Is Psychopathy Like Diamonds?

The letter I am reblogging is rapidly going viral. It has appeared in Sociopath World, The Psychopathy Network and where it was originally posted, Letter from a Psychopath. It was originally sent to Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test.

michaelstoneThis letter will challenge many people in many different ways. For myself, I have always happily taken the quote from Dr. Michael Stone in the documentary Psychopath Night, Channel 4, UK. “Psychopathy is like diamonds.” he said, “It’s forever.” This was said in rebuttal to another psychologist who claimed to be able to cure psychopathy. The notion that psychopathy is curable contradicts some people’s ideas in a big way. Tina Taylor‘s Psychopathic Times is dedicated to the proposition that tinapsychopathy is a neurological condition, detectable by a brain scan, which makes a psychopath incapable of making decisions that are not self-serving. She also denies the idea that psychopathy is a spectrum. Either you have it or you don’t. I, personally, have a big allergic reaction to anything smacking of therapy or healing (where psychopathy is concerned).

Has “C” been “cured?” I don’t think so. He still doesn’t feel guilt. ronronsonHe has learned to make more constructive choices. The important thing is that he can choose. I wrote an article about psychopathy and choice which seems very much up the ally of C’s experience. Free to Choose claims that psychopaths are not compelled by a lack of conscience to do “bad” things. We have a choice. The absence of conscience makes it easier to do things society frowns on and this makes people nervous. But we are still free to do “good.” This is probably why psychopathy isn’t accepted as an “excuse” for crime. We are held accountable as every free person must be.


Dear Jon,

I just saw your interview on Australia’s ABC 7:30 report on ‘The Psychopath Test’ and wanted to share my experience. I hope that it can remain confidential for the time being, seeing as it is quite personal.

But, when I was 19 (I’m 26-27 now) I went into long-term therapy – for psychopathy.

My case was rather unusual in that I self-referred. The mental health agency had not had a walk-in of this kind before. In the lead up, I had found myself becoming overwhelmed with a predatorial instinct that I could not shake – I’d sit, watching crowds of people go by, driven to mania by what I saw as their limitless inferiorities. Plans were set that, once enacted, would be very difficult to walk back from.

Nevertheless, the decision to go to therapy was one I had taken with some considerable agony, given that I saw this as putting myself ‘on the radar’ so to speak, and thus making it considerably more difficult to ‘act out my nature’ as I saw it.

I undertook a lengthy psychological examination, and the psychiatrist conducting it wrote some pretty stark conclusions devoid of any optimistic prognosis.

My initial forays into therapy did not go well. Overwhelmed with mistrust, concerned at being manipulated, and uncomfortable with the idea of being ‘managed’ rather than ‘cured’, I left on multiple occasions for some periods of time.

After chewing through several therapists, the director of the agency finally took me on herself, and to our mutual surprise we got along extremely well.

To make a long story short, after years of setbacks, frustrations, resentments and suspicion, I began to make considerable progress.

Four years later, with sessions no less frequent than once or twice a week, I came out of therapy unrecognizable from when I went into it.

Yes therapy was transformative, though it is possible to overstate its impacts. I will always see the world through different lenses to much of the rest of the world. My emotional reactions are different, my endowments are impressive in some respects, not so in others, much like other people.

It is also the case that, being ‘normal’ takes a degree of energy and conscious thought that is instinctive for most, but to me is a significant expenditure of energy. I think it analogous to speaking a second language. That is not to say I am being false or obfuscating, merely that I will always expose some eccentric traits.

So why am I writing all this to you?

Well, from someone who is both psychopathic and treated, there are many fallacies about psychopaths with which I am deeply cynical. Unfortunately psychopaths themselves do themselves no favors, as the label given to them plays into their ego over generously — ‘If we are born that way’ psychopaths reason, ‘then it is not wrong for us to be as we are, indeed we are the pinnacle of the human condition, something other people demonize merely to explain their fitful fears’.
We are neither the cartoon evil serial killers, nor the ‘its your boss’ CEO’s always chasing profit at the expense of everyone else. While we are both of those things, it is a sad caricature of itself.

