by Fr. Zechariah Lynch

Originally published on July 21, 2022 at inklesspen.blog

“The progress of technology had led and is still leading to just such a concentration and centralization of power” Aldous Huxley.

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man”

Luke 21:34-36

Foundational to Christian living is the remembrance of God. Remembrance while waking. Remembrance while at work. Remembrance while fulfilling the duties of life. Remembrance while going to sleep. The Christian must be cultivating the remembrance of God in all things. It need not be elaborate, the believer may offer this service in the inner chamber of the heart. He may offer it in solitude or while in the midst of a multitude.

The littlest of things may serve to turn our hearts and minds to the Most-Holy Trinity. While at work, “Lord fashion me according to Your image.” While eating, “Lord feed me with true heavenly food.” While drinking, “Lord give unto me the Living Water.” Even when we encounter unpleasant situations – that insane driver on the freeway – “Lord have mercy and save us! Lord deliver our race from the evil one.” Thus, we can train ourselves to use everyday material things to lift up our minds to Heavenly things. Short prayers peppered throughout the day, these will act to cultivate in our hearts the remembrance of God.

If remembrance of God is foundational to the Christian life, then the opposing foundation of the anti-Christian life is the forgetfulness of God. The enemy seeks to use all of the cares of this life to drown the soul in forgetfulness. He seeks to lull it into a false sense of complacency or keep it occupied in constant worry and fear. He seeks to de-humanize humanity. In a state of de-humanized forgetfulness, he drives our race to the cliffs of perdition. The masses staggering forward in the darkness of forgetfulness are constantly told, “this is true freedom.” And under duress, they begin to believe it.

The devil seeks to convince man to reduce himself to bare material existence – there is nothing beyond what can be seen with physical eyes and touched with fleshly hands. Even if the possibility of something greater is admitted, it is simultaneously wiped away as “unknowable or unknown.” Thus, man frees himself of any duty to contemplate higher things – after all, the thought stirs, what is truth and how could it be actually known? The shuffling masses are well supplied with the narcotic of indifferentism. This manifests itself in the fact that they then lash out at anything that would seek to disturb what they count their calm march, which ends in the abyss.

And we are in times which demand that one confess that the abyss is the ultimate “good.” For the enemy to make such an illusion seem to be a reality, he must purge from the human consciousness any striving and longing for Eternal things. He must obliterate the remembrance of God in the heart of man. He is not able to do this through his own power, but he may use his cunning to convince man to live of his own will in such a state.

In a past article, “Mind Control, Standardized Masses, and Conditioned Reflexes,” I point out that altering the psyche of man was a foundational goal of Sovietism. The early founders of Bolshevism in Russia were strong supporters and patrons of Ivan Pavlov.

Aldous Huxley, in his work, “Brave New World Revisited,” has many very interesting admissions. Regardless of whether one thinks Huxley was trying to warn people of the goals of the elite or that he was engaging in the very typical tactic of “hiding in plain sight,” is not of the greatest concern to me at the moment. One way or another, he expresses the ideals, methods, and goals – the spirit – of the new order that seeks to take control of man.

“Whatever may have happened in the early years, it seems fairly certain that torture is not extensively used by the Communist police today. They draw their inspiration, not from the Inquisitor or the SS man, but from the physiologist and his methodically conditioned laboratory animals. For the dictator and his policemen, Pavlov’s findings have important practical implications. If the central nervous system of dogs can be broken down, so can the central nervous system of political prisoners” – And for that matter those of the general population, so they would also reason – “It is simply a matter of applying the right amount of stress for the right length of time. At the end of the treatment, the prisoner will be in a state of neurosis or hysteria, and will be ready to confess whatever his captors want him to confess”

Brave New World Revisited, Harper Perennial, 2004, pg. 289

Such tactics were used throughout the Soviet system, as much historical evidence testifies. One of the most diabolical of such experiments was carried out in Communist Romania in Pitesti prison. It was simply called “Reeducation.” The modern materialist views man as but a biological machine.

Mr. Huxley continues, “But confession is not enough. A hopeless neurotic is no use to anyone. What the intelligent and practical dictator needs is not a patient to be institutionalized, or a victim to be shot, but a convert who will work for the Cause” (Ibid).

And there is a new anti-evangelism going on, one that indeed has as its goal conversion. I take the time to highlight these things so that we may be aware of the methods that are being employed. For we are told to be watchful. We cannot disallow that we are part of the human race and that we are, if not careful in Christ, susceptible to the sly tactics devised and utilized.

“Turning once again to Pavlov, he learns that, on their way to the point of final breakdown, dogs become more than normally suggestible. New behavior patterns can easily be installed while the dog is at or near the limit of cerebral endurance, and these new behavior patterns seem to be ineradicable. The animal in which they have been implanted cannot be deconditioned; that which it has learned under stress will remain an integral part of its make-up”

Ibid. 289-290

It is the goal of the enemy to recondition man – his perverse imitation of Christ Jesus’ making of men “new creation” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17) – so to make of him but an animal that is stripped of all humanity, a utilitarian object that if found of not sufficient use and practicality may be discarded with little resistance. In a multitude of ways, the uniformity of forgetfulness of God is actively being cultivated in the psyche of people.

