the world about them through a lens of deceit, which they accept because of the social pressure to conform. The majority of individuals conform to society subconsciously as if their life is on autopilot. What is worse is by succumbing to conformity, individuals commit themselves to a life of judging others on a set of false ideas society lends them. By conforming, they become prejudiced themselves and discriminate against any and every one who does not match up with society’s values.  “People may have prejudiced beliefs and feelings and act in a prejudiced way because they are conforming to what is regarded as normal in the social groups to which they belong… (McLeod 2). With society enforcing its all-encompassing tyrannical prejudice on members of society, the individual becomes one of the many faces of defeat. These individuals know what society tells them and no more. They believe they exist simply to help turn the massive wheels of the materialistic machine. They live what society dictates is a good life. What they do not know is their true being waits buried inside beneath the mountain of lies and deceit society has fed them, watching with sadness and hope that one day they will awaken. Individuals do not know they are lost, as they are living as their parents did and their parents before. This in turn causes them to live a life mirage in deceit, doomed to live out failure after failure in life because the model they base their life on is unobtainable. How can one achieve something that does not exist? To make matters worse, this enormous prejudice exists on a level that for the most part circumvents detection. With every prejudice, there are no winners; this is no exception. In this downward spiral of hidden deceit, individuals contribute to their own decay by participating in the materialistic-society-mechanism. Stuck in this vicious cycle, they will never know who they are, or what their purpose in life is. Members of society seek to fill this void with that new car; or new shoes instead of facing their fears and exploring the dark void within. Participants of this system choose carefully their words, actions, beliefs, and even thoughts in fear of upsetting the delicate opinion of society. What irreverent wonder it must be to think for one’s self! Countless hopeful minds sit enthralled by a television at this moment awaiting the newest installment of what it means to be individuals, of what it means to fit in and be popular. With every purchase, they feel closer to conveying their self-worth or self-image to society, oblivious to the fact that they are ignorant of their own identity.  Self-sacrifice to society has no benefits aside from avoiding a little anxiety, or perhaps having a lot of company. Before every individual lays a fork in the road, one path is well worn and heavily traveled. The other path is long and arduous, one of discovery and truth of which very few have traveled, a path of mystery. Sadly, this path is not for everyone, as most people are not ready to except the notion that their beliefs are false or that they have no idea who they truly are.

In conclusion, the individual has become a slave to his own undoing, to prejudice. The very meaning of individual is a stark contradiction of conformity. It is not possible to have one and the other. When succumbing to conformity the individual admits defeat and in a sense dies as a person. When every aspect of a person’s life is under control by what others decide is best, that person ceases to be an individual and becomes a mindless drone with popular thought and belief behind the wheel. Just because the media says consumers need certain items does not mean they do, or that it will make their life any more meaningful. What does make life meaningful is individuality, and the pursuit of the knowledge of self. If members of society would turn their attention inwards, to the silent dark within, a lot less attention would be spent on what clothes others wore, or what car they drove. Ultimately, the individual needs to tell society what it means to be an individual, a life without the slavery chains of conformity.

Works Cited

Downes, Stephen M. “Evolutionary Psychology” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall   2010 Edition. Web. 21 October 2011.

Hoffman, Martin L. “Conformity as a Defense Mechanism and a Form of Resistance to Genuine             Group Influence” Journal of Personality. 25.4 (1957): 412 Academic Search Complete.    EBSCO. Web. 21 October 2011.

Levin, Gerald Henry. Sigmund Freud. Austria: Twayne, 1975. Print.

McLeod, Saul. “Prejudice and Discrimination,” Simply Psychology. 2008. Web. 21 October          2011.

Mohr, Joseph. “The Case Against Conformity,” Helium. May 21, 2008, Web. 21 October 2011.