We continue be to characterized that way, by media, by literature, and by ourselves, yet the whole thing is a sham.

The truth is much, much more complex, and in my view, interesting.

Psychopaths are just people. You are right to say that psychopaths hate weakness, they will attempt to conceal anything that might present as a vulnerability. The test of their self-superiority is their ability to rapidly find weaknesses in others, and to exploit it to its fullest potential.

But that is not to say that this aspect of a psychopaths world view cannot be modified. These days I see weaknesses and vulnerabilities as simple facts – a facet of the human condition and the frailties and imperfections inherent in being human.

At the same time it is true that my feelings and reactions to those around me are different – not necessarily retarded – just different. It is the image of psychopaths as something not quite human, along with aspersions as to their natures, that prevent this from being identified.

So how to explain these ‘different’ feelings?

Well, lets look at what (bright) psychopaths are naturally quite exceptional at… We are good at identifying, very rapidly, extreme traits of those around us which allows us to discern vulnerabilities, frailties, and mental conditions. It also makes psychopaths supreme manipulators, for they can mimic human emotions they do not feel, play on these emotions and extract concessions.

But what are these traits really? – Stripped of its pejorative adjectives and mean application, it is a highly trained perception, ability to adapt, and a lack of judgment borne of pragmatic and flexible moral reasoning.

What I’m saying here is that although those traits can very easily (even instinctively) lead to dangerous levels of manipulation, they do not have to.

These days I enjoy a reputation of being someone of intense understanding and observation with a keen strategic instinct. I know where those traits come from, yet I have made the conscious choice to use them for the betterment of friends, acquaintances, and society. People confide in me extraordinary things because they know, no matter what, I will not be judging them.

I do so because I know I have that choice. After years of therapy I am well equipped to act on it, and my keen perception is now directed equally towards myself.

Its true that I do not ‘feel’ guilt or remorse, except to the extent that it affects me directly, but I do feel other emotions, which do not have adequate words of description, but nevertheless cause me to derive satisfaction in developing interpersonal relationships, contributing to society, and being gentle as well as assertive.

Such as statement might tempt you to say ‘well obviously you’re not a real psychopath then’. As if the definition of a psychopath is someone who exploits others for their personal power, satisfaction or gain.

A slightly more benign (but still highly inaccurate) definition is that a psychopath is someone who feels little guilt or empathy for others.

In the end, psychopaths need to be given that very thing everyone believes they lack for others, empathy; a willingness to understand the person, their drives, hopes, strengths and fears, along with knowledge of their own personal sadness and sense of inferiority…As it is, such cartoon, unchangeable, inhuman characterizations offers nothing but perpetuation of those stereotypes.

Serial Killers & Ruthless CEOs exist – Voldemort does not.
Thank you,
C

Steppenwolf

“The way to innocence,to the uncreated and to God leads on, not back, not back to the child, but ever further into sin, ever deeper into human life.”

steppenwolfSteppenwolf is both a book and a movie. I will go on record as a heretic and say that I prefer the movie to the book. What? The book, written by Herman Hesse, is a modern classic. What movie can surpass that? I say the book was so cinematic in its inception that a great movie, which this is, can fully realize its potential. It was directed by Max Von Sydow and stars Dominique Sanda as Hermine. The liner notes on the back of the DVD’s box calls it an “ambitious adoptation of Nobel Prize-winning Herman Hesse’s classic novel.” Well, I would say it has accomplished that ambition. I have only seen this film in English although it is set in Germany and I have come across one in German.

pehTo me, Steppenwolf is about the path of Peh in the Qabalistic Tree of Life. That is the path between Hod (intellect) and Netzach (beauty/feeling). This path is represented in the Tarot as the lightning-struck tower because, I believe, the towerego-self-sufficiency of the intellectual tower of Hod comes to disaster. (Only temporarily as an “ego-death” on an acid trip or a relinquishing of attachment.) It is a path I have been able to identify with on many levels. I’m very serious and find my seriousness often confounded by simplicity. Harry Halle, the protagonist, is a prisoner of his thoughts and conflicts. (He would have made a great blogger.) Wandering the streets, he sees a man holding up a sign announcing The Magic Theatre: For Madmen only. He asks the man about the “entertainment” and the man points to his sign and says, “Not for everybody.” He hands Harry a booklet and disappears. Harry brings it home and reads it.

