What do you think?
Rate this book
Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil
There is a contagious psychospiritual disease of the soul, a parasite of the mind, that is currently being acted out en masse on the world stage via a collective psychosis of titanic proportions. This mind-virus—which Native Americans have called "wetiko"—covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering people oblivious to their own madness and compelling them to act against their own best interests.
Drawing on insights from Jungian psychology, shamanism, alchemy, spiritual wisdom traditions, and personal experience, author Paul Levy shows us that hidden within the venom of wetiko is its own antidote, which once recognized can help us wake up and bring sanity back to our society.
Drawing on insights from Jungian psychology, shamanism, alchemy, spiritual wisdom traditions, and personal experience, author Paul Levy shows us that hidden within the venom of wetiko is its own antidote, which once recognized can help us wake up and bring sanity back to our society.
376 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
199 people are currently reading
1479 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
August 3, 2013
***WARNING*** THIS BOOK WILL BE EXTREMELY DISTURBING TO YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND... AND THAT IS A GOOD THING!
This book describes a psychological virus that is so pervasive that it isn't even regarded as such, but instead, is understood to be the natural working order of 'reality'. A disease that invades our psyche at its most vulnerable moments: when we experience horror or trauma or fear, wetiko then feeds on us from the inside out while we refuse to face its grim existence. Why? Because wetiko infiltrates the space in our minds where we cannot accept something, a space created when we project our horror or trauma or fear out into the world rather than bravely face it head on. As long as we keep projecting that which we cannot look at or incorporate into our selves, wetiko has room to feed and grow and make us a shell of ourselves and our world...
As if that wasn't scary enough, now imagine that almost everyone alive is infected, and the people who are the very worst victims of this disease are the ones in the highest positions of government and power!!!
What we have here is a massive epidemic that is threatening the continued existence of the human race. We are dangerously asleep at the wheel. Just recognizing the problem for what it is is the first step in counteracting the problem. This book does that. It allows you to finally recognize the truth behind wetiko: our cowardliness. We are a species that has learned to lazily ignore the difficult, to blatantly repress the traumatic, and unrepentantly deny the truth of things that scare us. And in doing this, we have abdicated responsibility and sanity (in some cases) for the short-term appeasement of our fears. We have become enthralled by our diversions and our entertainments, by our insatiable appetite for 'happiness'. And at the heart of all this willful ignorance is wetiko, growing like an inevitable geometric progression that portends doom.
Luckily, there is hope! And this book tells you how to find it. One person at a time, we can reverse this curse. Read this book and be a beacon to others, an inoculation, a cure. We are all responsible for how the world is made: 7 billion individuals making thousands of choices every single day! Imagine that power doing something responsible, something good!!!
Be brave. Don't repress or ignore or absquatulate your responsibilities to your self and others and let the world fall into further chaos and darkness. Face your fears, your traumas, your horrors with courage and know that they are apart of our experience as human beings, that we need them as much as we need their opposites. To be whole is to not exclude the painful things, but to experience them, to survive them and incorporate them into us... making us something new, something stronger, something greater than we were before.
We can do this, people. Reading this book is a good place to start.
This book describes a psychological virus that is so pervasive that it isn't even regarded as such, but instead, is understood to be the natural working order of 'reality'. A disease that invades our psyche at its most vulnerable moments: when we experience horror or trauma or fear, wetiko then feeds on us from the inside out while we refuse to face its grim existence. Why? Because wetiko infiltrates the space in our minds where we cannot accept something, a space created when we project our horror or trauma or fear out into the world rather than bravely face it head on. As long as we keep projecting that which we cannot look at or incorporate into our selves, wetiko has room to feed and grow and make us a shell of ourselves and our world...
As if that wasn't scary enough, now imagine that almost everyone alive is infected, and the people who are the very worst victims of this disease are the ones in the highest positions of government and power!!!
What we have here is a massive epidemic that is threatening the continued existence of the human race. We are dangerously asleep at the wheel. Just recognizing the problem for what it is is the first step in counteracting the problem. This book does that. It allows you to finally recognize the truth behind wetiko: our cowardliness. We are a species that has learned to lazily ignore the difficult, to blatantly repress the traumatic, and unrepentantly deny the truth of things that scare us. And in doing this, we have abdicated responsibility and sanity (in some cases) for the short-term appeasement of our fears. We have become enthralled by our diversions and our entertainments, by our insatiable appetite for 'happiness'. And at the heart of all this willful ignorance is wetiko, growing like an inevitable geometric progression that portends doom.
Luckily, there is hope! And this book tells you how to find it. One person at a time, we can reverse this curse. Read this book and be a beacon to others, an inoculation, a cure. We are all responsible for how the world is made: 7 billion individuals making thousands of choices every single day! Imagine that power doing something responsible, something good!!!
Be brave. Don't repress or ignore or absquatulate your responsibilities to your self and others and let the world fall into further chaos and darkness. Face your fears, your traumas, your horrors with courage and know that they are apart of our experience as human beings, that we need them as much as we need their opposites. To be whole is to not exclude the painful things, but to experience them, to survive them and incorporate them into us... making us something new, something stronger, something greater than we were before.
We can do this, people. Reading this book is a good place to start.
June 16, 2013
I heard about this book when the author was interviewed on the Ground Zero radio program -- and immediately, I was hooked and had to download it that very night. I wasn't disappointed. This is a thoroughly fascinating read, and very timely -- both personally for me (I'll get to that ;)) and for our world today.
Wetiko generally refers to evil, but it's more than that. Our Western concepts of evil get in the way of dispelling it, so that definition is not sufficient. We are trapped by our Western definition, and cannot hope to win a battle with evil in continuing with it -- the entire point of this book is to rectify that conceptual framework. Philip K. Dick also wrote about wetiko, though he called it the 'black iron prison' -- yet he correctly stated in his writings that 'anyone who defeats a segment of the Empire, then becomes the Empire'. This is why a straight on, binary, black and white approach to evil does not work in the end.
If you're a fan of Jung and that sort of writing, then this book for you. I will warn you that it is a difficult read in many ways -- like Jung, the concepts are quite complex, and I found myself re-reading sections several times. I will also re-read the entire book at least one more time. But it is time well-spent, and Paul Levy makes it as simple as it can possibly be: a topic like this IS deep and cannot be merely reduced to little slogans and soundbites.
Sting is reportedly a huge fan of this book (the author's website shows Sting standing with him), and that's not surprising given Sting wrote the 'Synchonicity' album which is all about Jungian concepts. He states that the world would be a better place if more people read this book -- I have to agree.
The author talks a lot about how information can 'sychronistically' appears in our lives just at the right moment -- and that is exactly what happened to me with this book. Paul Levy also describes the work of artists in synthesizing wetiko-related information: and without using those words (because I did not yet have them), that's exactly what I've been up to with my own young adult novel series. Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant is the first book: the hero discovers the world is not what he thought it was, and he is not who he thought he was. In Max Quick: The Two Travelers (The Max Quick Series), the hero confronts evil head on -- and loses (because he falls into the wetiko-trap of binary thinking; he denies his own shadow), but learns a lot in the struggle. In the third book, MAX QUICK 3: THE BANE OF THE BONDSMAN which I am just finishing now, the hero must transcend his understanding of evil in order to contain it. Now I was just writing the last part of the book where he accomplishes this, and I wasn't quite getting it right -- and I knew it. I understood what I wanted to do but I wasn't sure how to illustrate certain details. This book filled in the gaps, gave me the remainder of the archetypical blueprint for how a hero defeats wetiko-based evil in a meaningful and effective way.
So what can I say? I'm huge fan now and highly recommend this book. Brilliant work on Paul Levy's part, and hours of fascinating reading for you!
Wetiko generally refers to evil, but it's more than that. Our Western concepts of evil get in the way of dispelling it, so that definition is not sufficient. We are trapped by our Western definition, and cannot hope to win a battle with evil in continuing with it -- the entire point of this book is to rectify that conceptual framework. Philip K. Dick also wrote about wetiko, though he called it the 'black iron prison' -- yet he correctly stated in his writings that 'anyone who defeats a segment of the Empire, then becomes the Empire'. This is why a straight on, binary, black and white approach to evil does not work in the end.
If you're a fan of Jung and that sort of writing, then this book for you. I will warn you that it is a difficult read in many ways -- like Jung, the concepts are quite complex, and I found myself re-reading sections several times. I will also re-read the entire book at least one more time. But it is time well-spent, and Paul Levy makes it as simple as it can possibly be: a topic like this IS deep and cannot be merely reduced to little slogans and soundbites.
Sting is reportedly a huge fan of this book (the author's website shows Sting standing with him), and that's not surprising given Sting wrote the 'Synchonicity' album which is all about Jungian concepts. He states that the world would be a better place if more people read this book -- I have to agree.
The author talks a lot about how information can 'sychronistically' appears in our lives just at the right moment -- and that is exactly what happened to me with this book. Paul Levy also describes the work of artists in synthesizing wetiko-related information: and without using those words (because I did not yet have them), that's exactly what I've been up to with my own young adult novel series. Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant is the first book: the hero discovers the world is not what he thought it was, and he is not who he thought he was. In Max Quick: The Two Travelers (The Max Quick Series), the hero confronts evil head on -- and loses (because he falls into the wetiko-trap of binary thinking; he denies his own shadow), but learns a lot in the struggle. In the third book, MAX QUICK 3: THE BANE OF THE BONDSMAN which I am just finishing now, the hero must transcend his understanding of evil in order to contain it. Now I was just writing the last part of the book where he accomplishes this, and I wasn't quite getting it right -- and I knew it. I understood what I wanted to do but I wasn't sure how to illustrate certain details. This book filled in the gaps, gave me the remainder of the archetypical blueprint for how a hero defeats wetiko-based evil in a meaningful and effective way.
So what can I say? I'm huge fan now and highly recommend this book. Brilliant work on Paul Levy's part, and hours of fascinating reading for you!
Currently reading
March 9, 2013This concept has been actively boggling my mind all day. I don't know whether to run to the looney bin with arms flailing or to succumb to the insanity of spiritual awakening. Do I even make sense anymore???? Ahhhhh!
April 5, 2021
Incomprehensible and charmless, Dispelling Wetiko attempts to answer questions nobody asked with more meandering, answerless questions that don't really even pertain to the initial question. Through the fog of schizoid babble and overuse of the meaningless signifier "nonlocal", Paul Levy attempts to argue... something. He borrows heavily from Lovecraft in that, "Wetiko cannot be put into words (except the word Wetiko), Wetiko is so powerful and ultra spooky and pervasive that if you talk about it, it controls you, but if you don't talk about it, it also controls you!"