Spirits Are Among Us

 

                                      Spirits Are Among Us

Over the years, experiences and widespread reports led to an increased curiosity as to whether ghosts are real or imagined. This curiosity is apparent in our modern media, and has led to such shows as Ghost Hunters, GHI, Most Haunted, and a slew of documentaries. Studies show that in today’s society, more people believe in ghosts than those who do not. In addition, more people believe in spirits every day. Despite serious public curiosity, mainstream science dismisses the idea quickly. Is this because there is no evidence? More importantly, is this because science is afraid of the implications if one were to prove such an idea? Whatever the reason, science at large steers clear of the topic. I believe in the existence of spirits because evidence, history, experience, physics, and widespread reports indicate this to me as truth.

  Spirit is known as the life force that animates the living; which is the energy that resides in the body or soul. The idea is known throughout the world in many traditions. Spirits are called by many names: ghosts, apparitions, poltergeist, specters, and entities. A spirit becomes a ghost when the soul, or animating life force, leaves the body upon death and stays behind on our physical plane instead of crossing over. I believe that everything in our world is made up of the same vibrational energy on a molecular level. This energy is in everything, everywhere, and in everyone. This energy is limitless, cannot be created or destroyed, and has no beginning or end. It is vibrational; eternal. This energy is called many names: Chi, Ki, spirit, Prana, Orgone, and bio-electric magnetic energy. It has been photographed, recorded, and measured. Why then can it be so easily discounted?

The most convincing evidence for me was experiencing this personally. In September 2000, I was visiting my girlfriend. I knocked on the door and received no answer. I knew that she was home, so I let myself in and walked into the living room. Her son was asleep in the adjacent bedroom. There was a woman, dressed in an old nurse's uniform, sitting on the edge of his bed. She noticed me walk into the living room and smiled. She grabbed a blanket and covered the boy up. I thought nothing strange about the woman. She did not look odd or transparent like in the movies. I went into the other room to ask my girlfriend who her friend was. She looked at me as if I were a lunatic and replied there was nobody there except her and her son. I immediately ran into the other room to find her son alone and sound asleep. This experience scared me to the point of rethinking my beliefs.

  I experienced another encounter on November 27^th, 2010. I was working the night shift at Sonic replacing the burned out florescent light bulbs. The new ones were outside in our storage building, which had no electricity. The bulbs were stored beside the door on a shelf. In order to reach them I had to close the door behind me. With the door closed it was pitch black. I began to feel as if someone was watching me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I became covered in goose bumps. I tried to convince myself there was no reason to be scared. I grabbed a hold of a florescent light bulb. To my surprise, it began to glow a dull orange. My heart began to race out of control and I dropped the bulb onto a cardboard box. The bulb continued to produce light, becoming as bright as daylight. This scared me half to death. I grabbed the box of bulbs and ran directly back to the main building. At 6a.m. the next morning, I woke up to a phone call from my Father-in-law. His wife passed away the night before, about the same time I had my experience. The ambulance passed right by sonic on the way to the hospital. This told me I was not crazy, that spirits do in fact exist.

I am not the only person with these experiences. There are reports of ghost sightings throughout history. My own experience led me to study and research the subject. In my search, I came across numerous cases that shed light on the topic. One of the first was Pliny the younger, who wrote about such experiences in the first century A.D. This is just one of the many examples. Plato wrote about ghost experiences in The Republic. Reports of spirits are not limited to a select group of people or geographical area. These reports come from all over the world, from every race, all throughout history. Perhaps the most curious to me was the ghost of Benjamin Franklin and President Lincoln. Both have numerous sightings by many people. For instance presidents, queens, first ladies, and prime ministers all witnessed Lincoln’s ghost in the White House. Here we have reports from reputable sources with impeccable credibility, people with nothing to gain and everything to lose (History).

Though some experiences are easily explained as hoaxes, hallucinations, or biased claims, there are thousands of wide spread reports by reputable sources. I studied cases of doctors caring for terminally ill cancer patients. These doctors hear about near death experiences daily, and give their medical opinion that these experiences are the result of pain medication or hallucinations. Then, the same doctor's medical opinions take a 180-degree turn when they have their own experience. Such is the case of Mary Jo Rapini, a clinical psychologist, who was accustomed to discounting stories of near death experiences. She collapsed from a brain aneurysm while exercising at a local gym. Once revived, she described the exact same experience discounted numerous times before (Kastenbaum). This is just one example of the many cases of well-educated people rethinking their stance on belief in spirits because of firsthand experience. There is no short supply of these accounts.