Finally, deciding his suffering is unbearable, he is on the verge of suicide. “But I want to live!” he cries out desperately. He runs blindly and ends up in a club with a rather dodgy reputation. “Where else could you be at this hour? The hermineBlack Eagle!” This beautiful woman, a Goddess (who reminds me of someone I know in real life), who rescues him from himself, starts a conversation with him. She immediately pulls him down from his scaffold of profundity to the mundane by saying, “Don’t tell me my nose is shiny again!”  He actually reminds me of someone who is on a bad acid trip and regular people who can deal in Malkuth (the earthly sphere) seem like giants.

“It ill becomes you to say you have experienced life and found nothing. You haven’t even tried the easy fun part.” She gets right to the core of his problem by asking him when’s the last time he had to obey anyone. “Obedience is like sex. There’s nothing like it if you haven’t had any for a long time.” “What makes you think I’ll obey you? he asked. “Have you any choice?”

He has interesting dreams that night. He meets Goethe whom he accuses of preaching optimism when he “clearly realizes the utter hopelessness of life.”

“I do?? I don’t imagine you care much for Mozart’s Magic Flute.”

“How dare you, Sir!”

The Magic Flute taught optimism and hope.”

“But Mozart didn’t live to the venerable age of 82. He sang his divine melodies and died.”

“What a stuffy view of Mozart! You should have been a school master. You see Mozart’s peak as a special gift that cost him nothing. Did you forget his suffering? His last extremes of loneliness? His suffering? Now who’s being bourgeois, Honey.”

Everything Goethe (in his dream) harps on the very things Halle has to work on. Then he says something that always gives me chills, it is so profound. “No wonder you’re so grouchy. If you take time seriously, there is no time in eternity. Just enough for a joke.

harryandhermineWhen he sees Hermine again, she says, “You will obey my orders. Most of them will be fun and easy. But, in the end, after you have fallen in love with me, I need you to do something that is very beautiful and very important.”

“What?”

“Kill me.”

Hermine’s first order is to learn how to dance. This seems completely beneath him. Such trivia! But he lets her teach him and then take him to a club. The proprietor of Pablo’s Place, Pablo, is played by the same actor who later plays Mozart. The connection is made quite obvious. Later, Pablo asks Harry if he likes music.

“Yes. Well, it depends. I never thought I could like this kind of music.”

“What kind.”

“Jazz. This is jazz, isn’t it?”

“If you want to call it names.”

“Well, you can hardly put it on the same level as our classical tradition.”

“I don’t put it on any level at all. I just play.”

Harry’s progress on the path of Peh continues until he comes to a costume ball. He cannot find Hermine. He gets frantic until Goethe says, “Lost your number? Take mine.” He hands him a disk that reads, “The Magic Theatre For Madmen Only. Hermine is in Hell.”

“So. You have found me at last.”

“Is this the means by which you are making me fall in love with you?”

“You are even willing to go to Hell to find me?”

“Is there any other way?”

triflingsuicideThe people who have guided Harry’s life are all assembled in a room. Pablo says solemnly, “We would like to invite you to a little entertainment. You can enter our Magic Theatre but the cost of admission will be a trifling little suicide. Harry sees images of himself probably from other incarnations. Then a flame obliterates them.
acidtrip

Harry enters the Magic Theatre (actually a psychedelic trip). “As many doors as you want to open and, behind each one, exactly what you need.” The most interesting (to me) event in his trip is where he meets Goethe (again). Goethe introduces himself as a chess player. “I need the pieces. I can’t play without the pieces (of your personality). Now, tell me which one is you?” Harry looks frantically at each piece to find out which one he is.