Wetiko, as near as I could decipher, is being selfish and willfully noncreative. It's etymologically linked to the indigenous concept of the Wendigo, who ate people; Wetiko as a "psychic disease" eats humanity by robbing us of what it means to be human, locking us in a non-generative box of self-absorbed consumption, something about "ego is a delusion" because Levy's into Buddhism, blah blah, you get it. Oh, look, I used words to describe the indescribable.
He's a miserable writer and it's made worse by his flagrant self-obsession, which he props up on meaningless New Age jargon like an unconvincing scarecrow, periodically name-dropping Jung and Rollo May in an effort to salvage credibility.
The worst part is, it's a book pretending to be about psychology, but no psychologist was even peripherally involved in its production. In the intro to the book, Paul Levy explains how the manifestation of Wetiko crept into his dreams, manifesting its vampiric and oogidy-boogidy nature by his recurrent dreamland dalliances with Dracula.
Multiple dreams about Dracula. One where they're sitting in his parlor just vibing out, chatting, but Dracula keeps staring at him, eyes beginning to glow with a bestial hunger. In the second one, he and Dracula are laying in bed together, and Levy realizes "Wetiko" is aiming to consume him vampirically, so he jams something in Dracula's mouth while chanting a Buddhist mantra that symbolized a very specific guru whom Levy idolizes.
Now, if at any point in the editing process, Levy had checked with a psychologist, therapist, psychoanalyst, or even a first-year psych student, they would have said:
"Paul, these Dracula dreams sound horny. The 'charismatic, vampiric' force manifesting in the form of Dracula, staring at you in a way that makes you feel desired and uncomfortable, literally sharing a bed with you... could that be your unconscious grappling with something latent? Maybe that's why you chose to dissipate Dracula's dark and alluring power with the sigil of your Buddhist father figure, who provides a channel by which to communicate that 'compassion' and 'lovingkindness' for other fellas? Is that maybe why you felt you had to mention waking up next to your girlfriend in the very next sentence?"
Not my pig, not my farm, not my client. Maybe if he were my client, I would have finished this book. As it stands, there's no way I'm sitting through 12 hours of this. If that means I stay wracked with Wetiko, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
Wetiko, as near as I could decipher, is being selfish and willfully noncreative. It's etymologically linked to the indigenous concept of the Wendigo, who ate people; Wetiko as a "psychic disease" eats humanity by robbing us of what it means to be human, locking us in a non-generative box of self-absorbed consumption, something about "ego is a delusion" because Levy's into Buddhism, blah blah, you get it. Oh, look, I used words to describe the indescribable.
He's a miserable writer and it's made worse by his flagrant self-obsession, which he props up on meaningless New Age jargon like an unconvincing scarecrow, periodically name-dropping Jung and Rollo May in an effort to salvage credibility.
The worst part is, it's a book pretending to be about psychology, but no psychologist was even peripherally involved in its production. In the intro to the book, Paul Levy explains how the manifestation of Wetiko crept into his dreams, manifesting its vampiric and oogidy-boogidy nature by his recurrent dreamland dalliances with Dracula.
Multiple dreams about Dracula. One where they're sitting in his parlor just vibing out, chatting, but Dracula keeps staring at him, eyes beginning to glow with a bestial hunger. In the second one, he and Dracula are laying in bed together, and Levy realizes "Wetiko" is aiming to consume him vampirically, so he jams something in Dracula's mouth while chanting a Buddhist mantra that symbolized a very specific guru whom Levy idolizes.
Now, if at any point in the editing process, Levy had checked with a psychologist, therapist, psychoanalyst, or even a first-year psych student, they would have said:
"Paul, these Dracula dreams sound horny. The 'charismatic, vampiric' force manifesting in the form of Dracula, staring at you in a way that makes you feel desired and uncomfortable, literally sharing a bed with you... could that be your unconscious grappling with something latent? Maybe that's why you chose to dissipate Dracula's dark and alluring power with the sigil of your Buddhist father figure, who provides a channel by which to communicate that 'compassion' and 'lovingkindness' for other fellas? Is that maybe why you felt you had to mention waking up next to your girlfriend in the very next sentence?"
Not my pig, not my farm, not my client. Maybe if he were my client, I would have finished this book. As it stands, there's no way I'm sitting through 12 hours of this. If that means I stay wracked with Wetiko, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
September 12, 2013
This is amateurish depth psychology. The author mixes his metaphors…a lot. The book starts out with some promise, but frankly is over complicated by the author’s own narcissism.
November 23, 2022
This book is a healing draught distilled by a wounded healer. This man has seen through our culture's unconsciousness and exposed it to light. He did this by giving this unconsciousness a name: Wetiko, a Cree word for a kind of spiritual disease they saw progressively affecting the world. And by giving it a name, he removes it's power.
Wetiko is a vampire. A parasite, it consumes our life force by draining us and making us into vehicles to drain others. It is what hates to be seen, has no psychological consciousness (no reflection), and what can't stand the light of our awareness. And it can only be dispersed by the cross: i.e. an awareness of paradox and the transcendent.
Wetiko is what I have called thinghood. It is what thinks things are "only this way" and so blocks out anything contrary to that limited viewpoint. It will consume us with egotism and hatred, and it will insist that the problem is always in the other, never in me. And so it almost never gets seen.
The way to "dispel" it is to see it. It is to recognize that its evil is not me or you but only force acting within the collective field of human minds. Doing this, it gets seen and it loses its power to hide its dirty work. To fight it would only further its ends. To see it clearly, to name it as something not-me, not-you is to render it powerless.
Personally, I can't get over this book's good energy. It was overwhelming. The author has wrestled with hell and brought back the light trapped there. And every word he speaks exudes that light.
Read it. Now. Make no excuses.
Wetiko is a vampire. A parasite, it consumes our life force by draining us and making us into vehicles to drain others. It is what hates to be seen, has no psychological consciousness (no reflection), and what can't stand the light of our awareness. And it can only be dispersed by the cross: i.e. an awareness of paradox and the transcendent.
Wetiko is what I have called thinghood. It is what thinks things are "only this way" and so blocks out anything contrary to that limited viewpoint. It will consume us with egotism and hatred, and it will insist that the problem is always in the other, never in me. And so it almost never gets seen.
The way to "dispel" it is to see it. It is to recognize that its evil is not me or you but only force acting within the collective field of human minds. Doing this, it gets seen and it loses its power to hide its dirty work. To fight it would only further its ends. To see it clearly, to name it as something not-me, not-you is to render it powerless.
Personally, I can't get over this book's good energy. It was overwhelming. The author has wrestled with hell and brought back the light trapped there. And every word he speaks exudes that light.
Read it. Now. Make no excuses.
May 22, 2017
For the record, I think this topic is very interesting and necessary however this book is the worst book I've read in my adult life.
This book could very easily have been half as long. The author seems to go in circles as he falls in love with the possibilities and pathways of the mind. If you start a chapter with "What is Wetiko" and you write for 10 dense pages and then you have ask again, "So What is Wetiko" we all need to take a breath and get an editor to focus this thing. It seems he is still asking this question for the next 200 pages. I found myself glazing through the huge bulky paragraphs which constitute the near entirety of this book looking for some new bit of wisdom or momentum to the next thought but never moved beyond the impression that the author wasn't doing anything more than treading water.
This book is written about the the mind for the mind. The only references to reality were authors or psychologists used for quotes. Wetiko is very pervasive and perhaps a "mass awakening" is the best answer to that problem however I found that advice very impractical and very close to "woo woo".
The world needs advice on how to grapple with the human foibles in a way that doesn't destroy everything around us and by that measure this book fails on every level. I couldn't wait to be done. I should have know when I saw Sting was the cover quote. Good gravy, this book was ridiculous.
This book could very easily have been half as long. The author seems to go in circles as he falls in love with the possibilities and pathways of the mind. If you start a chapter with "What is Wetiko" and you write for 10 dense pages and then you have ask again, "So What is Wetiko" we all need to take a breath and get an editor to focus this thing. It seems he is still asking this question for the next 200 pages. I found myself glazing through the huge bulky paragraphs which constitute the near entirety of this book looking for some new bit of wisdom or momentum to the next thought but never moved beyond the impression that the author wasn't doing anything more than treading water.
This book is written about the the mind for the mind. The only references to reality were authors or psychologists used for quotes. Wetiko is very pervasive and perhaps a "mass awakening" is the best answer to that problem however I found that advice very impractical and very close to "woo woo".
The world needs advice on how to grapple with the human foibles in a way that doesn't destroy everything around us and by that measure this book fails on every level. I couldn't wait to be done. I should have know when I saw Sting was the cover quote. Good gravy, this book was ridiculous.
January 28, 2017
If ever there was an explanation for how Trump tricked 80,000 voters in 3 states...this is the book to explain it. Evil can only be outmaneuvered when we see it, and shine a light on it.
August 9, 2020
Paul reminds us that Orwell’s 1984’s “doublethink” means believing two thoughts that contradict each other, which explains the cognitive dissonance experienced by the wetiko (the greedy mindset of western civilization a.k.a. the “taker”). At a personal level, we have all met wetikos who “project out their own unconscious blindness and imagine that others instead of themselves, are the ones who are blind. When the disease is at a sufficiently developed stage, the very sight of goodness is the very experience that activates their desire to do evil.” Sounds likes every borderline and sociopath I’ve known. Think of wetiko as half of the possessed person acting as a poison, against the healing half that remembers their long-lost tribal mind. Paul sees the wetiko as living in a dream world where he/she is unable/unwilling to wake up. He gets big points for quoting Derrick Jensen on “why is the dominant culture so excruciatingly, relentlessly, insanely, genocidally, ecocidally, suicidally destructive?” and discussing the important Forbes “Columbus and other Cannibals” book.
Paul sees wetiko as engaging in the shadow of one’s self. His point being that if we do not look at our own shadows and become conscious of it and classify it as “not-self”, we will project it towards others. “People who are unaware of their own shadow who have an overly positive image of themselves, will unwittingly be taken over by and act out their shadow in the world.” Shadow projection is at the root of the wetiko disease. Wetikos need an enemy under their fire because they can’t afford to have their projections being returned. You can’t project what you don’t have inside. How do we see the world clearly if we can’t see the darkness within ourselves? “Demonizing the ‘other’ seemingly protects us from feeling our vulnerability and pain”. We’ve all met wetiko douchebags who are basically “unwilling and unable to experience their sense of guilt and remorse of conscience.” This is a book about them. Paul calls them “morally insane”. I like that.
Wetiko historians love those who conquer. Think “might makes right”. In the Forbes book, the nice people in offices working behind the scenes to make atrocities happen are referred to as “cannibals.” When we turn away from the truth we are feeding the wetiko disease. To Paul, looking away from the threat of a dead planet is a form of blindness or ignorance. “Our resulting complacency and inaction in the face of species self-extinction is, in fact, an expression of our lack of compassion.” In conclusion, “wetiko disease is a psychic blindness that believes itself to be sightedness.” Its cure is to open one’s eyes “and look”.