I also found numerous examples of evidence. EMF (electro-magnetic field) detectors are able to locate, measure, and verify the presence of a spirit. Digital cameras are capable of capturing apparitions on film. FLIR (forward looking infrared), is capable of picking up spirits invisible to the naked eye. The most concrete evidence I came across was the scientific experiments carried out by William Reich, the founder of the theory of Orgone energy. Reich believed he stumbled across an energy field in the human body. Through experimentation he recorded and measured this energy. Later he discovered this energy existed everywhere, in all things. In one case, Experiment XX, Reich proved that living entities could develop seemingly from nowhere (Grad). In conjunction with another experiment, The Oranur Experiment, Reich proved without a doubt the existence of Orgone energy (Reich). This energy is the same spoken of in nearly every religious tradition.

Modern physics agree with the notion that energy exists in all things. On an atomic level, this vibrational, bioelectric magnetic energy exists in every atom. A basic atom is comprised of three components: electrons, neutrons, and protons. This energy resides in the space between the nucleus and the electron, keeping them stable. There is phenomenally more space (filled with this energy) than matter (nucleus) in an atom. On a larger scale, it becomes apparent that we exist more as energy (spirit) than as solid matter. This notion, as with all laws of physics, is subject to the First Law of Thermodynamics. (5) "The First Law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed." This one law profoundly changed my understanding of the world around me. This law states that our life force (energy), upon our bodily death, does not cease to exist. There is research that states, at the exact moment of our death, we lose around 28 grams of mass. Could this be the weight of the soul?

For many people it is simply difficult to believe in something that they cannot evaluate. To other people, belief in something that is invisible is lunacy. However, we cannot "see" the air around us, yet without it, we would not exist. We cannot touch human emotion, yet we know that it exists because we all feel it. Would it be the same if we all had better developed temporal lobes and everyone experienced spirits daily? Have you seen gravity, or touched it? Yet we all experience gravity, so it is accepted.

For many people, reported experiences or evidence is the result of medication, hallucinations, delusions, or hoaxes. This is perfectly acceptable, unfortunately. A good percentage of reports are the result of medication or the fact of limited credibility. There are also several instances were reports are proven to be a hoax. Most sad perhaps is the investigator who is biased to the point of blindness. Such investigators only report one side of the facts to meet their ends. This is encountered in all areas of reporting and cannot be avoided. Although numerous reports can be discredited, what about the thousands of others that cannot be disproven, discredited, or attributed to hoaxes? What about the reports from statesmen, doctors, judges, or even leaders of countries? They put their reputation on the line and stand to gain nothing.

Having sifted through tons of evidence I have come to the conclusion that spirits are among us. The idea sparks controversy, but then again, at one time in history so did mathematics. Just because we fear something, or do not understand it, is not a justifiable reason for ignoring the evidence that sways the balance. It is time for science to quit running from the inevitable and admit that it was wrong. Though the implications frighten some and upset others, discovery and growth is at the heart of mankind. We must not follow science in turning a deaf ear. One day we might find ourselves a spirit attempting to communicate with a loved one.

                                       

                             Works Cited

“Historical Ghost Stories,” 2011. The History Channel Website. August 27 2011, 12:32. http://www.history.com/topics/historical-ghoststories.

(i)                 “Encyclopedia of Death”, edited by Robert and Beatrice Kastenbaum (1989, pp. 170-174. Oryx Press, 2214 North Central at Encanto, Phoenix, Arizona 85004-1483).

(ii)               Grad, Bernard. William Reich’s Experiment XX. Core, Vol. (3 and 4). 130-143.

(iii)             Reich, Wilhelm. The Oranur Experiment. Orgone Energy Bulletin, Vol. 3 (4), 185-344, October, 1951

(iv)             Tro, Nivaldo (2008). Chemistry: a molecular approach. Upper Saddle River N. J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. P. 810. ISBN 9780131000650