Goethe tells him. “No. You are the whole game.”

“So many pieces! Isn’t that schizophrenia?”

“It don’t matter.”

“What is this game called?”

“Life. So your personality has fallen apart? Rearrange it the way you like.”

Later, Harry see Hermine and remembers his promise to kill Hermine once he’s fallen in love with her. So he stabs her. He sees Mozart (who looks like Pablo) who is listening to a crude radio playing some obscure piece. Harry proclaims horror at the way the radio static is “ruining” the music. “You must listen past the static to the music. Anyway, it ill becomes you to be a critic of music or of life. What is this messy business with the knife? I suppose now you want to find a way to evade the consequences of this butchery.”

“NO! I WANT TO PAY!”

“What a pathetic cringer you are, Harry. But you’ll learn humor yet.” He picks up the slain Hermine as inconsequential as a piece of paper.

The last scene in Steppenwolf, is called The Execution of Harry. “Here stands before you Herr Haller who has shown himself devoid of humor and tried to use our Magic Theater as a tool of suicide. We sentence him to eternal life and suspend for 24 hours his right to use the Magic Theater.” Harry understands at last and breaks into a hearty laugh.

It is a Gift


The ability to see the world with a crystal clarity empaths are denied.




SamThere is a video on You-Tube called “Psychopaths, Sociopaths and Narcissists: The Walk Among Us.” It’s a pretty fun video. It starts with Sam Vaknin proclaiming our collective superiority as a sub-species and declaring our entitlement to the “availability and subservience” of the rest of humanity. Who knows if he means it. He makes contradictory statements too. Perhaps it’s a delightful fact that he means everything he says and doesn’t try to reconcile one with the other. His speech is followed by images with text over them giving a basic rundown of us Cluster B types with “scary” music in the background. The video has a lot of comments under it. I found the following especially interesting.

Luxury04 1 year ago

Why do people glamorize this disorder or self diagnose themselves with it? It’s an insult to those who struggle with it.

toolcat973 1 year ago

why do you struggle with it?

No Gods or Kings Just Men 1 year ago

Grow a fucking backbone. Struggle. You sound like a puling child that doesn’t understand the great gift you have been given. The fact you say you struggle leads me to believe you have no real ability.

It’s a gift. The ability to see the world with a crystal clarity empaths are denied.

“Normals” are dumb and slow by comparison and they lose every time.

Why would you want to be one?

I really like what No Gods or Kings Just Men had to say. I agree. It is a gift and one I am deeply appreciative of. Thank you, No Gods, for putting it so beautifully.

Censorship

The following blog was found on psychopathsandlove.com

Psychopaths Are Boring. We Are Fascinating.
SD on November 7, 2015 at 8:43 pm said:

hate

Psychopaths Are Boring. We Are Fascinating.
Posted on November 7, 2015 in psychopath, Uncategorized
Psychopaths are boring. We are fascinating.
How do we know this is true?

hate2

They’re in constant pursuit of us, while we try to do everything we can to stay away them.

They have to play games with us because they have nothing real to offer. They know that if they showed us who they really are, we wouldn’t want anything to do with them.

They don’t pursue each other, because other psychopaths are boring to them. They only want us (unfortunately). Only we are fun and exciting. Only we can fulfill their needs.

hate3

Without us, they have nothing. The moment their involvement with one of us ends, they have to have another one of us. They even line us up in advance, or have a bunch of us at once. They can’t live without us!

They say they hate us, yet they can’t stay away from us.

They’re amazed at all the emotions we feel. They like to play with them because they’re so interesting — because we’re so interesting! Fascinating, really! They’re obsessed with us.

hate2

They suffer from maddening, intolerable boredom without us. They have nothing worthwhile to do without us. Nothing. They have nothing worthwhile to do with us, either, but that’s beside the point.