My take on this book is that Paul is saying there is both wetiko and non-wetiko inside us all, and it just depends on which part of us we feed. I’m presently reviewing over 15 anti-civilization books and this is the only book that focused on the individual “wetiko” – on what one person does, not as a group or a culture. Unlike Daniel Quinn’s and Derrick Jensen’s books, this book wasn’t as fun a delivery experience, but the emphasis on the individual inner life made sense from me having read many books about sociopaths, and the range of cluster b disorders. I learned more about wetiko from reading “Columbus and other Cannibals”, but still love reading books like Paul’s that are openly critical of civilization and pointing towards decentralized and decarbonized re-localized future. This book of Paul’s kind of reminded me of early Richard Heinberg.
Paul sees wetiko as engaging in the shadow of one’s self. His point being that if we do not look at our own shadows and become conscious of it and classify it as “not-self”, we will project it towards others. “People who are unaware of their own shadow who have an overly positive image of themselves, will unwittingly be taken over by and act out their shadow in the world.” Shadow projection is at the root of the wetiko disease. Wetikos need an enemy under their fire because they can’t afford to have their projections being returned. You can’t project what you don’t have inside. How do we see the world clearly if we can’t see the darkness within ourselves? “Demonizing the ‘other’ seemingly protects us from feeling our vulnerability and pain”. We’ve all met wetiko douchebags who are basically “unwilling and unable to experience their sense of guilt and remorse of conscience.” This is a book about them. Paul calls them “morally insane”. I like that.
Wetiko historians love those who conquer. Think “might makes right”. In the Forbes book, the nice people in offices working behind the scenes to make atrocities happen are referred to as “cannibals.” When we turn away from the truth we are feeding the wetiko disease. To Paul, looking away from the threat of a dead planet is a form of blindness or ignorance. “Our resulting complacency and inaction in the face of species self-extinction is, in fact, an expression of our lack of compassion.” In conclusion, “wetiko disease is a psychic blindness that believes itself to be sightedness.” Its cure is to open one’s eyes “and look”.
My take on this book is that Paul is saying there is both wetiko and non-wetiko inside us all, and it just depends on which part of us we feed. I’m presently reviewing over 15 anti-civilization books and this is the only book that focused on the individual “wetiko” – on what one person does, not as a group or a culture. Unlike Daniel Quinn’s and Derrick Jensen’s books, this book wasn’t as fun a delivery experience, but the emphasis on the individual inner life made sense from me having read many books about sociopaths, and the range of cluster b disorders. I learned more about wetiko from reading “Columbus and other Cannibals”, but still love reading books like Paul’s that are openly critical of civilization and pointing towards decentralized and decarbonized re-localized future. This book of Paul’s kind of reminded me of early Richard Heinberg.
December 17, 2019
Deeply moving and inspiring
This book is a shamanic initiation for our times. As we watch darkness-of-spirit enfold our realms, Levy teaches us how to look at the darkness within - and then how to begin the being-ness required to transcend it. Thank you.
This book is a shamanic initiation for our times. As we watch darkness-of-spirit enfold our realms, Levy teaches us how to look at the darkness within - and then how to begin the being-ness required to transcend it. Thank you.
September 6, 2021
M Scott Peck wrote People of the Lie about evil. This is another book on the same topic.
This book uses a Jungian/gnostic(?)/shamanic frame.
And it uses logical double binds, explored by RD Liang, in coercive ways.
Here's the book's double bind:
"Either you accept the authors thesis that evil is inside you, or you will be destroyed by the evil inside you" - that is the double bind.
I think imposing such a double bind on readers is evil.
But that's not all.
The language used is mythic, intuitive, hypnotic. It uses allusion and illogic. In other words, it uses Eriksonian hypnosis techniques to induce the desired state of stunned overwhelm in the poor readers.
So not only does the book propse an unresolvable double bind, but it uses language in a way that can easily overwhelm the reader's critical faculty. And if you disagree with his thesis, then you're posessed by evil!
No. This book? It's evil.
I recommend M Scott Peck's book on the subject. People of the Lie. Go read that, please.
Not this.
This book uses a Jungian/gnostic(?)/shamanic frame.
And it uses logical double binds, explored by RD Liang, in coercive ways.
Here's the book's double bind:
"Either you accept the authors thesis that evil is inside you, or you will be destroyed by the evil inside you" - that is the double bind.
I think imposing such a double bind on readers is evil.
But that's not all.
The language used is mythic, intuitive, hypnotic. It uses allusion and illogic. In other words, it uses Eriksonian hypnosis techniques to induce the desired state of stunned overwhelm in the poor readers.
So not only does the book propse an unresolvable double bind, but it uses language in a way that can easily overwhelm the reader's critical faculty. And if you disagree with his thesis, then you're posessed by evil!
No. This book? It's evil.
I recommend M Scott Peck's book on the subject. People of the Lie. Go read that, please.
Not this.
May 26, 2017
Paul Levy touches on a paradoxical nature of the shadow and how it manifests our world experience. I highly recommend this book to any seeking answers to the insanity of the world today. However, like anything else, never take the word of another as gospel. Ask your own questions and do your own research and experiments.
August 31, 2022
**from Amber McZeal Pacifica, on somatic justice, IDA talk Sp'21
Satan/Saturn/Wetiko is catalyst for greater consciousness (66)
Snake Garden of Eden → knowledge of right and wrong/choice/free will
Judas → crucifixion
Lucifer noble to take on the dirty work/give God the element of choice/counterwill
Jung Psych and Religion
“This brings up a question: is evil a factor that obscures the unfoldment of the cosmic drama, or is it a necessary ingredient in the mystery of divine Incarnation?” (66)
Wetiko “cure” is contact with the Self/your inherent wholeness/True Self nature
“This is to discover that there is no place to take refuge, except in the true nature of our being. Taking refuge in the impermanent physical forms of the world is, ultimately speaking, like taking refuge on shifting sand. Only what is truly ourselves has the power to heal. In a very real sense we do not cure wetiko—wetiko cures us of our wrong attitude. Our quest to comprehend the nature of wetiko activates this very self-curative process. Our illness is nature’s attempt to heal us and to raise us up to an entirely new level of wholeness.”
Art is the opp of wetiko- it frees, a contagion of freedom/consciousness that spreads the insight that the artist had to everyone else who consumes the art
Art isn’t just painting, it’s engaging with your life, putting language to your unique experiences and insights (44)
“The artwork then becomes a living testament to, encoded with, and a carrier of this experience of transformation, as if the work of art unlocks the door through which this transformation becomes activated in and transferred to others in an act of living transmission.” (44)
Imagination is divine, diff from fantasy
“Unrealized creativity is one of the most destructive things in the human psyche. “ (47) we are made to create. Daemon → demon.
Our imagination can be used against itself to think it is not imaginative (traps)
Four-valued logic: (1) true, (2) false, (3) both true and false, or (4) neither true nor false. (71)
Nagarjuna, Buddhist philosopher
Dependent co-arising: “We are all collectively dreaming up the field while at the same time reciprocally being dreamed up by it“ (77)
“ Jung never tired of warning that the greatest danger that threatens humanity is the possibility that millions of us can fall into our unconscious together and reinforce each other’s blind spots, feeding a contagious collective psychosis in which we unwittingly become complicit in supporting the insanity of endless wars; this is unfortunately an exact description of what is currently happening” (77) LOLING
“The greater the gap between the conscious and the unconscious, the greater the chance of falling under a collective psychosis such as wetiko.” is there a counterpoint jesus spiritual figure? Trump is wetiko, Baldwin- the danger is when people blindly adopt popular attitudes and neglect reality from their own experience.
“In a full-blown psychic epidemic, the conscious and the unconscious actually trade places, which is to say the unconscious steps into the driver’s seat, which should be occupied by consciousness.” (82)
“Wetiko psychosis is highly contagious, spreading through the channel of our shared unconsciousness.” (81) feeds on our unconscious fears
Hijacks the “survival instinct” reptilian part of our brain (88)
People love people who r sure of themselves- they feel insecure/don’t know, but THIS person does. Project their authority outwards. “Falling victim to one’s own deception can have a mesmerizing effect on others, as wetikos appear so sure of what they are saying that they are able to project this conviction to others.” (91)
Archetype lives through a person → superhuman charisma
“we momentarily forfeit our humanity and develop a compelling charisma, which can have a gripping or enchanting effect on others. A person can then take on archetypal dimensions and exercise corresponding, almost superhuman effects” (92)
Who are such avatars?
Christ- “Seen as a symbol in our shared waking dream, Christ can be said to be the “Incarnation” of the Word made flesh, that is, the conscious incarnation of the positive aspect of the archetype of the Self, embodying our wholeness (holiness) in living flesh and blood.” (93)
Trump
To do so consciously means to channel for good, unconsciously– for evil. Not quite sure on this one
“Just as the pendulum with the strongest swing entrains all the other pendulums into its swing, the person who is channeling the living power of the deeper, archetypal force can potentially entrain and entrance others. This power can be used for the highest good—helping people to awaken—or it can be used for the deepest evil so as to manipulate, disempower, and enslave other people. Being archetypal, this energy is fundamentally neither good nor bad, but can potentially manifest either way, depending upon our intent.” (94) It’s true, gravity literally exists emotiomagnetically too, like some people’s weather makes everyone else feel that way too
People project onto you what they can’t deal with/see (95) “wetikos are unconsciously doing the very thing they are reacting to and accusing other people of doing. While projecting the shadow onto others, for example, they will accuse others of projecting the shadow onto them. To use an extreme but prototypical example, it is like someone screaming that you’re killing them as they kill you. If their insanity is reflected back to them, they think it is the mirror that is insane.” (95)
Wetiko cannibal- the thing attacks the “other” (really itself) because it thinks the other is attacking it (projected). Hence cannibalism.
All the world materialized is just the psyche being externalized, the collective unconscious playing itself out “Jung states that “the world powers that rule over humanity, for good or ill, are unconscious psychic factors.... We are steeped in a world that was created by our own psyche.”2 “ (100)
“The totalitarian psychosis running rampant throughout the world today is the psyche’s way of revealing to us that we are forgetting the crucial role it plays in creating our experience. Marginalizing our own authorship and authority, we then dream up totalitarian forces to limit our freedom and create our experience for us.” (101) When we sleep on the psyche, it destroys us. As within so without. We ignore our creativity, so we are outwardly trapped.
Buddhist “As viewed, so appears” (106) “Projections change the world into the replica of our own unknown face.”
