Gotcha!: The Subordination of Free Will

by Eldon Taylor

For more than a century, a silent battle has been raging for the territory of your mind. The weapons are so covert that the masses have remained unaware of their use. So effective are these tactics that even when the victims are told what is happening, and they make some show of being outraged, they nevertheless allow it to continue. Like a virulent virus, the effects are spreading, exerting a stronger control over a greater number of people on a daily basis—and we can only wish this was all just fiction!

In Gotcha! The Subordination of Free Will, Eldon Taylor explores the 24/7 bombardment of information designed to win the hearts and minds of the public. He demonstrates how new sound-bytes are championed into personal awareness, becoming memes of the culture. All of this results in framing and reframing classical positions thereby causing adjustments to personal values and history itself. Your very decision process is being managed and manipulated, and the quest for discovering your real self becomes exponentially more difficult, if not impossible as a result.

Gotcha! exposes the arrival of the Orwellian age in full-blown technicolor. In laying bare the current uses of the many sophisticated techniques, Eldon reveals what it is we need to do in order to avoid allowing others to puppet our thoughts—“What was your last original thought?”

Take back your power, take back your hearts and minds, and learn what it means to be truly free!

Audible Audio

First published July 28, 2015

About the author

Eldon Taylor has made a lifelong study of the human mind and has earned doctoral degrees in psychology and metaphysics. He is a Fellow with the American Psychotherapy Association (APA) and a nondenominational minister.

Eldon was a practicing criminalist for over ten years while completing his education. He supervised and conducted investigations, and testing to detect deception. His earliest work with changing inner beliefs was conducted from this setting, including a double blind study conducted at the Utah State Prison, 1986-87. Eldon is President and Director of Progressive Awareness Research, Inc. For more than twenty years, his books, tapes, lectures, radio, and television appearances have approached personal empowerment from the cornerstone perspective of forgiveness, gratitude, self responsibility and service.

Eldon now lives in the countryside of Washington State with his wife and their two sons. Apart from his family and work, his true passion is horses.

Reviews

[Tony Fahkry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon first impression, Dr. Eldon Taylor’s Gotcha! The Subordination of Free Will is a clever interplay between Michael Gazzaniga’s book, Who’s In Charge: Free Will And The Science Of The Brain and Robert Cialdini’s: Influence: Science and Practice. Gotcha! The Subordination of Free Will is a call to awaken humanity from its unconscious sleep. The book is an inner exploration of critical thinking which many of us give little attention to until thrust into our awareness.

I am drawn to Dr. Taylor’s passage in the book which states, “The journey of life is really about living into our authentic selves. The first big gotcha is to hide that fact from us, to enculturate us in ways that foster the interests of society as a whole or of an elite few, while organizing the rest of us to conform and thereby consume.” The book takes the reader into unsettling places where things aren’t as they appear until we dig deeper.

In order for mankind to evolve, we must step out of our unconscious dream to penetrate the truth of reality. Dr. Taylor’s research is thorough and revelatory, striking at the core of our being. I am reminded of Mel Gibson’s film Conspiracy Theory, with insightful facts interspersed throughout the book that left me reconsidering many assumptions.

Gotcha! The Subordination of Free Will offers a thought provoking quest into free will, which is nothing more than an illusion according to Dr. Taylor. You will question everything and take nothing for granted by the close of the book. This does not mean one becomes paranoid about everyday life. Instead, we give greater consideration to what we perceive, because of our conditioned past. There is always something lurking beneath the surface and Dr. Taylor’s book is can opener, peeling back the lid on that world.

Question everything and as Thomas Dewar reminds us, “Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.”