They hide themselves behind a mask designed to look like us, because without it they’re fundamentally boring and they know it.

When their charade goes straight to hell in a hand-basket, which it always does, there’s nothing left.

hate4

In order to be interesting, they have to pretend to be like us. Enough said.

I made a comment in their comments section. They already knew my name and email and blog information. My comment was, “If we’re so boring, why can’t you stop writing about us?” There was a button to submit my comment but then a page appeared to say my IP address is blocked. Not only are we not boring, but these people think we are so dangerous, they have to block our comments from the tender eyes of their readership. I wish their blogdom a long and interesting life.

The Opposite of Psychopathy

Williams Syndrome is a genetic condition characterized by some genes being absent from the 7th chromosome. People with this syndrome have facial features that have been described as “elfin.” They have small cognitive delays, an extra-sensitivity to sound but a love for music. One of the most remarkable characteristics of folks with this syndrome is an increase of empathy. They are very open and trusting. Fortunately for them, most people find them immensely lovable.

Examinations of their brains show an enlarged amygdala (which, in the psychopath, is small). Both psychopaths and Williams’ people have abnormalities in the white matter of their brains. Do psychopaths have split brains? White matter studies point to brain hemispheric disconnect. People with Williams Syndrome seem to williamshave problems in the white matter in the same parts of their brains. http://neurologicalcorrelates.com/wordpress/2012/07/24/williams-syndrome-white-matter-is-wobbly-in-the-same-area-as-that-of-psychopathy/. This is perplexing considering how the “Willies” are almost polar opposites of psychopaths. “Given that Williams Syndrome,  in terms of personality, is about the polar opposite of psychopathy, what gives?” What indeed.

WS is seen by many in the online community as more a panacea than a disorder. For example, the Lucky Otter, Lauren, blogged, Williams Syndrome High Empathy ‘Disorder.'” which shows a video of a camp for WS children in which a counselor opines that “We (NTs) are the ones with a ‘disability’ because we don’t know how to be as kind or open as these children.” However, the DSM places it within the spectrum of anxiety disorders. Strange when the children in the videos don’t show any sign of anxiety at all and are, in fact, markably free of anxiety associated with meeting strangers. The videos say that Williams children are slightly cognitively slower and often have cardio-vascular problems as well as digestive problems. But Psychiatric Diagnoses in Patients with Williams Syndrome and Their Families by Janet C. Kennedy, M.D. (PGY1), David L. Kaye, M.D., Laurie S. Sadler, M.D, says, “The associated mental retardation generally results in
an IQ between 41 and 80…” which is hardly a “slight” impairment. These children, according to the authors, have anxiety and depressive disorders. These were not in evidence in the videos.

Children with Down’s Syndrome are also described as being happy and friendly. They, like the Williams kids, have specific facial features. Is mental retardation the key to happiness? Are we smart ones paying for Adam and Eve’s fall from grace? I remember a movie Charlie about a retarded man who was made a subject of an experimental process that raised his IQ. As he grew increasingly smart, Charlie became aware of how many people had looked down on him and on others like him. This saddened him, naturally, and aroused his empathy for those still less intellectually endowed. His intelligence kept growing until he became a genius. He did his own scientific studies and made a discovery that filled him with dismay. The change in his intellect was only temporary. He flashed, poignantly, on a memory of what he used to be and what he would again become.

The majority of psychopaths are smart. We are not known for empathy or openness. williams1When we are friendly, people describe this friendliness as glib, superficial charm. Robert Hare calls us “social predators.” We sometimes feel lonely and bored as Williams and Downs people probably seldom do. I guess everything has its price.

Many people with normal intelligence and no disorder like to view the Williams people as a kind of lost paradise. Psychopaths also have blessings conferred on us by our extreme personalities. We enjoy a moral freedom and optimism many folks would envy us for. We are mostly free of anxiety and guilt. I cherish my gifts which I wouldn’t give up for anything. But I sometimes turn a wistful eye to the gifts of my opposites.