Synchronicities are acausal creative acts made by the archetypes (107)
The world is a reflection of our own projections. Wetiko thrives when we disown our projections as something “external” from ourselves and pretend we r sep from it. How to see yourself in the world’s villainy? (108)
The world is an interactive mirror, like a lucid dream! (108)
Symbol- bridge between us + universe (110)
Christ’s kingdom of heaven is the symbolic dimension (112)
The cross is a symbol for holding the tensions of our good and bad, holding them in tension w/o dissociating and projecting CRUCIFIES the ego. Wtf. (132)
Self created ego to aid its growth “We have to develop a sense of an egoic self in order to be able, when the time is right, to offer it to something greater than ourselves. In order to surrender, we must have something to let go of. The development of the ego is part of the growth and evolution of the Self, as if the Self realized it needed and thereby created the instrument of the ego in order to actualize itself.” (184)
The sight of evil kindles evil in the soul (188) Jung
Lion’s Gaze: (188) “One of the most beautiful teachings in Buddhism is called the “Lion’s Gaze.”14 The following example is given as an illustration: If you throw a stick at a dog, the dog runs after the stick; but if you throw a stick at a lion, the lion will chase after you! The stick represents an uncomfortable negative emotion that gets triggered inside us. When we are triggered— when something “pushes our buttons”—it activates an unconscious, compulsive knee-jerk reflex. “
When you see evil, instead of dissociating, projecting, and judging them as if you are morally righteous and superior, see yourself within it. We are all capable of evil, evil is in all of us. To cut off and judge is to lose to it, to lose to unconsciousness, reactively.
Evil has many forms, each person is one single appendage of a larger piece that works together (199) lawyers, the dictator, office people, well-meaning campaigners against
We are magicians- we create our own realities- wetiko uses this power against us, entrancing us with our own powers (226)
“The unconscious is revealing itself by synchronistically configuring events in the outer world so as to give shape to itself. What is happening in our world is the unconscious manifesting itself in, as, and through the forms of our world. The unconscious is revealing itself through its very projections onto the world. We are living in a truly historic moment of time in which, just like a dream that is potentially becoming “lucid- ified,”” (212) we dream up our world from our unconscious expressing itself. At this moment, the dream is becoming LUCID
God is now incarnating thru collective unconscious (215)
God and human mutually redeem: “Paradoxically, humanity is a living, breathing alchemical vessel in which spirit has seemingly become trapped, while simultaneously being the very instrument through which spirit becomes materialized in space and time so as to be liberated into greater orders of freedom. As the ancient alchemists intuited, it is as if God, with our help, is born into and out of humanity. Deo concedente— God willing—as the alchemists never failed to add” (216)
Consciousness is our agent of transformation
Self and ego need each other, just like God and humans need each other: “ At the same time, the realized Self can only be born in time and space through an ego” (217)
Christ symbolizes the Self
When u can’t internally deal w/integrate smt, it gets dreamed up/acted out unconsciously, projected outwards: “There is a psychological truism that says when an activated inner psychic content is not consciously realized and integrated by the individual in the course of the individuation process, this content will manifest itself externally in the outside world, where, as if by fate, it gets unconsciously dreamed up and acted out in a literal, concrete, destructive, and potentially initiatory way” (218)
Before, God incarnated light form (Christ pure, spotless), now thru darkness?
Apocalypse means coming of the Self
How we need each other: Spirit (high vibration) descends into densest matter (humanity) then transforms itself, refines itself back, purified: “Humanity is the alchemical retort in which God descends into the densest matter, transforms Itself, and out of which the refined spirit emerges” (221)
Self reflection is divine- “Not merely the “subjects” of our inner process, we become the “objects” of a deeper, mythic, archetypal, and divine process that is incarnating through us. We are the conduits through which the universe, in becoming consciously aware of itself, is waking itself up. Self-reflection is therefore the best service we can do for ourselves and the world, as well as being the highest way for us to serve and love God. It should get our highest attention that wetiko disease is the very catalyst and inspiration for our self-reflection” (224)
Like a lucid dream, what you choose to perceive will be reflected back to you. “People who are identified with being wounded are perfect abodes for wetiko to take up long-term residence. When I solidify myself as having a wound, just like a dream, where the inner and the outer are mirrored reflections of each other, the universe instantaneously reflects back and supplies all the evidence I need to prove to myself that I really am wounded, which further confirms and validates my point of view of seeing myself as someone who has an unhealed wound, ad infinitum” (231)
“Being like a dream, how we perceive instantaneously generates the universe to reflect back our perceptions, which further confirms the very perceptions which generated the reflections of them in the first place.” (232)
“There is a secret tie between the powers that seemingly obscure our true nature and the very true nature they appear to be obscuring.” (234)
Your wound/your Self is unique AND universal at the same time, paradox (235). The Self is incarnating through everyone.
“In distinction to when we are afflicted with wetiko, which is to be continually grasping and clinging, attempting to fill a void within ourselves that can never be satiated, which is, in essence, to be coming from a place of lack, need, and scarcity, when we are wetiko-free we embody and express a place of wholeness, of fullness within ourselves. Not needing anything from outside of ourselves, the “economy” of our psyche is self-sustaining, neither depending upon nor requiring “imports” such as recognition or validation from outside of itself. Feeling safe within ourselves, we have no desire to impose our will, control, manipulate, coerce, or force others to do anything or be a certain way. Because we genuinely embrace and accept ourselves, others typically feel accepted when they are around us.” (276)
Storytelling for liberation (NOT self prison quicksanding) is magical act- as we are making our reality over and over with our stories:
2 ways of storytelling: “there’s a way of telling our story that solidifies and reinforces the spell we are under, and conversely, there’s a way of telling our story that liberates us from our spell. The first form of storytelling feeds wetiko, while the second type of storytelling dissolves wetiko and is worthy of the name “art.” Storytelling is a shamanic art- form through which we can, shaman-like, journey back in time and change the past, transforming the past by changing how it affects us in the present. The fictive power of the literary imagination is the imaginal power of the psyche.” (278)
By forcing you into contact w the wholeness of Self that is untouchable to wetiko, it connects us with our true nature (284)
“Seen as a dream character in Buddha’s dream, Mara was an aspect of Buddha’s own consciousness that was dreamed up to play out this very unpopular, adversarial role so as to help Buddha become illumined.” (289)
“To understand the meaning of and utter the name “wetiko” is a form of exorcism.” (292) Naming is important
IDEAS are powerful
“ In finding the name, however, we are accessing the divinely sponsored power of the word to create an idea, a living psychic organism of real value and merit, with an intrinsic power all its own. Like a symbol crystallizing out of the psyche, an idea grows out of the dark depths of the unconscious like a lotus emerging from the mud. Ideas can be liberating, or they can be extremely destructive. Jung writes, “The most tremendous danger that man has to face is the power of his ideas [or lack thereof] “ (296)
“In other words, a novel idea opens our inner eye and helps us know by giving us insight into something previously unconscious. What Plato called the “eyes of the soul,” ideas are the modes of consciousness through which we envision and create our life.” (296)
“A true healer knows that they are meeting themselves time and time again in their patients.” (310)
What parts of ourselves are we dreaming up to meet us? “A more fundamental aspect of my being was making itself known to me, and was using my experiences in the world—with my father, the blind woman, and the psychiatric system—as its canvas.” (315)
We are dreaming (317)
“I was beginning to realize that the same deeper, dreaming Self that dreams our dreams at night is dreaming our lives. “
“As is true for each of us as well, the symbolic events that were literally transpiring in my life were a synchronistic reflection and revelation of a living process deep within myself. “
The nonlocal field
“As is true for each of us as well, the symbolic events that were literally transpiring in my life were a synchronistic reflection and revelation of a living process deep within myself. “ (320)
Satan/Saturn/Wetiko is catalyst for greater consciousness (66)
Snake Garden of Eden → knowledge of right and wrong/choice/free will
Judas → crucifixion
Lucifer noble to take on the dirty work/give God the element of choice/counterwill
Jung Psych and Religion
“This brings up a question: is evil a factor that obscures the unfoldment of the cosmic drama, or is it a necessary ingredient in the mystery of divine Incarnation?” (66)
Wetiko “cure” is contact with the Self/your inherent wholeness/True Self nature
“This is to discover that there is no place to take refuge, except in the true nature of our being. Taking refuge in the impermanent physical forms of the world is, ultimately speaking, like taking refuge on shifting sand. Only what is truly ourselves has the power to heal. In a very real sense we do not cure wetiko—wetiko cures us of our wrong attitude. Our quest to comprehend the nature of wetiko activates this very self-curative process. Our illness is nature’s attempt to heal us and to raise us up to an entirely new level of wholeness.”
Art is the opp of wetiko- it frees, a contagion of freedom/consciousness that spreads the insight that the artist had to everyone else who consumes the art
Art isn’t just painting, it’s engaging with your life, putting language to your unique experiences and insights (44)
“The artwork then becomes a living testament to, encoded with, and a carrier of this experience of transformation, as if the work of art unlocks the door through which this transformation becomes activated in and transferred to others in an act of living transmission.” (44)
Imagination is divine, diff from fantasy
“Unrealized creativity is one of the most destructive things in the human psyche. “ (47) we are made to create. Daemon → demon.
Our imagination can be used against itself to think it is not imaginative (traps)
Four-valued logic: (1) true, (2) false, (3) both true and false, or (4) neither true nor false. (71)
Nagarjuna, Buddhist philosopher
Dependent co-arising: “We are all collectively dreaming up the field while at the same time reciprocally being dreamed up by it“ (77)
“ Jung never tired of warning that the greatest danger that threatens humanity is the possibility that millions of us can fall into our unconscious together and reinforce each other’s blind spots, feeding a contagious collective psychosis in which we unwittingly become complicit in supporting the insanity of endless wars; this is unfortunately an exact description of what is currently happening” (77) LOLING
“The greater the gap between the conscious and the unconscious, the greater the chance of falling under a collective psychosis such as wetiko.” is there a counterpoint jesus spiritual figure? Trump is wetiko, Baldwin- the danger is when people blindly adopt popular attitudes and neglect reality from their own experience.
“In a full-blown psychic epidemic, the conscious and the unconscious actually trade places, which is to say the unconscious steps into the driver’s seat, which should be occupied by consciousness.” (82)
“Wetiko psychosis is highly contagious, spreading through the channel of our shared unconsciousness.” (81) feeds on our unconscious fears
Hijacks the “survival instinct” reptilian part of our brain (88)
People love people who r sure of themselves- they feel insecure/don’t know, but THIS person does. Project their authority outwards. “Falling victim to one’s own deception can have a mesmerizing effect on others, as wetikos appear so sure of what they are saying that they are able to project this conviction to others.” (91)
Archetype lives through a person → superhuman charisma
“we momentarily forfeit our humanity and develop a compelling charisma, which can have a gripping or enchanting effect on others. A person can then take on archetypal dimensions and exercise corresponding, almost superhuman effects” (92)
Who are such avatars?