[Ryshia Kennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotcha is a reminder that in a world of propaganda we must be aware and alert and most of all, prepared to act. Taylor takes us through the background and history of aspects of hypnosis and behavioral modification and demonstrates how government and big business uses this knowledge for their own agendas through an almost constant flood of advertisement and doublespeak that strives to lead us like sheep. Knowledge is power and the more big business and government knows about us the more power they have over us, giving them the ability to do anything from selling us the latest in toothpaste to gaining our acceptance of restrictive government legislations and even wars. Gotcha reminds us of how many of our rights have already been given away for the privilege of what authorities call security or safety and how those lost freedoms may only serve to give them more power over us. Gotcha is a call to action. It is a reminder that if each of us believes we cannot make a difference and don’t act because our actions will be too small, then our individuality will eventually be swallowed by those who exert their influence over us. Gotcha is a thought provoking must read for anyone who cares about the future of humanity in the twenty-first century.

[David Essel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!

" I love everything Eldon Taylor writes, but I was not prepared for the reality of our current mental/emotional states as he describes in this powerful book. In the chapter on childhood, I saw so clearly that we have been brainwashed to conform...and it does not stop there! And Yes, even while certain people among us may have been programmed for success, most have been told to accept whatever we are given! From a positive thinking author myself, I did not like so much of what he was saying, but as Eldon says, even I must awaken from my personal slumber and take action of some sort to change my world first, and then the world at large. Get involved, fight for a cause, do not accept " nothing can be done." Ultimately the book is exceptionally uplifting, if you are a person who declares they are on a path of personal growth or awakening. Because it will force you to , to look in the mirror, and as Bob Marley says.... "Only ourselves can free our minds".....but first we must acknowledge, that many of our beliefs and decisions have been given to us to keep us dumb and mute. "Gotcha" says awaken! Thank you Eldon!" David Essel

[Mark Goodkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book “Gotcha: The Subordination of Free Will” has made me more aware of the many ways in which others have attempted to control my thoughts and choices for their own benefit. As such, I have become more empowered to see through the techniques employed by marketers to get my dollar or politicians to get my vote. Such techniques, which are rooted largely in behavioral psychology, presume that our thoughts and actions are based a model of determinism and not free will. So, the name of the game by these marketers and politicians is to discover what techniques produce the desired results. However, this deterministic view is flawed. As Eldon points out in the book, through mindfulness and other skills, we can identify many of these techniques and begin to take our power back. We no longer have to be part of the herd mentality, but can become cognitively independent, a rare commodity in this day and age, but a requirement, if we are to fulfill our life’s dreams.

[Evita Ochel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important read for our times for all, whether we live in the United States or not. This book invites the reader to wake up and take back their mind, their free will, and ultimately their life. Exposing a plethora of research and examples of how pretty much every element in our modern world is being used to engineer our consent, it also provides solutions of what we can do to liberate ourselves from the enslavement.

[Pam Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoy this type of book because what you read about is what you frequently question yourself about. How mind programming no longer exists in the 21st Century, how they tweak your psyche to suit their own aims and needs, persuade you to vote in their direction, organise protests and demonstrations to suit their agenda so after you have read this book you do question yourself and realise that some of what is said here is very true. A learning curve book

[Ravinder Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 'must-read' book. When the evidence is presented all in one place it is impossible to deny that fact that we are all being programmed all of the time!

[Roberts Smitins · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I think that Eldon Taylor has written some excellent books (such as “Mind Programming” and “Choices and Illusions”, among others).

But at the same time, I have to say that I didn’t enjoy “Gotcha!” at all.

The reasons for me not loving this book:

- The events and facts presented there as evidence hardly prove anything because mostly only one side of the story is told.

- A couple of the topics discussed in the book are deeply in the territory of conspiracy theories.

- Some separate incidents are described as if they represented a much wider pattern.

- The book seems to be sensationalist in its nature and superficial at the same time.

All this doesn’t mean that the book is poorly written and useless. Quite the contrary. The author asks some valid questions and discusses numerous crucial issues. It just happens that I don’t find the structure of the book appealing. I’m not the book’s target audience.

I fully acknowledge that many people will enjoy “Gotcha!”. This work may even encourage some individuals to explore more thoroughly the issues the book deals with.
People are different, and that’s great!

[Ashok Yakkaldevi]

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