 

More Links

The Eyes Have It

eye-451443_640
How the haters see us.

A lot has been written about psychopaths, some insightful, some neutral and some hilarious. Of the hilarious ones, nothing is more arresting than what is said about our eyes. One blog called Psychopaths and Love says, “Many of us have seen firsthand or read descriptions of psychopaths having an intense gaze, a predatory or reptilian stare, or eyes that are lifeless, dead, emotionless, cold, icy, flat, black, or empty.” Why do our eyes look this way? The article continues, “Dr. Reid Meloy’s Reptilian State Theory hypothesizes that psychopaths are more like reptiles than mammals.” So now we’re not mammals. We’re reptiles? The author quotes Dr. Robert Hare as saying, “Many people find it difficult to deal with intense, emotionless, or ‘predatory’ stare of the psychopath. Normal people maintain close eye contact with others for a variety of reasons, but the fixated stare of the psychopath is more prelude to self-gratification and the exercise of power than simple interest or empathetic caring.”

patti4Now that we’ve gotten beyond the over-the-top rhetoric expelling us from the human race and even from the category of “mammal,” we can get some more explicit description of what bothers some people about our “stare.” (Some people aren’t even satisfied with relegating us to membership in another species, even another phylum. To them our stare reveals evil, itself. Lucky Otter says, “there’s nothing inside them except an vast and endless black void of nothingness….Behind the twinkle, the eyes are still reptilian and dead.”) It is “fixated,” “intense,” “emotionless” and “predatory.” The picture shown here indicates to me, “I know what’s really happening.” It reminds me of moments I have had the same godlike, omniscient awareness of being the only one in the room who was awake. A fixated and intense “stare” can simply be a sign that the psychopath is really interested in what s/he is looking at. As I discussed in my blog post about charm, psychopaths are often intensely interested. We recognize some people as deeply mysterious and we love to solve mysteries. Many people think psychopaths are serial killers. But, once disabused of this incorrect stereotype, the “predatory” characterization begs the question of what we are looking for in our “prey.” Most of us are not looking for a victim to be murdered. Many psychopaths are merely looking for someone to have a sexual relationship. In this respect, psychopaths are not very different from ordinary men. Every girl or woman who has dates can attest to the fact that most men want a conquest, that is, to have sex with the woman they are dating. Nobody seems to find this sinister when it is a goal of a “regular” or NT male. When a psychopath does it, it’s “predatory.” The fact that most relationships with psychopaths are short-lived, most “hook-ups” today are, in fact, short lived. 670px-Identify-a-Psychopath-Step-9The sooner a couple get horizontal, the more quickly they tend to tire of one another and move on. Again, this is as true of the “non” as it is with the “path.” I must confess bewilderment with the way a psychopath on the make is considered more “predatory” than the NT man on the make. Perhaps the answer is in the adjective in Hare’s statement I haven’t discussed, “emotionless.” Psychopaths are known to be less emotional (and more rational) then the rest of the population. Is the sexual come-on of the “emotionless” psychopath really more “self-gratifying” than the that of the more emotional Don Juans in our midst?

So far, I have only talked about one possible interest a psychopath may have in hir “prey.” But we can have other interests. Someone may be interesting, have information to share, money or even connections to other people. These are all things anyone can desire and try to get from another.

jayeyesThe article goes on, “In my own experience, the psychopath I knew had lambent eyes — brilliantly playful, softly bright, luminous. They twinkled with warmth when he smiled, or so I thought. It was actually the twinkle of amusement as he manipulated me. A few times I saw the light go out in his eyes, and in those moments they became flat and dead.” This brings us to another quality we are reputed to have. We are alleged to have a void within ourselves. Blogger Lucky Otter wrote, “sometimes they can be caught when their mask is momentarily down (usually when they’ve been called out–or caught), and it’s here when we see the emptiness and evil inside them.” Evil? Not merely reptilian? She goes on to say, “It’s not so much a demonic look (which has a sort of life to it) as a dead, lifeless look that is far worse. It’s a malignant look that makes you want to get away from them fast. Like there’s nothing inside them except an vast and endless black void of nothingness. It’s like standing at the precipice of a black hole, and what can be more terrifying than some nameless void that can suck you into itself–and can even swallow light?” WOW! I’m actually impressed! I have a black hole inside me? Good grief!