Christ- “Seen as a symbol in our shared waking dream, Christ can be said to be the “Incarnation” of the Word made flesh, that is, the conscious incarnation of the positive aspect of the archetype of the Self, embodying our wholeness (holiness) in living flesh and blood.” (93)
Trump
To do so consciously means to channel for good, unconsciously– for evil. Not quite sure on this one
“Just as the pendulum with the strongest swing entrains all the other pendulums into its swing, the person who is channeling the living power of the deeper, archetypal force can potentially entrain and entrance others. This power can be used for the highest good—helping people to awaken—or it can be used for the deepest evil so as to manipulate, disempower, and enslave other people. Being archetypal, this energy is fundamentally neither good nor bad, but can potentially manifest either way, depending upon our intent.” (94) It’s true, gravity literally exists emotiomagnetically too, like some people’s weather makes everyone else feel that way too
People project onto you what they can’t deal with/see (95) “wetikos are unconsciously doing the very thing they are reacting to and accusing other people of doing. While projecting the shadow onto others, for example, they will accuse others of projecting the shadow onto them. To use an extreme but prototypical example, it is like someone screaming that you’re killing them as they kill you. If their insanity is reflected back to them, they think it is the mirror that is insane.” (95)
Wetiko cannibal- the thing attacks the “other” (really itself) because it thinks the other is attacking it (projected). Hence cannibalism.
All the world materialized is just the psyche being externalized, the collective unconscious playing itself out “Jung states that “the world powers that rule over humanity, for good or ill, are unconscious psychic factors.... We are steeped in a world that was created by our own psyche.”2 “ (100)
“The totalitarian psychosis running rampant throughout the world today is the psyche’s way of revealing to us that we are forgetting the crucial role it plays in creating our experience. Marginalizing our own authorship and authority, we then dream up totalitarian forces to limit our freedom and create our experience for us.” (101) When we sleep on the psyche, it destroys us. As within so without. We ignore our creativity, so we are outwardly trapped.
Buddhist “As viewed, so appears” (106) “Projections change the world into the replica of our own unknown face.”
Synchronicities are acausal creative acts made by the archetypes (107)
The world is a reflection of our own projections. Wetiko thrives when we disown our projections as something “external” from ourselves and pretend we r sep from it. How to see yourself in the world’s villainy? (108)
The world is an interactive mirror, like a lucid dream! (108)
Symbol- bridge between us + universe (110)
Christ’s kingdom of heaven is the symbolic dimension (112)
The cross is a symbol for holding the tensions of our good and bad, holding them in tension w/o dissociating and projecting CRUCIFIES the ego. Wtf. (132)
Self created ego to aid its growth “We have to develop a sense of an egoic self in order to be able, when the time is right, to offer it to something greater than ourselves. In order to surrender, we must have something to let go of. The development of the ego is part of the growth and evolution of the Self, as if the Self realized it needed and thereby created the instrument of the ego in order to actualize itself.” (184)
The sight of evil kindles evil in the soul (188) Jung
Lion’s Gaze: (188) “One of the most beautiful teachings in Buddhism is called the “Lion’s Gaze.”14 The following example is given as an illustration: If you throw a stick at a dog, the dog runs after the stick; but if you throw a stick at a lion, the lion will chase after you! The stick represents an uncomfortable negative emotion that gets triggered inside us. When we are triggered— when something “pushes our buttons”—it activates an unconscious, compulsive knee-jerk reflex. “
When you see evil, instead of dissociating, projecting, and judging them as if you are morally righteous and superior, see yourself within it. We are all capable of evil, evil is in all of us. To cut off and judge is to lose to it, to lose to unconsciousness, reactively.
Evil has many forms, each person is one single appendage of a larger piece that works together (199) lawyers, the dictator, office people, well-meaning campaigners against
We are magicians- we create our own realities- wetiko uses this power against us, entrancing us with our own powers (226)
“The unconscious is revealing itself by synchronistically configuring events in the outer world so as to give shape to itself. What is happening in our world is the unconscious manifesting itself in, as, and through the forms of our world. The unconscious is revealing itself through its very projections onto the world. We are living in a truly historic moment of time in which, just like a dream that is potentially becoming “lucid- ified,”” (212) we dream up our world from our unconscious expressing itself. At this moment, the dream is becoming LUCID
God is now incarnating thru collective unconscious (215)
God and human mutually redeem: “Paradoxically, humanity is a living, breathing alchemical vessel in which spirit has seemingly become trapped, while simultaneously being the very instrument through which spirit becomes materialized in space and time so as to be liberated into greater orders of freedom. As the ancient alchemists intuited, it is as if God, with our help, is born into and out of humanity. Deo concedente— God willing—as the alchemists never failed to add” (216)
Consciousness is our agent of transformation
Self and ego need each other, just like God and humans need each other: “ At the same time, the realized Self can only be born in time and space through an ego” (217)
Christ symbolizes the Self
When u can’t internally deal w/integrate smt, it gets dreamed up/acted out unconsciously, projected outwards: “There is a psychological truism that says when an activated inner psychic content is not consciously realized and integrated by the individual in the course of the individuation process, this content will manifest itself externally in the outside world, where, as if by fate, it gets unconsciously dreamed up and acted out in a literal, concrete, destructive, and potentially initiatory way” (218)
Before, God incarnated light form (Christ pure, spotless), now thru darkness?
Apocalypse means coming of the Self
How we need each other: Spirit (high vibration) descends into densest matter (humanity) then transforms itself, refines itself back, purified: “Humanity is the alchemical retort in which God descends into the densest matter, transforms Itself, and out of which the refined spirit emerges” (221)
Self reflection is divine- “Not merely the “subjects” of our inner process, we become the “objects” of a deeper, mythic, archetypal, and divine process that is incarnating through us. We are the conduits through which the universe, in becoming consciously aware of itself, is waking itself up. Self-reflection is therefore the best service we can do for ourselves and the world, as well as being the highest way for us to serve and love God. It should get our highest attention that wetiko disease is the very catalyst and inspiration for our self-reflection” (224)
Like a lucid dream, what you choose to perceive will be reflected back to you. “People who are identified with being wounded are perfect abodes for wetiko to take up long-term residence. When I solidify myself as having a wound, just like a dream, where the inner and the outer are mirrored reflections of each other, the universe instantaneously reflects back and supplies all the evidence I need to prove to myself that I really am wounded, which further confirms and validates my point of view of seeing myself as someone who has an unhealed wound, ad infinitum” (231)
“Being like a dream, how we perceive instantaneously generates the universe to reflect back our perceptions, which further confirms the very perceptions which generated the reflections of them in the first place.” (232)
“There is a secret tie between the powers that seemingly obscure our true nature and the very true nature they appear to be obscuring.” (234)
Your wound/your Self is unique AND universal at the same time, paradox (235). The Self is incarnating through everyone.
“In distinction to when we are afflicted with wetiko, which is to be continually grasping and clinging, attempting to fill a void within ourselves that can never be satiated, which is, in essence, to be coming from a place of lack, need, and scarcity, when we are wetiko-free we embody and express a place of wholeness, of fullness within ourselves. Not needing anything from outside of ourselves, the “economy” of our psyche is self-sustaining, neither depending upon nor requiring “imports” such as recognition or validation from outside of itself. Feeling safe within ourselves, we have no desire to impose our will, control, manipulate, coerce, or force others to do anything or be a certain way. Because we genuinely embrace and accept ourselves, others typically feel accepted when they are around us.” (276)
Storytelling for liberation (NOT self prison quicksanding) is magical act- as we are making our reality over and over with our stories:
2 ways of storytelling: “there’s a way of telling our story that solidifies and reinforces the spell we are under, and conversely, there’s a way of telling our story that liberates us from our spell. The first form of storytelling feeds wetiko, while the second type of storytelling dissolves wetiko and is worthy of the name “art.” Storytelling is a shamanic art- form through which we can, shaman-like, journey back in time and change the past, transforming the past by changing how it affects us in the present. The fictive power of the literary imagination is the imaginal power of the psyche.” (278)
By forcing you into contact w the wholeness of Self that is untouchable to wetiko, it connects us with our true nature (284)
“Seen as a dream character in Buddha’s dream, Mara was an aspect of Buddha’s own consciousness that was dreamed up to play out this very unpopular, adversarial role so as to help Buddha become illumined.” (289)
“To understand the meaning of and utter the name “wetiko” is a form of exorcism.” (292) Naming is important
IDEAS are powerful
“ In finding the name, however, we are accessing the divinely sponsored power of the word to create an idea, a living psychic organism of real value and merit, with an intrinsic power all its own. Like a symbol crystallizing out of the psyche, an idea grows out of the dark depths of the unconscious like a lotus emerging from the mud. Ideas can be liberating, or they can be extremely destructive. Jung writes, “The most tremendous danger that man has to face is the power of his ideas [or lack thereof] “ (296)
“In other words, a novel idea opens our inner eye and helps us know by giving us insight into something previously unconscious. What Plato called the “eyes of the soul,” ideas are the modes of consciousness through which we envision and create our life.” (296)
“A true healer knows that they are meeting themselves time and time again in their patients.” (310)
What parts of ourselves are we dreaming up to meet us? “A more fundamental aspect of my being was making itself known to me, and was using my experiences in the world—with my father, the blind woman, and the psychiatric system—as its canvas.” (315)
We are dreaming (317)
“I was beginning to realize that the same deeper, dreaming Self that dreams our dreams at night is dreaming our lives. “
“As is true for each of us as well, the symbolic events that were literally transpiring in my life were a synchronistic reflection and revelation of a living process deep within myself. “
The nonlocal field
“As is true for each of us as well, the symbolic events that were literally transpiring in my life were a synchronistic reflection and revelation of a living process deep within myself. “ (320)
Read
October 4, 2024I respect the spiritual experience of the author. And I sympathize with him for what he had to go through. But we can’t blame “Wetiko” for every wrongdoing or evil in the human world! Over and above, it is my understanding that symbols, myths and archetypes are formed so that we don’t have to explain as much as the author did.
December 27, 2024
This is a book about evil and its origin and how to recognize it and fight it. The book is inspired by writings of Jung and mythology of Native Americans.
Wetiko is a name that Native Americans use for wicked elusive nonlocal parasite of the mind that is causing people to do evil. It makes heart icy, devoid of mercy, love and compassion. Wetiko is archetypal energy that can take over and possess a person or a species. Mind is the playground for Wetiko. Each one of us is struggling with his own variety of this daemonic energy. Wetiko operates in complete consciousness field while trying to remain hidden.
Paul has own names for Wetiko. He calls it “Malignant Egophrenia” or ME disease (another name would be Mad Emperor disease). Wetiko introduces deviation in the process in which we attribute meaning to our experience. It acts as a filter and a mirror in which we observe self and others. Wetiko disassociates us from the whole and disconnects us from nature, empathy and ourselves.
