News Flash: Microorganisms living in your gut get you to eat certain things at certain times via mind control.
HOLY BASIL! Did I really just say that?
If you are still with me, if you weren’t instantly incinerated by the weirdness of that statement, congratulations…and let’s get on with it.
When you eat, you feed the microorganisms in your gut. Colonies of these organisms live inside you, and they prefer certain types of food over others. They get you to eat what they want by popping images of the food in your mind and by making simple statements, such as, “I want a cookie.” Normally, this is pretty much all it takes. If these simple shenanigans make it past first base without being seen for what they are, then a whole host of other habitual responses kick in, like emotions and memories, which make it harder to resist the “I want a cookie” rouse. This can also happen without the image insertion. For instance, if you visit someone and they are eating something that is normally not at all interesting to you (for me, that would be something like potato chips), but you’ll get a thought, “I want a chip.” No image is needed, since the item is present.
This has nothing to do with your own hunger or nutritional needs, or even your own desires. If you are accustomed, as most people are, to taking ownership of the thoughts that occur, seemingly in “your head”, then you will actually believe you are the originator of this thought, “I want a cookie.” You will believe on some level that you want a cookie, and then you can either resist or give in or whatever. The key here is the use of the very powerful word “I”. An endless stream of thoughts pass through your mind, but the ones that start with “I” get your serious attention.
If you assume that you are the one thinking the thoughts, then you naturally take “I” thoughts seriously. You believe them. You believe they are your thoughts, your feelings, your desires. This is how the easiest form of mind control, or behavior control, happens, by simply lobbing an “I” statement into your awareness. If I wanted to control your mind, I would not insert “you are getting very sleepy.” Instead, I would insert an “I” statement.
When I transitioned to non-eating, a thought appeared one night. It was one of these food craving “I” thoughts. Since I’m not accustomed to having thoughts, it was quite an event! It’s like someone burst into my cave where there was no sound and certainly no conversation, and screamed, “I want a cookie!” I stopped what I was doing and just watched. I knew I did not want a cookie, or anything. I was content. The next night it happened again. I asked, “who is speaking?” Then came the statement, “you’re killing yourself!” I asked again, “who’s speaking?” Then came, “you’re killing us!” They seem to attempt two modes: induce craving or fear.
If your mind is silent and empty, or if you have thoughts but are used to being unattached or unconcerned with them, then you will start to notice mind control insertions have a different quality to them. You’ll spot them easily. If you want, you can follow them to their source, ignore them or remove the stream from your awareness. Mind controllers don’t like being seen directly.
Your intestinal bugs only have a few tools to get what they want and they’re not all that sophisticated. Once you recognize the thoughts are not yours to begin with, there is not much more they can do. And hey, if you really want a cookie, for heaven’s sake, eat one. But please don’t let a handful of bacteria hijack your plane.
image: taken in a Long Island diner
This reader would like you to know that he greatly enjoys receiving your posts. Some of them are startlingly provocative so it is surprising to see how few comments they generate. Perhaps you have a larger readership than appears at first sight, all of them too gobsmacked to know how to respond to you.
Hey Patrick…great to hear from you. I don’t have many readers, but when I started this blog I expected to maybe reach a handful of people around the world who might be experiencing similar things. So in effect, I have hundreds more readers than I ever thought I would! It’s quite surprising, and illustrates how easy it is to assume you are alone in the heart of this whirlwind of extraordinary experiences. I was asked by readers to write about depression and mental illness, and even though that was not something I expected to be writing about, those articles are the ones that are most popular. This makes sense, because people who are suffering or wondering if there is something wrong with them are more likely to be actively searching online. How many people will find me through search engines, looking for stuff like bacterial mind control or temporary blindness caused by spiritual awakening? That’s why I ask readers to share a link to this website on forums or on your own blogs or with friends. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s very easy to find. As for comments, I find that most people use the form at the bottom of the page to contact me directly, rather than leaving comments in the comment stream. If you fill out the contact form at the bottom, it goes directly to my email rather than appearing publicly. In this way I have all kinds of interesting dialogues going with readers that no one gets to see. Lastly…GOBSMACKED! I love that word!
Hi Bodhi 🙂
I came across your post on awakening and mental illness by random browsing. Your invitation to join the Community of the Ultra Sane cracked me up.
Although I am only a few months into my own awakening, my ride doesn’t seem to be as bumpy as yours. I haven’t had any experience with siddhis and I still do have thoughts most of the time.
It came as a major shock to me to realize that my analytical mind was fundamentally deluded and my current project is to rebuild it on a saner foundation. I think I remember your saying something similar about experimenting with having a self again (but I don’t know where to find it).
About those intestinal bugs, I expect you know that we live in a very complex symbiosis with them so the idea that they might be manipulating us by planting I-thoughts in our minds isn’t at all far fetched. Mind you, I suspect that there is a much larger conspiracy afoot. Perhaps all I-thinking is nothing but a mechanism to control the behaviour of individuals living in complex social arrangements. How could societies function at all without shame, guilt and the notions of sin and free will?
Patrick,
Many people have been asking me lately about my ongoing experiment with reverse engineering the personality self. Perhaps it’s time to write more about it. I’ve been tinkering and fumbling around with it for a few years now, and can only give what amounts to patchy field notes on an ongoing process. Maybe it will be helpful, maybe not. I’ve regained perhaps 20% of my former capacity to engage with abstract, theoretical and conceptual thought. It’s not much, but it is a lot more than zero. I’m not sure how or if it has improved life. I will write a proper post on this because people seem to be interested. I would never have guessed people would be interested in regaining any of this function, since most of spirituality is about disabling it, but here we are…on the other side with a whole different set of motivations.
I LOVE this site. Patrick, you stated my thoughts perfectly.
I find this site refreshing. I also like reading straight ancient Vedanta as well. Vedanta has this whole thing well thought out and explained, and a teaching method, but it is also rigid. This site takes the open software approach. Very enlightening! For example, taking on depression and meaninglessness is important. All the talk about bliss does not capture the whole picture.
Glad you found me, Maury. I appreciate your comments on the site…you share a great deal of your lived experience in a very direct way, without a lot of interpretation.
Wow. This post reminded me of a terrific book of horror short stories whose title says it all: “We Live Inside You”, by Jeremy Roberts Johnson
What is left of our I-brain thinks it has gone to a place called Heaven. It feels so good. So alive. It thinks a word. ‘Enlightenment.’
-Jeremy Roberts Johnson, “When Susurrus Stirs” (from the book “We Live Inside You”).
Gut Bacteria Might Guide The Workings Of Our Minds