It is very worth noting the means and methods of producing psychological stress elaborated by Mr. Huxley; the reader, I’m sure, will find much in common with the social environment that surrounds us. “Psychological stresses can be produced in many ways … it has been found that the deliberate induction of fear, rage, or anxiety markedly heightens the dog’s suggestibility. If these emotions are kept at a high pitch of intensity for a long enough time, the brain goes ‘on strike.’ When this happens, new behavior patterns may be installed with the greatest of ease” ( Brave New World Revisited, pg. 290).

This is why our world is full of what some have labeled “pseudo-ideas.” The human mind is purposely broken down and fed false ideas, we may say fantastical and self-contradicting ideas – which it then takes as some sort of reality – because in this state of constant emotional and sentimental reaction it is very easy to control.

For this to be effective, an environment of destabilization must be produced so to keep the subject in a state of anxiety, which will also stir up fear and rage. Does that sound familiar?

He continues, “Among the physical stresses that increase a dog’s suggestibility are fatigue, wounds, and every form of sickness” (Ibid). And then as if explaining events of our day, he elaborates, “Illness is even more effective than fatigue as an intensifier of suggestibility” (Ibid). As I stated many a time, the fundamental goal of covidism (yes there was a real virus, I’m speaking of the utilizing of the virus for an agenda) was primarily psychological – masks, lockdowns (applied, eased, and applied again), new social habits, and so forth. It is also why the threat of some new disease is ever in the mainstream media. Covidism proved that people, even Christians, are willing to accept a “new normal” under the threat of illness. It was priming the pump. People are willing to accept new standards of human interaction (or lack thereof) and even Christians are willing to accept the modification of worship and interaction with the Divine under the threat of an illness. Some Christians even refused the non-masked entrance into church buildings; some even willingly segregated the unvaccinated or barred them from worship. Those who would not accept the new mass psychosis were many times cut off, even by those counted as friends. What do such actions say, and have we repented and reconciled? Or has it just been easier to brush it under the carpet? Does this not indicate the danger, and on some level the potency, of what is being addressed in this article? Although it may seem at current that covidism is dormant, I bring it up because substantial ground was taken, through it, in the reconditioning of humanity. Certian mentalities were cultivated in many and are all still there.

Mr. Huxley notes, “Intense, prolonged fear broke them down and produced a state of greatly intensified suggestibility … If indoctrination is given in the right way at the proper stage of nervous exhaustion, it will work. Under favorable conditions, practically everybody can be converted to practically anything” (Ibid. pg. 291).

As covidism was losing its potency, the world was hurriedly moved into its next crisis. Somehow war was begun in a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map. And it became the great scapegoat for a plethora of global “shortages.” And let’s not forget about the use of “climate” for fearmongering. Keep the masses in a state of anxiety and worry. We must also take into consideration that when there is instability people tend to be more open to saviors.

There is undoubtedly a certain reality behind the materialist understanding of the human psyche. The methods have been implemented with great success in many places. It does at least confirm that the human mind will be conformed to something or someone.

So, what is the Christian to do? Remember God. If in situations of heightened stress we become more “susceptible,” then let us turn the constructed situations of continued crisis around us to a beneficial end. In trials and tribulations, let us turn to God. If the goal is to wear us down, then let us encourage ourselves in the Lord. The goal is to mentally weaken us, let us strengthen our minds in Christ. Ultimately, the plans of the Devil, executed through those sad persons who serve him, will all come crashing down and be destroyed.

The Scriptures admonish us, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Pet. 5:6-9).

“Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall nourish thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to stumble. But Thou, O God, shalt bring them into the pit of destruction; blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in the Lord”

Ps. 54[55]:23-24

And then, if we remain in Christ Jesus, we may say with the righteous Joseph, “Do not be afraid, for I belong to God. But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20).

If in all the instability of our days, we cultivate in our hearts the remembrance of God then we will find the still path through the stormy waters. Even in all the global machinations of men, we may be reminded of God, “O Lord, this world is passing away and all its lust, only Your Kingdom abides forever! Remember me when You come in Your Kingdom!”

Counteract the psychological attack of the evil one by cultivating in your psyche the remembrance of God. May we have the sobriety to understand the tactics being used against us, so as to implement the proper spiritual defense in our Lord Jesus.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me … In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 14:1; 16:33).

A prayer by St. Anatole (the Younger) of Optina:

“Deliver me, O Lord, from the deceptions of the God-hating and evil antichrist, whose coming is at hand, and shelter me from his snares in the secret desert of Thy salvation. Grant me, O Lord, strength and courage to firmly confess Thy Most Holy Name, that I may not abandon Thee because of the devil’s fear and that I may not deny Thee my Saviour and Redeemer, nor Thy Holy Church. But grant me, O Lord, cries and tears for my sins, and spare me in the hour of Thy dread judgment.

Amen

My name is Zechariah Lynch. I am an Orthodox Christian. I am an Orthodox priest. I have freely given myself to be influenced and guided by the Orthodox Faith: it is the main foundation upon which I will endeavor to base my thoughts and observations for this blog.

I believe in things like Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; that humanity is subject to higher principles. Ultimately I believe in God.

Continued at inklesspen.blog/about