Paul sees the world as a dream that symbolically reflects something that exists in the subject. Reality of psyche is real while the material world is an illusion created for the psyche to experience and expresses itself. Wetiko belongs to reality of the psyche. It is the part of personality that hides in shadows, tries to keep us in the dark, abuses us and fights against our personal growth. As Jung said, we become enlightened by making the darkness conscious.
Wetiko is illusionary disease. It causes delusion in a way of seeing self and others. Person infected with Wetiko is not in touch with his own humanity and thus cannot see humanity in others. Such a person sees others either as a prey or as threat. Everything is either true or false, good or bad to diseased person.
Art is a way of being that awakens us and makes us free. Wetiko is the opposite of art. It hates and is afraid of expressing creativity. Wetiko takes and consumes without giving anything back. The Wetiko disease of our civilization manifests itself in all the wars, economic injustice, and in the way we are ruthlessly exploiting and impoverishing the planet.
We cannot destroy Wetiko playing his game. We can only protect ourselves by knowing ourselves, seeing things holistically by giving up on two value logic of duality as in good and evil and developing deeper understanding of self and others. Instead of two values such as true and false, we can have four value logic: true, false, both true and false, neither true nor false.
I would say it is not about something being in same time truth and not, or neither true or not. It is about something being true in particular context, in a set of circumstances that trigger certain behavior. All our behavior is context dependent and much of our behavior is automatic and triggered by cues in the context.
Paul asserts that to recognize Weitiko we need to fully enter the present moment. In my opinion this means to avoid being automatic.
Paul further argues that to be able to see Wetiko we need to be holistic and thus able to see interdependent field that connects and pervades everything. Everything exists in relation with everything else. We are continuously dreaming up a field and being dreamed by it. It is dependent co-arising. When contents of the unconscious mind are activated, they have an effect on conscious mind of everyone involved.
Our mind is continually being corrupted and polluted by Wetiko propaganda present in all aspects of our society. To the extent we are not fully awake we have a part of us that is mad and under control of Wetiko. It is only but confronting what is inhuman in us that we become human.
We have become conditioned to accept as normal that we are in endless war and that many of our brothers and sisters all over the planet live in poverty and dying of starvation. We see and interpret the world through filter of Wetiko mental madness and are unaware of death and destruction it is causing. Unconscious part infected with Wetiko mind virus steps on the driver’s seat. This is especially the case in the groups where people lose their critical thinking abilities, blindly follow the authorities and feed and enforce each other’s narcissism.
The Wetiko parasite feeds on and harvests the emotions of fear and terror. Wetiko is spread via propaganda of mainstream media under control of Wetiko agents. Media shape the parameters and limits of our debate and conversation keeping us in Wetiko mindset. Wetiko disease is deliberately spread by television, films, comic books, pornographic content, fanatics of various kinds, missionary groups, police and military combat trainings and governments. We need to develop psychic immunity on covert, fear based, warfare waged by economic, political and media powers to be. We do that by cultivating critical thinking, self-reflective awareness and ability to discriminate and discern truth from fiction.
Wetiko manipulators use fear to skip our rational part and address directly the reptilian brain concerned with our primal survival instincts. They systematically program us to refuse to see reality in order to control us. That opens the door to Wetiko. Propaganda makes people believe simultaneously everything and nothing. People behind screens create false perceptions that are used to hide what they are really doing. This is outer expression of how Wetiko mind functions.
When Wetiko is installed in our mind, it steers as away from our true vocation, calling and spiritual path. For Wetiko infected mind the problem is always in other people. People infected with Wetiko can look as even more normal and appear to have more virtue than normal people. But it is a mask. Nothing is so convincing as a lie one believes or evil deed or intention whose righteousness one finds self-evident. More one is hypnotized with Wetiko higher his ability to hypnotize others. When we are possessed by Wetiko archetype it is like an “entity” possessed us and we are not there anymore. We are then channeling negative archetype which is always destructive for those in our sphere of influence. We are then compelled to act out its destructive force. The very sight of goodness activates desire to do evil.
World is, like a dream, interactive mirror that is inseparable from own inner being. Wetiko’s world is a world where true is false and facts make no difference. Wetiko reacts with anger on its own projections in the world. Their insane logic based on fear and paranoia leads to view that if they do not attack they will be attacked. There are no guilty afterthoughts. Wetiko’s mind is sure it is doing the right thing. In trying to live, it destroys life and eventually even itself. Wetikoized psyche falls to its own illusion and in state of confusion and trauma it creates and deepens the problem he is trying to solve.
Wetiko is using the system of “shadow” projection. Shadow is the part of our personality that we
are ashamed of, that we hide and suppress. We try to solve the problem of evil in us by making it not part of us and projecting it on outside world, on others. Then we are justified to be evil to those who we see as evil. Doing violence to people at whom we have projected our shadow is outer dramatization of inner violence against undesired part of ourselves. There is always a grain of truth in properties we assign to others in projection. The shadow recipient has its own shadow that serves as a hook for us to project our shadow. Due to this shadow he or she behaves in a ways that gives us feedback that he or she actually has the properties we project on them. Mutually projected shadows cause conflicts and wars.
Self-reflection and urge for individuation are ways to make unconscious conscious and to stop projecting our shadow on others.
Wetiko affects our thinking process. It will affect our perception to create a problem and then affect the way we try to solve it in a way that is making the problem even bigger. In that way it creates a real problem from something that is not really problematic.
Through changing our perception Wetiko can play with our feelings, turning them off and making us cruely rational or it can make feelings take over control and cause us to act irrationally. Our feeling of superiority is always a symptom of Wetiko disease. Wetiko can make us pessimistic or overly optimistic. It can make us negate ourselves. By feeling wounded or victimized we open doors to Wetiko. Only through allowing ourselves to be vulnerable instead of feeling bitter and resentful can we heal a wound and help others who are wounded. When we accept outer evil happening to anyone without protesting against it, we are cooperating with evil. We are then in Wetiko spirit.
Healthy Wetiko free psyche has empathy for everyone as well as for whole of existence. It is integrated psyche that can see and accept its shadow. Healthy person has a sense that the wellbeing of others is deeply connected to the wellbeing of self and is therefore devoted to being in service to others. Such a person sees through “us against them” illusions needing no recognition or validation from others. It has no desire to impose its will, to control, manipulate and have power over others. There is ability to postpone short-term gratification with awareness of long-term benefits in mind. There is awareness that our perception of outer world is a lot about us.
I would say that Wetiko free psyche is the one that is free from egoistic high worth low worth seesaw and is filled with love for all life including whole self.
In the end let us mention that Wetiko is not necessarily bad for us. It provides us with obstacles that are necessary for us to grow and develop. Paul compares this with a seed that needs to be put in dark soil to start its growth towards light. In that way Wetiko is the greatest catalytic force of our evolution as a person.
This is great book about our inner demons that are seen as archetype of Wetiko mind parasite. Book describes the phenomena in details and offer deeper understanding of the issue and how to combat this mind parasite. Highly recommended reading.
Wetiko is a name that Native Americans use for wicked elusive nonlocal parasite of the mind that is causing people to do evil. It makes heart icy, devoid of mercy, love and compassion. Wetiko is archetypal energy that can take over and possess a person or a species. Mind is the playground for Wetiko. Each one of us is struggling with his own variety of this daemonic energy. Wetiko operates in complete consciousness field while trying to remain hidden.
Paul has own names for Wetiko. He calls it “Malignant Egophrenia” or ME disease (another name would be Mad Emperor disease). Wetiko introduces deviation in the process in which we attribute meaning to our experience. It acts as a filter and a mirror in which we observe self and others. Wetiko disassociates us from the whole and disconnects us from nature, empathy and ourselves.
Paul sees the world as a dream that symbolically reflects something that exists in the subject. Reality of psyche is real while the material world is an illusion created for the psyche to experience and expresses itself. Wetiko belongs to reality of the psyche. It is the part of personality that hides in shadows, tries to keep us in the dark, abuses us and fights against our personal growth. As Jung said, we become enlightened by making the darkness conscious.
Wetiko is illusionary disease. It causes delusion in a way of seeing self and others. Person infected with Wetiko is not in touch with his own humanity and thus cannot see humanity in others. Such a person sees others either as a prey or as threat. Everything is either true or false, good or bad to diseased person.
Art is a way of being that awakens us and makes us free. Wetiko is the opposite of art. It hates and is afraid of expressing creativity. Wetiko takes and consumes without giving anything back. The Wetiko disease of our civilization manifests itself in all the wars, economic injustice, and in the way we are ruthlessly exploiting and impoverishing the planet.
We cannot destroy Wetiko playing his game. We can only protect ourselves by knowing ourselves, seeing things holistically by giving up on two value logic of duality as in good and evil and developing deeper understanding of self and others. Instead of two values such as true and false, we can have four value logic: true, false, both true and false, neither true nor false.
I would say it is not about something being in same time truth and not, or neither true or not. It is about something being true in particular context, in a set of circumstances that trigger certain behavior. All our behavior is context dependent and much of our behavior is automatic and triggered by cues in the context.
Paul asserts that to recognize Weitiko we need to fully enter the present moment. In my opinion this means to avoid being automatic.
Paul further argues that to be able to see Wetiko we need to be holistic and thus able to see interdependent field that connects and pervades everything. Everything exists in relation with everything else. We are continuously dreaming up a field and being dreamed by it. It is dependent co-arising. When contents of the unconscious mind are activated, they have an effect on conscious mind of everyone involved.
Our mind is continually being corrupted and polluted by Wetiko propaganda present in all aspects of our society. To the extent we are not fully awake we have a part of us that is mad and under control of Wetiko. It is only but confronting what is inhuman in us that we become human.
We have become conditioned to accept as normal that we are in endless war and that many of our brothers and sisters all over the planet live in poverty and dying of starvation. We see and interpret the world through filter of Wetiko mental madness and are unaware of death and destruction it is causing. Unconscious part infected with Wetiko mind virus steps on the driver’s seat. This is especially the case in the groups where people lose their critical thinking abilities, blindly follow the authorities and feed and enforce each other’s narcissism.
The Wetiko parasite feeds on and harvests the emotions of fear and terror. Wetiko is spread via propaganda of mainstream media under control of Wetiko agents. Media shape the parameters and limits of our debate and conversation keeping us in Wetiko mindset. Wetiko disease is deliberately spread by television, films, comic books, pornographic content, fanatics of various kinds, missionary groups, police and military combat trainings and governments. We need to develop psychic immunity on covert, fear based, warfare waged by economic, political and media powers to be. We do that by cultivating critical thinking, self-reflective awareness and ability to discriminate and discern truth from fiction.
Wetiko manipulators use fear to skip our rational part and address directly the reptilian brain concerned with our primal survival instincts. They systematically program us to refuse to see reality in order to control us. That opens the door to Wetiko. Propaganda makes people believe simultaneously everything and nothing. People behind screens create false perceptions that are used to hide what they are really doing. This is outer expression of how Wetiko mind functions.