A new explanation (new to me anyway) for the “psychopathic stare” has been articulated in the article, Subtle Signs of Psychopathy, “Psychopaths look people in the eyes, but only because they learned that it is the proper way to communicate. Eye contact does not come naturally to them. This is why their stare is too strongly fixated on the other person and it looks weird. Some people say that they try to hypnotize their victims. But I believe that sometimes they just try too hard.” Um, OK.

catseyesPeople have always been concerned about each other’s eyes and considered them to be windows to the soul. Interestingly enough, most animals avoid eye-to-eye contact. When stared at by another animal, they interpret that star as a prelude to an attack. When I was a child, I liked to pretend I was a cat like my lovable pet. Once, I get under my cat’s favorite chair and stared at her. My cat didn’t understand that I was playing. She pounced at me as if I had been challenging her space. I never tried that again, understanding what she must have considered my behavior. In the wild, people threatened by a lion or tiger can sometimes bluff the animal by staring it in the eyes. If they are lucky, the beast will think this person must have power to be so unafraid and confrontational. Only the human species sees eye contact as something warm and friendly. I have been told that even some human cultures consider eye-contact as rude. In the Latino cultures, I have heard, looking away is a gesture of submission and respect. Anglos often think the person is being “sneaky” when he is only being polite.

eyeondollarAn American dollar bill has a very compelling occultist symbol. It is a pyramid truncated close to its apex. The apex of this pyramid forms a triangle with a single eye within it. This symbol is familiar to Masons. It is variously called the “eye of Horus” (Egyptian) and the “eye of Shiva” (Hindu). The Christian fundamentalists like to believe that the “founding fathers” were Christian fundies like themselves. But many of them were agnostics and free-thinkers. All the American presidents (until JFK) were Masons. The slogan, “in God we trust” was not put on the dollar until the 50’s. Some people say the eye is the eye of God. It certainly was the eye of many Pagan gods, Horus, Osiris, Shiva… It has also been called the eye of the phoenix. Meanwhile, others say the eye is “creepy.”

I am not particularly concerned with the conspiracy theories that the eye is “satanic.” My interest is merely to explore the deep significance the eye holds for humanity. The eye is the “window to the soul.” It is the instrument through which we are “seen.” Many people are fearful and nervous about the extent to which our government has us under surveillance. The eye is indeed a window through which we can see and be seen as well.

daathThe abyss is something most people fear without knowing why. In the Kabbalah, which is claimed both by the Jews and the Egyptians, the Tree of Life is like a diagram or map of spiritual reality. It’s a strongly felt instrument of occultism. The Golden Dawn called it the Qabbalah and made it a center of their studies. On the Tree of Life, there are spheres or “Sephira” representing aspects of spiritual reality. But there is one place on the Tree where a Sephira is absent. In it’s place is a void, called Daath. Only the bravest and most adventurous occultists dared to explore Daath. It is considered both dangerous and a gateway to the highest forms of wisdom. Coincidentally(?), astronomers speak of the black hole in space where everything is sucked into nothingness.

eyesAs can be seen, both the eye and the void are deeply felt by humanity, at least the Western part. The reason psychopaths are feared is, to a great extent, the lack of a conscience. Even Dr. Hare’s book about psychopathy is entitled Without Conscience. The fact that we are not controlled or held back by something most people claim to have within spooks those who are conscience-bound. I discuss this matter in an article on my web site, Free to Choose. We are not all “evil” and we are not forever doing bad things. But the fact that we can if we want to without being bothered by conscience scares the shit out of people. I think this fear is the root of my people’s “creepy” experience of looking into our eyes. Here’s looking at you.


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