The Story of Jesus, or How an Act of Rebellion Against the System was turned into a Tool of Manipulation for The System.
The story of Jesus is a perfect example of how stories can be turned into weaponized belief systems designed to disempower and control the masses.
The history of Jesus happened more than 2000 years ago. Although it is impossible to know exactly what happened at that time, the historical records provide a coherent and disturbing story of instrumentalization of fear and mass hysteria to create a powerful collective belief system at the services of the rulers at the top of our society.
Jesus appears to be borne from an unknown father. He had a spiritual connection at a very early age which gave him access to higher wisdom that he started sharing as a young teenager. During his personal journey that led him to be considered as a prophet, he had transforming experiences such as the 40 days fasting in the wild, that led to a high level of spiritual development.
One who goes through such a journey of spiritual development will often develop gifts, such as the ability to heal or to connect to higher level of consciousness. Such process also involves an expansion of self awareness, knowledge and empathy that sharpen our perceptions and understanding of the world around us. It means that Jesus could feel, see and understand what people around him couldn’t, something that can be both a blessing and a curse.
Anyone who has developped their perception will see that the masses are being dominated and manipulated by subjugating systems driven by people who are more concerned about their position of power than by the welfare of humanity. In the absence of proper guidance and inner shadow work (integration of the rejected parts of the self), this can lead to difficult situations such as spiritual emergencies, savior and messiah complex than can be extremely dangerous, especially in the social context of ancient history. It is understandable that someone grasping both the infinite consciousness and love of God on the inside and the high level of manipulation through fear on the outside may see himself as God or as a savior.
It appears that this is exactly what gradually happened. Jesus repeatedly claimed to be the Son of God (the Father) and the only way to salvation: an ego delusion that led to the cleansing of the temple event. Upon seeing that merchants were using a temple as a business, Jesus had a tantrum. Enraged, he started overthrowing tables and moneychangers, flocking and kick traders out of the temple while yelling at them: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves”.
It is this particular violent rebellion against those who had profaned the sacred with their profit seeking business that expedited the arrest and trial of Jesus. It was predictable, his influence was growing and his teachings were a serious threat to the religious and political establishment of the time. He was accused of blasphemy by Jewish religious leaders for claiming to be the son of God and of treason and rebellion by the Roman authorities for telling people not to pay taxes.
The end of the story is notoriously known: Jesus held his rebellious ground during the trial, repeating that he is the Son of God and ended up crucified as a result.
Yet, his gruesome execution was not without unexpected consequences. The spiritual rebel who in many aspects was speaking from a place of higher wisdom had developed a powerful aura and had a consequent number of followers. Those who completely believed in him were convinced they had let the Son of God be crucified which must have been a horrifying idea. Many others were unsure and haunted at the idea that the unimaginable, the unspeakable could have been committed. A powerful and collectively felt cocktail of profound shame, guilt and terror in the prospect of God revenge had set in, which turned into a compulsive need to repent and be forgiven.
There is nothing more effective than a shared sense of terror, guilt and shame felt toward God (and deep rooted within the collective unconscious) to create a very powerful religious belief system. The prospect of being rejected by God and therefore condemned to eternal damnation in the afterlife is overwhelmingly scary and deeply traumatizing. To compensate for this felt terror, a human is prone to adopt the most irrational belief in order to suppress the horrifying thoughts and feelings. The Christian cult that emerged out of the story and crucifixion of Jesus is a simple, quick and effective patch: “Repent, accept Jesus as your savior and you will access paradise in the afterlife, reject him and you will suffer in hell for eternity”. This patch becomes like a drug for the believers, calming their anxiety and numbing their disturbing fears and emotions.
As the result, the fear, guilt, shame based collective belief spread and was passed from generation to generation, perpetuating and expanding itself like a contagious psychic decease. Two millenniums later, the cult is institutionalized, has hoarded a considerable amount of wealth and power and has 2.38 Billion adherents.
This success is logic: the religious belief can be particularly attractive for people who are feeling guilt, shame and fear of punishment in the afterlife: people who are feeling lost and lonely but prefer a quick fix rather than a long and disturbing inner journey of introspection. In a society dominated by a lack of self knowledge and identification with the ego: Christianity and the church have a great product.
Christianity was also enforced through colonisation, during which religious western Europeans colons felt entitled to dominate and exploit other human races, taking possession of their resources and giving them in exchange their religion (and with it an imaginary path to eternal salvation).
The belief system is not only the perfect patch to compensate the collective guilt, shame and fear of God punishment, it is a also a very powerful tool to control the masses. Something perfectly illustrated by the terms “Shepherd” and “sheep” used to describe “The Lord” (God presented as an authoritarian patriarchal figure) and its religious followers. Follow the Shepherd and you will enjoy eternity in paradise next to God, reject him and you will spend eternity in hell. The resulting psychological mechanism of both cheer terror and justification of an abusive patriarchal authority naturally produces submissive personalities. A great weapon for those willing to access and secure a position on top of the pyramid of power. It is therefore not surprising that it has been institutionalized and spread on all continents, despite being full of irrationality and cognitive dissonance (1).
There is nothing easier to control than unconscious, ignorant and fearful masses indoctrinated to blindly follow authority or fear punishment. Unaware of their own creative power, such masses are unable to see themselves and reality for what it is. Blinded by their religious belief and terrified at the idea of being rejected by God, they can’t see that they are taking part in a dangerous and self-perpetuating system of indoctrination, control and domination. For them, the truth has simply become too disturbing to be acceptable: they are addicted to their delusions and to whoever can perpetuate them.
For the love of their parents, for political correctness or social validation, for fear of rejection (by authority and others), for a sense of peace and acceptance, they embrace the cult. And in return, the cult numbs their fear, guilt and shame, reassure them that as long as they remain submissive to “The Lord” and its dogmas, they will be forgiven and saved from eternal punishment. It is absurd but it works, notably because most people still lack self knowledge, are still identified with their beliefs and are not empowered to deal with their disturbing thoughts, feelings and emotions.
In a way, Christianity is a broken record constantly repeating “We are sorry Jesus, we didn’t understand you, we didn’t mean to crucify you, we accept you as our savior, please spare us from your father punishment”. The collective trauma was never healed, it was turned into a disempowering cult which now feeds on it like a parasite. The consequences are dramatic, billions of people disconnected from themselves and reality, identified with their dysfunctional ego identity, locked in a vicious cycle: constantly begging God to forgive them for the egotic ways, itself perpetuated by the fear-based belief system that separate them from their true self.
There is just one major game changer: societies built on fear (separation) and collective delusions are divisive and unsustainable. The increasing number of alarming reports pointing at the impending ecological and social crisis together with rising polarisation and the prospect of an authoritarian form of global power are clear indications that the time to dissolve the illusions tearing us apart has come. Christianity has predicted the Apocalypse which it often presented as the end of the world. Yet the real meaning of Apocalypse is a disclosure or revelation of great knowledge that brings clarity and understanding where there has been confusion. Basically, it’s not the end of the world, it’s the end of the illusion.
And for that, we may start to acknowledge and discuss how an act of rebellion against the system was turned into a tool of mass manipulation for the system.
Isn’t it time we start setting the record straight?