When Wetiko is installed in our mind, it steers as away from our true vocation, calling and spiritual path. For Wetiko infected mind the problem is always in other people. People infected with Wetiko can look as even more normal and appear to have more virtue than normal people. But it is a mask. Nothing is so convincing as a lie one believes or evil deed or intention whose righteousness one finds self-evident. More one is hypnotized with Wetiko higher his ability to hypnotize others. When we are possessed by Wetiko archetype it is like an “entity” possessed us and we are not there anymore. We are then channeling negative archetype which is always destructive for those in our sphere of influence. We are then compelled to act out its destructive force. The very sight of goodness activates desire to do evil.
World is, like a dream, interactive mirror that is inseparable from own inner being. Wetiko’s world is a world where true is false and facts make no difference. Wetiko reacts with anger on its own projections in the world. Their insane logic based on fear and paranoia leads to view that if they do not attack they will be attacked. There are no guilty afterthoughts. Wetiko’s mind is sure it is doing the right thing. In trying to live, it destroys life and eventually even itself. Wetikoized psyche falls to its own illusion and in state of confusion and trauma it creates and deepens the problem he is trying to solve.
Wetiko is using the system of “shadow” projection. Shadow is the part of our personality that we
are ashamed of, that we hide and suppress. We try to solve the problem of evil in us by making it not part of us and projecting it on outside world, on others. Then we are justified to be evil to those who we see as evil. Doing violence to people at whom we have projected our shadow is outer dramatization of inner violence against undesired part of ourselves. There is always a grain of truth in properties we assign to others in projection. The shadow recipient has its own shadow that serves as a hook for us to project our shadow. Due to this shadow he or she behaves in a ways that gives us feedback that he or she actually has the properties we project on them. Mutually projected shadows cause conflicts and wars.
Self-reflection and urge for individuation are ways to make unconscious conscious and to stop projecting our shadow on others.
Wetiko affects our thinking process. It will affect our perception to create a problem and then affect the way we try to solve it in a way that is making the problem even bigger. In that way it creates a real problem from something that is not really problematic.
Through changing our perception Wetiko can play with our feelings, turning them off and making us cruely rational or it can make feelings take over control and cause us to act irrationally. Our feeling of superiority is always a symptom of Wetiko disease. Wetiko can make us pessimistic or overly optimistic. It can make us negate ourselves. By feeling wounded or victimized we open doors to Wetiko. Only through allowing ourselves to be vulnerable instead of feeling bitter and resentful can we heal a wound and help others who are wounded. When we accept outer evil happening to anyone without protesting against it, we are cooperating with evil. We are then in Wetiko spirit.
Healthy Wetiko free psyche has empathy for everyone as well as for whole of existence. It is integrated psyche that can see and accept its shadow. Healthy person has a sense that the wellbeing of others is deeply connected to the wellbeing of self and is therefore devoted to being in service to others. Such a person sees through “us against them” illusions needing no recognition or validation from others. It has no desire to impose its will, to control, manipulate and have power over others. There is ability to postpone short-term gratification with awareness of long-term benefits in mind. There is awareness that our perception of outer world is a lot about us.
I would say that Wetiko free psyche is the one that is free from egoistic high worth low worth seesaw and is filled with love for all life including whole self.
In the end let us mention that Wetiko is not necessarily bad for us. It provides us with obstacles that are necessary for us to grow and develop. Paul compares this with a seed that needs to be put in dark soil to start its growth towards light. In that way Wetiko is the greatest catalytic force of our evolution as a person.
This is great book about our inner demons that are seen as archetype of Wetiko mind parasite. Book describes the phenomena in details and offer deeper understanding of the issue and how to combat this mind parasite. Highly recommended reading.
February 15, 2022
This book is a radical synthesis of depth (Jungian) psychology and Buddhist philosophy aimed at fleshing out and expanding our understanding of the transpersonal nature of evil.
As a reading experience, this book appears to be an effort in time dilation. At times the book feels like it is looping in ever so slowly expanding concentric circles, going back over the same domain over and over and over again until; BOOM!, out of nowhere with seemingly little emphasis you will run into one of the juiciest mind-expanding paragraphs you've ever read - or in this case, re-read 20 times until you feel like your starting to grasp it and it's all you can think about for days- only for it, in many cases to seemingly not be touched upon again.
However, a caveat to this is the fact that the concepts laid out in this text may be so foreign to the western mode of thought, that in order to understand them conceptually requires them to be fleshed out in as many different analogies and contexts as possible until we are able to construct a multi dimensional understanding of them. I know that for example, the concept that something could be acausal, exist outside of time and have no 'real' existence and yet interact with and shape the world through a field like phenomena took quite some time for me to wrap my head around.
My main critique of the book is that while it's contents carry deep implications for the way we see ourselves in the world and in the broader sphere of human evolution, and often had me questioning what my own wounding is and where I may be projecting it onto others and the world at large, the book actually contains very little real world examples at the personal level or even an in depth explanation of how it is that we can illuminate our own unconscious. This left me and I'd imagine many other readers with the looming spectre that while we may know what is wrong with the world and ourselves, it doesn't necessarily mean we know what to do about it. Perhaps I've got some reading on the shadow to do ;)
I'd recommend this book to anyone who would like to expand their awareness of what evil is and how it operates transpersonally through time as a force that exists outside of us but expresses through us, a force that is not just present in tyrants and criminals but in all of us and how the evil we see in the world is truly a reflection of the evil that exists within us. A force that is paradoxically destructive but necessary for the unfoldment of love.
To conclude, despite the book's imperfections, I honestly believe that if we were able to plug the awareness of Wetiko into the collective consciousness of our species it would lead to a radical acceleration in the expansion of consciousness and would be a major hindrance for the diabolical forces present in the collective unconscious, forcing them to come through a finer sieve of awareness before they could be made manifest in the world at large. This book is truly world shattering in the best of ways, one of the most mind-expanding texts I have yet to read.
As a reading experience, this book appears to be an effort in time dilation. At times the book feels like it is looping in ever so slowly expanding concentric circles, going back over the same domain over and over and over again until; BOOM!, out of nowhere with seemingly little emphasis you will run into one of the juiciest mind-expanding paragraphs you've ever read - or in this case, re-read 20 times until you feel like your starting to grasp it and it's all you can think about for days- only for it, in many cases to seemingly not be touched upon again.
However, a caveat to this is the fact that the concepts laid out in this text may be so foreign to the western mode of thought, that in order to understand them conceptually requires them to be fleshed out in as many different analogies and contexts as possible until we are able to construct a multi dimensional understanding of them. I know that for example, the concept that something could be acausal, exist outside of time and have no 'real' existence and yet interact with and shape the world through a field like phenomena took quite some time for me to wrap my head around.
My main critique of the book is that while it's contents carry deep implications for the way we see ourselves in the world and in the broader sphere of human evolution, and often had me questioning what my own wounding is and where I may be projecting it onto others and the world at large, the book actually contains very little real world examples at the personal level or even an in depth explanation of how it is that we can illuminate our own unconscious. This left me and I'd imagine many other readers with the looming spectre that while we may know what is wrong with the world and ourselves, it doesn't necessarily mean we know what to do about it. Perhaps I've got some reading on the shadow to do ;)
I'd recommend this book to anyone who would like to expand their awareness of what evil is and how it operates transpersonally through time as a force that exists outside of us but expresses through us, a force that is not just present in tyrants and criminals but in all of us and how the evil we see in the world is truly a reflection of the evil that exists within us. A force that is paradoxically destructive but necessary for the unfoldment of love.
To conclude, despite the book's imperfections, I honestly believe that if we were able to plug the awareness of Wetiko into the collective consciousness of our species it would lead to a radical acceleration in the expansion of consciousness and would be a major hindrance for the diabolical forces present in the collective unconscious, forcing them to come through a finer sieve of awareness before they could be made manifest in the world at large. This book is truly world shattering in the best of ways, one of the most mind-expanding texts I have yet to read.
June 22, 2024
Intense reading. Heavy topic and important today considering the battle of polarities/dualities/separation and war as we enter the Age of Aquarius. Shadow projections and how each one of us is currently contributing to the overall chaos in the World. Wetiko is an Indigenous word and defined as evil, negativity, and individual/personal shadows acting out in our personalities. We think the Planet is falling apart and others are responsible, here we learn how we are actually pulling all the strings. The stronger one hates, lies, finger-points, and denies, the more one empowers wetiko and what is happening in our crumbling systems. Information is drawn from Jungian teachings, shamanic/indigenous practices and other areas of research done by the author including some of his own personal experiences.
June 13, 2013
I received this book as a First Read win.
I began this book, and although the material is very interesting, it has a sort of text book feel.
That being said, I have set aside for a time when I can devote more time and energy to it, make notes, and so forth. From what I have read, it should prove to be very interesting.
I began this book, and although the material is very interesting, it has a sort of text book feel.
That being said, I have set aside for a time when I can devote more time and energy to it, make notes, and so forth. From what I have read, it should prove to be very interesting.
November 27, 2018
Important to read!
This book is a work of art--brilliantly written, with words carefully chosen or created to de-spell Wetiko. Reading it was powerfully transformative. It's the most important book I've ever read.
This book is a work of art--brilliantly written, with words carefully chosen or created to de-spell Wetiko. Reading it was powerfully transformative. It's the most important book I've ever read.
August 31, 2016
A deep and exquisite read...but not for shallow readers....
July 1, 2025
I really wanted to like “Dispelling Wetiko”, especially since it was recommended by someone I admire, but reading it was honestly a pain, and I had to force myself to finish it.
In my opinion, the book lacks clear structure, is highly repetitive, and overcomplicates concepts that could be explained simply and practically. The author wraps ideas in dense, mystical language that, for me, makes them feel vague and unnecessarily “woo-woo.”
For example, the author writes:
“Just as a vampire can’t stand the light of day, a bug like wetiko can’t stand to be seen. The disease obfuscates itself, creating any number of distractions to being seen, for being seen takes away its seeming omnipotence. Flooding light on wetiko’s machinations takes away its seeming autonomy and alleged power over us, such that it can no longer compel us to act it out unconsciously.”
When I first read this, I genuinely thought, “Huh? What is he actually trying to say?” However, based on my personal journey with therapy, mindfulness, and reading psychology, I believe what he’s trying to express is much simpler: what he calls “Wetiko” is, in my view, trauma and the unconscious, reactive patterns we develop because of it. The “light” he talks about is simply awareness.
From how I see it, when you begin shadow work, therapy, journaling, mindfulness etc., you start bringing your traumas and cognitive schemas to the surface. This process can feel uncomfortable because your system wants to protect the status quo, even if that means holding on to maladaptive patterns. That’s why personal development is hard and why therapy can be painful (but liberating). However, by observing these patterns consciously, you take away their power, and you start acting from your true self instead of reacting unconsciously.
If you can read between the lines, the core message - acknowledging and working through your inner wounds to stop projecting them onto the world - is valuable. But for me, it was buried under layers of mystical phrasing and repetitive, dense writing that made it exhausting to get to the point.
I appreciate the intention behind the book, and I agree that change starts within, but I personally would have preferred a clearer, more structured, and grounded approach. It would have made the valuable parts of this book much more accessible without needing to mentally translate every paragraph into practical psychological terms.
In my opinion, the book lacks clear structure, is highly repetitive, and overcomplicates concepts that could be explained simply and practically. The author wraps ideas in dense, mystical language that, for me, makes them feel vague and unnecessarily “woo-woo.”
For example, the author writes:
“Just as a vampire can’t stand the light of day, a bug like wetiko can’t stand to be seen. The disease obfuscates itself, creating any number of distractions to being seen, for being seen takes away its seeming omnipotence. Flooding light on wetiko’s machinations takes away its seeming autonomy and alleged power over us, such that it can no longer compel us to act it out unconsciously.”
When I first read this, I genuinely thought, “Huh? What is he actually trying to say?” However, based on my personal journey with therapy, mindfulness, and reading psychology, I believe what he’s trying to express is much simpler: what he calls “Wetiko” is, in my view, trauma and the unconscious, reactive patterns we develop because of it. The “light” he talks about is simply awareness.
From how I see it, when you begin shadow work, therapy, journaling, mindfulness etc., you start bringing your traumas and cognitive schemas to the surface. This process can feel uncomfortable because your system wants to protect the status quo, even if that means holding on to maladaptive patterns. That’s why personal development is hard and why therapy can be painful (but liberating). However, by observing these patterns consciously, you take away their power, and you start acting from your true self instead of reacting unconsciously.
If you can read between the lines, the core message - acknowledging and working through your inner wounds to stop projecting them onto the world - is valuable. But for me, it was buried under layers of mystical phrasing and repetitive, dense writing that made it exhausting to get to the point.
I appreciate the intention behind the book, and I agree that change starts within, but I personally would have preferred a clearer, more structured, and grounded approach. It would have made the valuable parts of this book much more accessible without needing to mentally translate every paragraph into practical psychological terms.
December 1, 2025
Such mixed feelings about this book! On the one hand, I believe this book could save the world. On the other hand, the style in which it's written makes it truly obnoxious to read. So I'd rate a 5 for amazing and compelling ideas, and a 2 for writing and intelligibility.
It's frustrating, because I think this content and this perspective on what's wrong with the world and how to respond to it is SO needed right now, but Levy's writing seems completely inaccessible to the average person. Unless you are very good at abstract thinking and have had lots of practice with non-dual mindsets, unless you are highly psychologically sophisticated and know at least something about Jung, unless you are familiar with Buddhism, Eastern religions in general, mystical spirituality, and shamanism, AND unless you are pretty familiar with mythology, philosophy, sociology, and politics...you're not going to get much out of this book. In fact, I bet you won't even make it through the first chapter without a headache and a desire to throw the book at the wall.
I'm so peeved that this brilliant guy had to write such an overly complicated book. Made-up words, endless repetition of the same concept over and over, painfully long paragraphs, extreme overuse of terms and theories related to alchemy (yes, medieval alchemy)...it didn't need to be like that. They say you're not really an expert until you can explain your topic or concept in a way a 5yo would understand. Levy has a long way to go. His ideas could change the world...but he seems a little full of himself. Or maybe he's just high/stoned on spiritual enlightenment.
It's frustrating, because I think this content and this perspective on what's wrong with the world and how to respond to it is SO needed right now, but Levy's writing seems completely inaccessible to the average person. Unless you are very good at abstract thinking and have had lots of practice with non-dual mindsets, unless you are highly psychologically sophisticated and know at least something about Jung, unless you are familiar with Buddhism, Eastern religions in general, mystical spirituality, and shamanism, AND unless you are pretty familiar with mythology, philosophy, sociology, and politics...you're not going to get much out of this book. In fact, I bet you won't even make it through the first chapter without a headache and a desire to throw the book at the wall.
I'm so peeved that this brilliant guy had to write such an overly complicated book. Made-up words, endless repetition of the same concept over and over, painfully long paragraphs, extreme overuse of terms and theories related to alchemy (yes, medieval alchemy)...it didn't need to be like that. They say you're not really an expert until you can explain your topic or concept in a way a 5yo would understand. Levy has a long way to go. His ideas could change the world...but he seems a little full of himself. Or maybe he's just high/stoned on spiritual enlightenment.
May 1, 2020
TRUTH - is one that we are ALL destined to make. NOT with a friend, a partner or a lover - or in accordance with some religious, political or scientific - creed, cult, dogma or otherwise collective understanding - but ON YOUR OWN !!! The true "Way" cannot be used to look into the heart of another, and can only be appreciated and found on one's own. What others say is but "oral Zen" -- Zen not practiced but simply preached or talked about - Henry Chang
EACH and EVERYONE of US on this PLANET has to become their OWN LEADER
As Michael Smith has said…. No TEACHER No PATH Just THIS. It is our relationship with the ☯️NE - manifested through the reality of Yin & Yang - that must be sought - to provide the truth of HOMO SAPIENS involvement in the evolution of Kosmic CONSCIOUSNESS.
The awakening in[DEED] to the very concept of Carl Gustav Jung’s collective unconscious, to itself, as the evolving collective conscious – in synchronicity with Einstein’s statement that - a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive the move to higher levels. The living have to “pass the torch” to the living - to perpetuate the continuous evolution of DNA and IT’s collective intelligence as well as the future well being of the KOSMOS [IT]self.
https://www.facebook.com/michael.grov...
THIS BOOK of Paul Levy's played a great part in the process of my own understanding of the very importance of the Native North American MINDSIGHT.
EACH and EVERYONE of US on this PLANET has to become their OWN LEADER
As Michael Smith has said…. No TEACHER No PATH Just THIS. It is our relationship with the ☯️NE - manifested through the reality of Yin & Yang - that must be sought - to provide the truth of HOMO SAPIENS involvement in the evolution of Kosmic CONSCIOUSNESS.
The awakening in[DEED] to the very concept of Carl Gustav Jung’s collective unconscious, to itself, as the evolving collective conscious – in synchronicity with Einstein’s statement that - a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive the move to higher levels. The living have to “pass the torch” to the living - to perpetuate the continuous evolution of DNA and IT’s collective intelligence as well as the future well being of the KOSMOS [IT]self.
https://www.facebook.com/michael.grov...
THIS BOOK of Paul Levy's played a great part in the process of my own understanding of the very importance of the Native North American MINDSIGHT.
April 6, 2025
I wasn't new to the concept of Wetiko when I began reading Levy's books. On the positive side, he goes into great detail about this mind virus, delves into its historical origins and current status, which is chilling. The chapters on economics (13) and Psycho Analysis (7) are very informative and easy to follow.
On the other hand, the bulk of this book is repetitive and convoluted in presentation, which annoyed me enough to skip reading whole sections. I have a _very_ hard time believing we aren't separate individuals and that nothing really exists except in our minds. I also found his advice on how to escape Wetiko's clutches insufficient for the problem it currently poses. Is our creativity and Love really going to make Wetiko go away? Doubtful.
Nevertheless, it behooves us to realize that the current chaotic evils being casually and cruelly wrought all over the world are the result of this contagious, constant 'insatiable hunger' everyone can fall prey to, and that oligarchs display so clearly. I wish I could visualize a positive outcome, but I'm not there yet.
On the other hand, the bulk of this book is repetitive and convoluted in presentation, which annoyed me enough to skip reading whole sections. I have a _very_ hard time believing we aren't separate individuals and that nothing really exists except in our minds. I also found his advice on how to escape Wetiko's clutches insufficient for the problem it currently poses. Is our creativity and Love really going to make Wetiko go away? Doubtful.
Nevertheless, it behooves us to realize that the current chaotic evils being casually and cruelly wrought all over the world are the result of this contagious, constant 'insatiable hunger' everyone can fall prey to, and that oligarchs display so clearly. I wish I could visualize a positive outcome, but I'm not there yet.
February 4, 2024
There are a lot of deeply important ideas compiled and put forward here that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, but these golden nuggets are buried in excessive amounts of meandering and wordplay. I couldn't help but constantly think to myself how this book could be half the length that it is while still getting the message across, and that doing so would make it more digestible and approachable - two features that are essential for attracting readers who are not so invested in the subject matter (which happens to be the exact kind of readers who stand to gain the most from this book). This is a shame considering the complexity and profoundness of the highly important concepts being discussed. Still, I would recommend this to anyone wishing to look inwards and shed light on how their thoughts affect themselves, their community, and the broader universe.
July 11, 2020
Arguably the most important book to be written in our lifetimes. I would go as far as to recommend it for required reading in all high school curriculums, before teenagers make that great leap into the "real world".
It was quite intriguing reading this book at the mid-point of 2020, and noticing the "curse of wetiko" play itself out in real time all throughout the world. Here's to hoping this year is the moment of being "darkest before the dawn", as wetiko kicks and screams the loudest at the moment of being found-out.
It was quite intriguing reading this book at the mid-point of 2020, and noticing the "curse of wetiko" play itself out in real time all throughout the world. Here's to hoping this year is the moment of being "darkest before the dawn", as wetiko kicks and screams the loudest at the moment of being found-out.
February 19, 2024
Paul Levy's framing (wetiko as a mind virus, a psychic epidemic) is very useful, and his work is insightful and inspiring.
I do note, however, that he does ramble on and repeats himself a lot, though I also realise the need to drive the message home, and to examine wetiko from multiple viewpoints, in order to connect the dots, and build up a detailed picture.
His message is needed now more than ever, in these deeply troubled times and with the many grave crises – indeed metacrisis – that we face, as individuals, groups, nations, and globally.
I do note, however, that he does ramble on and repeats himself a lot, though I also realise the need to drive the message home, and to examine wetiko from multiple viewpoints, in order to connect the dots, and build up a detailed picture.
His message is needed now more than ever, in these deeply troubled times and with the many grave crises – indeed metacrisis – that we face, as individuals, groups, nations, and globally.
December 4, 2020
Not a review but I wanted to make a note of this whilst the thought was fresh in my mind, this book is not an easy read, but is intensely interesting, my favourite chapter is titled Archetypal Psychohistory and if I'm honest the main chapter that resonated with me and I seemed to understand emphatically.
May 7, 2022
This is a fascinating book about the existence of evil and the "shadow" elements of the human psyche. Levy argues that the primary means of dispelling this evil is through awareness and self reflection. He includes writings from Jung, and Christian and Buddhist texts to support his arguments and makes suggestions for working with our wounds to promote healing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews