Humility: Getting It and Keeping It

by Joe McKeever

I know precious little about humility. However I know one big thing: God wants it in His people.

Scripture is filled with teachings, examples, violations, commands, and encouragements regarding humility. Nothing cinches it for believers like knowing that even Jesus Christ was humble and became our example. Try these passages for starters: Matthew 11:29; John 13:14-15; Philippians 2:5-8.
Scripture tells believers to put on humility (Colossians 3:12), be clothed with humility (I Peter 5:5), and to walk with humility (Ephesians 4:1-2).

The Lord wants His children to be humble so badly that He has given us seven aids to accomplish this and to keep us that way.

1. Common sense.

Look around at the billions of people. You're just one of them. Look above at the jillions of stars. You're sitting on one small planet circling one humble star. They've been around for eons, while you have only a few more years of life here. If that doesn't humble you, you're not paying attention.

2. The Holy Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, humility.... (Galatians 5:22-23).

3. Our family.

I heard the wife of a well-known preacher say on television once--and probably shocking some in her audience--"I tell my husband, 'Don't start that big shot thing with me. I saw you in your shorts this morning.'"

The old adage says, "No man is a hero to his valet." Likewise, to the Obama children, Barack is simply "Daddy." To Billy Graham's offsprings, he is "Daddy." None tiptoe into his presence and genuflex.

4. Our friends.

Those who are your closest friends are not in awe of you. They will tell you your breath smells bad, you need to use a hankie, or that you have a stain on your clothing that you had not noticed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy (Proverbs 27:6).

5. Affliction, hardship.

You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you.... (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

6. Failure.

Scripture cites so many instances of this, it's hard to know where to start. God let Israel fail to conquer the tiny city of Ai to humble them because of sin in their camp. He let Samson fail because of his headstrong ways. Same with Nebuchadnezzar. Time and again, God allowed foreign nations to conquer Israel and dominate them until they humbled themselves and cried out to Him.

A friend in the ministry told me that after his wife left him, thus ending his pastoral ministry that had made him a household name in his part of the world, God truly humbled him. I said, "My guess is you are doing far better work for the Lord now than before." He said, "I was working for myself before. Now I work for Jesus."

7. Criticism.

Nothing drove Moses to stay close to the Almighty like the constant carping of the Israelite people. Many pastors have had to stand in the pulpit and deliver God's message to people who were looking for flaws and eager to pounce on any mistake he made. It's an awful way to live, but God can use this in his life to build character and deepen his commitment to Christ.

As I write this, something just happened. A few days ago, an online pastors' service picked up an article from my website and forwarded it (with my approval of course) to over 100,000 on their mailing list. Ever since, my mailbox has been clogged with comments and responses, almost entirely favorable. However, this morning a negative note came. A layman let me know he was the type of church member I was addressing and that I was entirely wrong. I answered him and should have moved forward. But since, I've gone back and reread his note and even printed it out. His criticism will linger with me far longer than the endorsements.

Okay, so we have all these influences converging on little old us to keep us mindful that we are puny, dependent, limited, weak, ignorant, and sinners.

A gospel song expresses it like this--
I thought number one would surely be me;
I thought I could be what I wanted to be.
I thought of myself as a mighty big man.
But I can't even walk without You holding my hand.

Question: Why do we have to keep learning these lessons? Why does pride become such a dominant, malignant factor in our lives?

Answer: Because we live under a constant barrage of forces that neutralize humility. Here are 7 of them, these forces that work against humility.

1. Our ego.

We are born self-centered and, unless something intervenes (like a spanking or discipline or instruction), we grow up full of ourselves, thinking the world revolves around us. That may be the essence of original sin, that we are all about us.

My friend Jerry Clower used to say, "People say I have an ego. Listen, friend--if you don't have an ego, go get you one. Because you're going to be needing one in this life!" He meant the kind of self-awareness and confidence that accompany success in life. That's the good ego; the bad ego is pride, self-centeredness.

2. Our successes.

No one wants to fail; everyone wants to succeed in life. And yet we learn far more from our failures than from successes and accomplishments. Let a young writer publish an early book and receive great acclaim and he/she automatically thinks of themselves as a great author. However, if the aspiring writer receives a series of rejection slips that drive him to work at his craft and perfect his manuscript, he can become far more than otherwise.

In the ministry, few people are as full of themselves as young pastors who have achieved acclaim early. After watching them preen and listening to them prate, one finds himself hoping they will be humbled in order to be of genuine service in the Lord's work. My opinion is that no one in the ministry ever amounts to anything without being broken at some point.

3. Our underlings.

Our groupies, our fans, our employees, our admirers--call them what you please. Sycophants. Many of these attempt to curry favor in order to use us for their purposes.

4. Our forgetfulness.

God sent us failure and humbled us, but we quickly forgot the lesson and soon were back to speed with our ego running the show. The Apostle Peter wrote of various Christlike virtues, then added, He who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins (II Peter 1:9).

5. Our enemy, Satan himself.

Jesus told Peter that the devil wanted to sift you like wheat. For one called "The Rock" (Matthew 16:18), we get a picture of Peter being turned into sand. Satan is forever trying that approach with us today, in two primary ways: by running us down, destroying our confidence and faith, and by puffing us up, making us believe in our self-sufficiency.

6. Our blindness.

Even without successes to puff us up, we still find ourselves carrying inflated ideas of who we are. Where does this come from? We are clearly turning blind eyes toward reality. The Old Testament prophets and our Lord Jesus spoke of those who have eyes but will not see (Matthew 13:13ff).
I've noticed a little quirk of mine which I'm willing to bet is a widespread human frailty: when we look into the mirror, we do not see "truth" but we see what we want to see. When I was carrying 30 pounds more than I do now, I did not see that in mirrors. When someone handed me a photo they had just taken, there it was and there was no denying it. But the mirror was my buddy. As with the wicked queen, the "mirror mirror on the wall" showed her what she wanted to see, told her what she wanted to hear.

7. Flattery.

"You are so wonderful." "You are the best pastor we've ever had." "I read everything you write." "How did you learn to draw so well?" "You are so handsome." Groan.

My friend Frank Pollard, wonderful pastor now in Heaven, had a good line that fits here. After receiving a glowing introduction before he preached, Frank approached the pulpit and said, "I'm going to ask the Lord to forgive my brother for that introduction. And to forgive me for enjoying it so much."
The ugliest trait in all the world--bar none, no debate about it--is conceit. An actor can take home more Oscars than anyone in movie history and adorn the covers of all the fan mags and we are fine with that. However, let him or her begin to act like they are (ahem) hot stuff and we're outa there. Few things adorn accomplishment like humility.

Okay, third and maybe the most basic question of all: Why? Why does the Lord want us humble? Why is this an important topic? What is the point?

For that, we turn to Scripture. Here are some reasons God's Word identifies for our being humble.

1. That He may exalt us in due time.

"Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (I Peter 5:6).

2. So that we may learn. Only the humble are teachable.

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29).

3. That God can use us in His service. He cannot use the prideful.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--These, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).

4. To receive more grace.

"He gives more grace. Therefore He says, 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).

5. To enter His presence.

"Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit...." (Isaiah 57:15). "The Lord is near those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

6. To be saved and enter the Kingdom.

"Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4).

7. That our prayers may be heard.

"He does not forget the cry of the humble" (Psalm 9:12).

Does this exhaust the subject? What a question! Never. This one is as deep as the ocean, as unlikely to be nailed down and summed up as the mysteries of the future. The human heart is a mess. The human animal is a rebel. As puny and flawed as we are, the fact that we accomplish a few things and then decide we can live without God is all the proof anyone should ever need of our precarious condition in this universe.

The war to remain humble must be fought on many fronts every day of our lives. Even then, pride will slip up on us and enter from our blind side. Before we know it, we will start sounding as though we deserve more from God and others than we are getting, like we have been mistreated in life, as though the universe was built for our comfort and our being deprived of anything ranks as a great injustice.
Every day of our lives, the wise among us will join with the publican who stood afar off and unwilling to even lift up his head, prayed, O God, be merciful to me the sinner (Luke 18:13).

Six Things We Must Get Right, or It's All Over

Joe McKeever | Christianity.com

In the Lord's work as in anything else in life, there are essentials and non-essentials. There are the loadbearing features and cosmetic for-appearance-only aspects.

If we don't know which is which, we're in big trouble.

In the late 16th century, the mayor of Windsor engaged architect Christopher Wren to design and oversee the building of a town hall. When it was completed, the mayor refused to pay the bill, insisting that it needed more than the few columns Wren had designed. No matter that it was pointed out to him that the columns were holding up the building just fine. He wanted more columns and would not pay until they were installed.

Christopher Wren had several more columns added to the building. Each was identical to the first ones he had installed, with one exception. Each lacked one inch going all the way to the ceiling. Some of those columns were load-bearing and others were cosmetic. It's a wise church leader who knows which is which in the Lord's work.

Here is my list of "six load-bearers," six essentials which we must get right in the Lord's work or it's all over.

Please let me point out up front, these are not arranged in the order of priority. This is to ward off letters I sometimes get from debaters and arguers that B is more important than A, that C should be higher. I suggest, somewhat impishly, that he should have read the article more fully, because I said in the body that there was no particular order, that they are listed as they occurred to me. Anyone who writes learns quickly that some people prefer to skip the reading of the material in order to get on with criticizing it.

1. SUBMISSION

"...be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)
"...Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account...." (Hebrews 13:17)

Yes, followers are to submit to leaders. But -- and pastors should not miss this -- leaders are frequently to submit to their constituents.

To submit means that when you and I disagree, one of us willingly and freely gives in to the other. No coercion, no pulling of rank, no holier-than-thou lording it over the other.

A pastor submits to his members when he has been severely hurt by something a member does, but when that member is in need, he shepherds and nurtures him/her as though he would rather do this than anything in the world.

A pastor submits to his members when he has a grand vision but he can see that they are not ready for this, that he has to drop back and scale down his approach.

A pastor submits to his members when he puts his personal plans on hold in order to act in the best interest of the Lord's people.

In other places on this website, we've written of the Sons of Diotrephes (see III John), those leaders who refuse to submit to anyone or anything, and the trouble they can cause.

2. UNITY

"...being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:3)

In the Garden, Jesus asked the Father, "That they all may be one... that the world may believe that Thou didst send me" (John 17:21).

When a church -- much less the larger body of Christ! -- is not unified, everything grinds to a halt.

Evangelism is forgotten, nothing gets done, members spend their time bickering and fighting, the godly among them are exasperated, the hurting and needy are neglected, the enemy rejoices, the devil has a field day, and the name of Jesus is blasphemed among the heathen.

When a church is unified and everything else is in order, the work goes more smoothly, people are ministered to, Christ is honored, God is exalted, and the enemy is defeated.

In deacon-training sessions, I remind these leaders that one of their prime functions is to preserve the unity of the congregation. That means staying on the alert and dealing with dissension and rebellion when it occurs.

This principle (of deacons nipping rebellion in the bud) can be abused, of course. There is a proper time and place for criticism of leaders. It takes a Spirit-filled diaconate to know what time it is.

3. LEADERSHIP

"That the leaders led in Israel, and that the people volunteered, O bless the Lord!" (Judges 5:2)

Someone has to stand out front and say, "This is the way."

When Joshua led Israel's multitudes across the Jordan River, the priests went before them carrying the ark of the Lord. According to the specifications God sent, they were to stay some 3,000 feet ahead of the people. This was so that every man, woman, and child could see them. They were not to follow the persons in front of them like lemmings dropping off a cliff, but each was to keep his eyes on these holy men and to follow them.

As the priests approached the waters of the Jordan, they might have had a minor crisis of faith. The waters had not receded! Only when their feet hit the water, did the Jordan divide. (Joshua 3:4,15)

That's the problem with being a leader: you have to lead.

Show me a church where the pastor is a follower, where he refuses to exercise courage and stand before the congregation and declare, "This is what God wants us to do," and I will show you a church that is doing nothing.

4. FELLOWSHIP

"And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42)

Every once in a while, we will read where the members of Congress takes a break and all of them take a retreat. The idea, we're told, is for them to play games together, relax together, and get to now one another not as opponents but as the human beings they are. By establishing such ties, they begin to respect each other more and work together better.

Fellowship is sometimes called "Body Life." The idea is the members of the congregation know one another and work together, both formally and informally. There are scheduled times for fellowship, such as a mission trip when members spend a week or more together. Informal fellowship occurs when they sit in the bleachers and watch the church softball team play or enjoy an ice cream social after church. In the first, they work together, in the second they hang out together. Both are absolutely essential.

If a member of my body hurts, the rest of my body stays up all night out of sympathy. (See I Corinthians 12:12-31)

If disease or infection invades my body, the rest of the body sends resources to fight it.

It isn't for nothing that Scriptures call the church "the body of Christ" (see Ephesians 1:23).

5. ACCOUNTABILITY

"So then, each one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12).

"...and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:14).

A healthy church builds in proper accountability, both for the laity and the leadership. Sunday School teachers must be accountable to leaders as to what they teach; otherwise, disaster looms. The teacher who builds himself or herself a following -- their own miniature congregation -- from their class becomes a trouble for the church as a whole.

Financial workers must be subject to regular inspection and proper accountability. Without it, no good thing will happen. For that reason, systems should be installed for double checks and such workers should rotate often.

Pastors are accountable generally to every member and specifically to certain leaders in the church. Whether it's a formal group or an informal collection of the mature, no pastor should be allowed to spend freely and commit the church to projects without the support of the larger team of leaders. If his preaching begins to be questionable, some group--preferably not an individual--has to be the proper ones to approach him on behalf of the congregation.

The church that does not have such a structure in place is asking for trouble.

6. PRAYER

"And He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to quit" (Luke 18:1)

Pray or quit. Get the church to praying or forget about making any kind of decent impact on this world for Christ. Enlist and train the members in prayer or mark the church off as existing in the flesh and insignificant in the work of the Kingdom.

"How is your church doing?" my friend asked a pastor. "We're on life support," came the answer."

"Oh? That bad?" The preacher said, "Far from bad, that's the norm. Every church worth the name is on life support -- the 'life' being the Holy Spirit. Unplug the church from the power of the Spirit and it dies."

How's your church's life support system?

Being retired from the pastorate, most Sundays I'm in a different church. One of the first things I notice on entering a sanctuary is what we call the altar area. Is it conducive to people coming and kneeling for prayer? Sometimes, that area is so cluttered with tables and chairs that anyone needing to kneel and pray is out of luck.

These are not the only essentials in the operation of the Lord's church. Each of us will have our own list. These are mine.

Dr. Joe McKeever is a Preacher, Cartoonist, and the Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans. Visit him at joemckeever.com/mt. Used with permission.

Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Media

By Vigilant Citizens   

Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers, its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to understand its true role in society.

Image source deesillustration.com

Most of the articles on this site discuss occult symbolism found in objects of popular culture. From these articles arise many legitimate questions relating to the purpose of those symbols and the motivations of those who place them there, but it is impossible for me to provide satisfactory answers to these questions without mentioning many other concepts and facts. I’ve therefore decided to write this article to supply the theoretical and methodological background of the analyzes presented on this site as well as introducing the main scholars of the field of mass communications. Some people read my articles and think I’m saying “Lady Gaga wants to control our minds”. That is not the case. She is
simply a small part of the huge system that is the mass media.

Programming Through Mass Media

Mass media are media forms designed to reach the largest audience possible. They include television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, records, video games and the internet. Many studies have been conducted in the past century to measure the effects of mass media on the population in order to discover the best techniques to influence it. From those studies emerged the science of Communications, which is used in marketing, public relations and politics. Mass communication is a necessary tool the insure the functionality of a large democracy; it is also a necessary tool for a dictatorship. It all depends on its usage.

In the 1958 preface for A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley paints a rather grim portrait of society. He believes it is controlled by an “impersonal force”, a ruling elite, which manipulates the population using various methods.

“Impersonal forces over which we have almost no control seem to be pushing us all in the direction of the Brave New Worldian nightmare; and this impersonal pushing is being consciously accelerated by representatives of commercial and political organizations who have developed a number of new techniques for manipulating, in the interest of some minority, the thoughts and feelings of the masses.” - Aldous Huxley, Preface to A Brave New World

His bleak outlook is not a simple hypothesis or a paranoid delusion. It is a documented fact, present in the world’s most important studies on mass media. Here are some of them:

Elite Thinkers

Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann, an American intellectual, writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner brought forth one of the first works concerning the usage of mass media in America. In Public Opinion (1922), Lippmann compared the masses to a “great beast” and a “bewildered herd” that needed to be guided by a governing class. He described the ruling elite as “a specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality.” This class is composed of experts, specialists and bureaucrats. According to Lippmann, the experts, who often are referred to as “elites,” are to be a machinery of knowledge that circumvents the primary defect of democracy, the impossible ideal of the “omnicompetent citizen.” The trampling and roaring “bewildered herd” has its function: to be “the interested spectators of action,” i.e. not participants. Participation is the duty of “the responsible man”, which is not the regular citizen.

Mass media and propaganda are therefore tools that must be used by the elite to rule the public without physical coercion. One important concept presented by Lippmann is the “manufacture of consent”, which is, in short, the manipulation of public opinion to accept the elite’s agenda. It is Lippmann’s opinion that the general public is not qualified to reason and to decide on important issues. It is therefore important for the elite to decide ”for its own good” and then sell those decisions to the masses.

“That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough. . . . as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power. . . . Under the impact of propaganda, not necessarily in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the old constants of our thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for example, to believe in the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to self-deception, and to forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond our reach.” –Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion

It might be interesting to note that Lippmann is one of the founding fathers of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most influential foreign policy think tank in the world. This fact should give you a small hint of the mind state of the elite concerning the usage of media.

“Political and economic power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a “ruling elite” that controls most of U.S.-based multinational corporations, major communication media, the most influential foundations, major private universities and most public utilities. Founded in 1921, the Council of Foreign Relations is the key link between the large corporations and the federal government. It has been called a “school for statesmen” and “comes close to being an organ of what C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite – a group of men, similar in interest and outlook shaping events from invulnerable positions behind the scenes. The creation of the United Nations was a Council project, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”- Steve Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States

Some current members of the CFR include David Rockefeller, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, mega-church pastor Rick Warren and the CEOs of major corporations such as CBS, Nike, Coca-Cola and Visa.

Carl Jung



Carl Jung is the founder of analytical psychology (also known an Jungian psychology), which emphasizes understanding the psyche by exploring dreams, art, mythology, religion, symbols and philosophy. The Swiss therapist is at the origin of many psychological concepts used today such as the Archetype, the Complex, the Persona, the Introvert/Extrovert and Synchronicity. He was highly influenced by the occult background of his family. Carl Gustav, his grandfather, was an avid Freemason (he was Grand Master) and Jung himself discovered that some of his ancestors were Rosicrucians. This might explain his great interest in Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology and symbolism. One of his most important (and misunderstood) concept was the Collective Unconscious.

“My thesis, then, is as follows: In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.” - Carl Jung, The Concept of the Collective Unconscious

The collective unconscious transpires through the existence of similar symbols and mythological figures in different civilizations. Archetypal symbols seem to be embedded in our collective subconscious, and, when exposed to them, we demonstrate natural attraction and fascination. Occult symbols can therefore exert a great impact on people, even if many individuals were never personally introduced to the symbol’s esoteric meaning. Mass media thinkers, such as Edward D. Bernays, found in this concept a great way to manipulate the public’s personal and collective unconscious.

1955 Time Magazine cover featuring Carl Jung. Looks a little like Avatar, doesn’t it?

Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays is considered to be the “father of public relations” and used concepts discovered by his uncle Sigmund Freud to manipulate the public using the subconscious. He shared Walter Lippmann’s view of the general population by considering it irrational and subject to the “herd instinct”. In his opinion, the masses need to be manipulated by an invisible government to insure the survival of democracy.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.” - Edward Bernays, Propaganda

Bernay’s trailblazing marketing campaigns profoundly changed the functioning of American society. He basically created “consumerism” by creating a culture wherein Americans bought for pleasure instead of buying for survival. For this reason, he was considered by Life Magazine to be in the Top 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century.

Harold Lasswell



In 1939-1940, the University of Chicago was the host of a series of secret seminars on communications. These think tanks were funded by the Rockefeller foundation and involved the most prominent researchers in the fields of communications and sociological studies. One of these scholars was Harold Lasswell, a leading American political scientist and communications theorist, specializing in the analysis of propaganda. He was also of the opinion that a democracy, a government ruled by the people, could not sustain itself without a specialized elite shaping and molding public opinion through propaganda.

In his Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Lasswell explained that when elites lack the requisite force to compel obedience, social managers must turn to “a whole new technique of control, largely through propaganda.” He added the conventional justification: we must recognize the “ignorance and stupidity [of] … the masses and not succumb to democratic dogmatisms about men being the best judges of their own interests.”

Lasswell extensively studied the field of content analysis in order to understand the effectiveness of different types of propaganda. In his essay Contents of Communication, Lasswell explained that, in order to understand the meaning of a message (i.e. a movie, a speech, a book, etc.), one should take into account the frequency with which certain symbols appear in the message, the direction in which the symbols try to persuade the audience’s opinion, and the intensity of the symbols used.
Lasswell was famous for his media analysis model based on:

Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect

By this model, Lasswell indicates that in order to properly analyze a media product, one must look at who produced the product (the people who ordered its creation), who was it aimed at (the target audience) and what were the desired effects of this product (to inform, to convince, to sell, etc.) on the audience.

Using a Rihanna video as an example, the analysis would be as follows: WHO PRODUCED: Vivendi Universal; WHAT: pop artist Rihanna; TO WHOM: consumers between the ages of 9 and 25; WHAT CHANNEL: music video; and WHAT EFFECT: selling the artist, her song, her image and her message.

The analyzes of videos and movies on The Vigilant Citizen place a great importance on the “who is behind” the messages communicated to the public. The term “Illuminati” is often used to describe this small elite group covertly ruling the masses. Although the term sounds quite caricatured and conspiratorial, it aptly describes the elite’s affinities with secret societies and occult knowledge. However, I personally detest using the term “conspiracy theory” to describe what is happening in the mass media. If all the facts concerning the elitist nature of the industry are readily available to the public, can it still be considered a “conspiracy theory”?

There used to be a variety of viewpoints, ideas and opinions in popular culture. The consolidation of media corporations has, however, produced a standardization of the cultural industry. Ever wondered why all recent music sounds the same and all recent movies look the same? The following is part of the answer:

Media Ownership

As depicted in the graph above, the number of corporations owning the majority of U.S. media outlets went from 50 to 5 in less than 20 years. Here are the top corporations evolving around the world and the assets they own.

“A list of the properties controlled by AOL Time Warner takes ten typed pages listing 292 separate companies and subsidiaries. Of these, twenty-two are joint ventures with other major corporations involved in varying degrees with media operations. These partners include 3Com, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, Citigroup, Ticketmaster, American Express, Homestore, Sony, Viva, Bertelsmann, Polygram, and Amazon.com. Some of the more familiar fully owned properties of Time Warner include Book-of-the-Month Club; Little, Brown publishers; HBO, with its seven channels; CNN; seven specialized and foreign-language channels; Road Runner; Warner Brothers Studios; Weight Watchers; Popular Science; and fifty-two different record labels.” - Ben Bagdikan, The New Media Monopoly

AOL Time Warner owns:

• 64 magazines, including Time, Life, People, MAD Magazine and DC Comics
• Warner Bros, New Line and Fine Line Features in cinema
• More than 40 music labels including Warner Bros, Atlantic and Elektra
• Many television networks such as WB Networks, HBO, Cinemax, TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN
• Madonna, Sean Paul, The White Stripes

Viacom owns:

• CBS, MTV, MTV2, UPN, VH1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNN, CMT and BET
• Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films
• Blockbuster Videos
• 1800 screens in theaters through Famous Players

“Disney ownership of a hockey team called The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim does not begin to describe the vastness of the kingdom. Hollywood is still its symbolic heart, with eight movie production studios and distributors: Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Buena Vista Home Video, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Buena Vista International, Hollywood Pictures, and Caravan Pictures.
The Walt Disney Company controls eight book house imprints under Walt Disney Company Book Publishing and ABC Publishing Group; seventeen magazines; the ABC Television Network, with ten owned and operated stations of its own including in the five top markets; thirty radio stations, including all the major markets; eleven cable channels, including Disney, ESPN (jointly), A&E, and the History Channel; thirteen international broadcast channels stretching from Australia to Brazil; seven production and sports units around the world; and seventeen Internet sites, including the ABC group, ESPN.sportszone, NFL.com, NBAZ.com, and NASCAR.com. Its five music groups include the Buena Vista, Lyric Street, and Walt Disney labels, and live theater productions growing out of the movies The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and King David.”
- Ibid

The Walt Disney Company owns:

• ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E, History Channel
• Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Film Corp., Dimension and Buena Vista International
• Miley Cyrus/ Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers

Vivendi Universal owns:

• 27% of US music sales, labels include: Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Island, Def Jam, MCA, Mercury, Motown and Universal
• Universal Studios, Studio Canal, Polygram Films, Canal +
• Numerous internet and cell phone companies
• Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z

Sony owns:

• Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics
• 15% of US Music sales, labels include Columbia, Epic, Sony, Arista, Jive and RCA Records
• Beyonce, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera

A limited number of actors in the cultural industry means a limited amount of viewpoints and ideas making their way to the general public. It also means that a single message can easily saturate all forms of media to generate consent (i.e. “there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”).

The Standardization of Human Thought



The merger of media companies in the last decades generated a small oligarchy of media conglomerates. The TV shows we follow, the music we listen to, the movies we watch and the newspapers we read are all produced by FIVE corporations. The owners of those conglomerates have close ties with the world’s elite and, in many ways, they ARE the elite. By owning all of the possible outlets having the potential to reach the masses, these conglomerates have the power to create in the minds of the people a single and cohesive world view, engendering a “standardization of human thought”.

Even movements or styles that are considered marginal are, in fact, extensions of mainstream thinking. Mass medias produce their own rebels who definitely look the part but are still part of the establishment and do not question any of it. Artists, creations and ideas that do not fit the mainstream way of thinking are mercilessly rejected and forgotten by the conglomerates, which in turn makes them virtually disappear from society itself. However, ideas that are deemed to be valid and desirable to be accepted by society are skillfully marketed to the masses in order to make them become self-evident norm.

In 1928, Edward Bernays already saw the immense potential of motion pictures to standardize thought:

“The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda

These facts were flagged as dangers to human freedom in the 1930′s by thinkers of the school of Frankfurt such as Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse. They identified three main problems with the cultural industry. The industry can:

1. reduce human beings to the state of mass by hindering the development of emancipated individuals, who are capable of making rational decisions;
2. replace the legitimate drive for autonomy and self-awareness by the safe laziness of conformism and passivity; and
3. validate the idea that men actually seek to escape the absurd and cruel world in which they live by losing themselves in a hypnotic state self-satisfaction.

The notion of escapism is even more relevant today with advent of online video games, 3D movies and home theaters. The masses, constantly seeking state-of-the-art entertainment, will resort to high-budget products that can only be produced by the biggest media corporations of the world. These products contain carefully calculated messages and symbols which are nothing more and nothing less than entertaining propaganda. The public have been trained to LOVE its propaganda to the extent that it spends its hard-earned money to be exposed to it. Propaganda (used in both political, cultural and commercial sense) is no longer the coercive or authoritative communication form found in dictatorships: it has become the synonym of entertainment and pleasure.

“In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies — the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” – Aldous Huxley, Preface to A Brave New World

A single piece of media often does not have a lasting effect on the human psyche. Mass media, however, by its omnipresent nature, creates a living environment we evolve in on a daily basis. It defines the norm and excludes the undesirable. The same way carriage horses wear blinders so they can only see what is right in front of them, the masses can only see where they are supposed to go.

“It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.” – Jacques Ellul

One of the reasons mass media successfully influences society is due to the extensive amount of research on cognitive sciences and human nature that has been applied to it.

Manipulation Techniques

“Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.”

The drive to sell products and ideas to the masses has lead to an unprecedented amount of research on human behavior and on the human psyche. Cognitive sciences, psychology, sociology, semiotics, linguistics and other related fields were and still are extensively researched through well-funded studies.

“No group of sociologists can approximate the ad teams in the gathering and processing of exploitable social data. The ad teams have billions to spend annually on research and testing of reactions, and their products are magnificent accumulations of material about the shared experience and feelings of the entire community.” - Marshal McLuhan, The Extensions of Man

The results of those studies are applied to advertisements, movies, music videos and other media in order to make them as influential as possible. The art of marketing is highly calculated and scientific because it must reach both the individual and the collective consciousness. In high-budget cultural products, a video is never “just a video,” Images, symbols and meanings are strategically placed in order to generate a desired effect.

“It is with knowledge of the human being, his tendencies, his desires, his needs, his psychic mechanisms, his automatisms as well as knowledge of social psychology and analytical psychology that propaganda refines its techniques.”  – Propagandes, Jacques Ellul (free translation)

Today’s propaganda almost never uses rational or logical arguments. It directly taps into a human’s most primal needs and instincts in order to generate an emotional and irrational response. If we always thought rationally, we probably wouldn’t buy 50% of what we own. Babies and children are constantly found in advertisements targeting women for a specific reason: studies have shown that images of children trigger in women an instinctual need to nurture, to care and to protect, ultimately leading to a sympathetic bias towards the advertisement.

Strange old 7up ad using the cuteness of babies

Sex is ubiquitous in mass media, as it draws and keeps the viewer’s attention. It directly connects to our animal need to breed and to reproduce, and, when triggered, this instinct can instantly overshadow any other rational thoughts in our brain.

Subliminal Perception

What if the messages described above were able to reach directly the viewers’ subconscious mind, without the viewers even realizing what is happening? That is the goal of subliminal perception. The phrase subliminal advertising was coined in 1957 by the US market researcher James Vicary, who said he could get movie goers to “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” by flashing those messages onscreen for such a short time that viewers were unaware.

“Subliminal perception is a deliberate process created by communications technicians, by which you receive and respond to information and instructions without being consciously aware of the instructions”  – Steve Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States

This technique is often used in marketing and we all know that sex sells.

Although some sources claim that subliminal advertising is ineffective or even an urban myth, the documented usage of this technique in mass media proves that creators believe in its powers. Recent studies have also proven its effectiveness, especially when the message is negative.

"A team from University College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, found that it [subliminal perception] was particularly good at instilling negative thoughts. There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words,” said Professor Nilli Lavie, who led the research. We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.” - Source

A famous example of subliminal messaging in political communications is in George Bush’s advertisement against Al Gore in 2000.



Right after the name of Gore is mentioned, the ending of the word “bureaucrats” – “rats” – flashes on the screen for a split second.



The discovery of this trickery caused quite a stir and, even if there are no laws against subliminal messaging in the U.S., the advertisement was taken off the air.

As seen in many articles on The Vigilant Citizen, subliminal and semi-subliminal messages are often used in movies and music videos to communicate messages and ideas to the viewers.

Desensitization

In the past, when changes were imposed on populations, they would take to the streets, protest and even riot. The main reason for this clash was due to the fact that the change was clearly announced by the rulers and understood by the population. It was sudden and its effects could clearly be analyzed and evaluated. Today, when the elite needs a part of its agenda to be accepted by the public, it is done through desensitization. The agenda, which might go against the public best interests, is slowly, gradually and repetitively introduced to the world through movies (by involving it within the plot), music videos (who make it cool and sexy) or the news (who present it as a solution to today’s problems). After several years of exposing the masses to a particular agenda, the elite openly presents the concept the world and, due to mental programming, it is greeted with general indifference and is passively accepted. This technique originates from psychotherapy.

“The techniques of psychotherapy, widely practiced and accepted as a means of curing psychological disorders, are also methods of controlling people. They can be used systematically to influence attitudes and behavior. Systematic desensitization is a method used to dissolve anxiety so the the patient (public) is no longer troubled by a specific fear, a fear of violence for example. [...] People adapt to frightening situations if they are exposed to them enough”. – Steven Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States

Predictive programming is often found in the science fiction genre. It presents a specific image of the future – the one that is desired by the elite – and ultimately becomes in the minds of men an inevitability. A decade ago, the public was being desensitized to war against the Arab world. Today, the population is gradually being exposed to the existence of mind control, of transhumanism and of an Illuminati elite. Emerging from the shadows, those concepts are now everywhere in popular culture. This is what Alice Bailey describes as the “externalization of the hierarchy”: the hidden rulers slowly revealing themselves.

Occult Symbolism in Pop Culture

Metropolis – a movie by the elite, for the elite?

Contrarily to the information presented above, documentation on occult symbolism is rather hard to find. This should not come as a surprise as the term “occult”, literally means “hidden”. It also means “reserved to those in the know” as it is only communicated to those who are deemed worthy of the knowledge. It is not taught in schools nor is it discussed in the media. It is thus considered marginal or even ridiculous by the general population.

Occult knowledge is NOT, however, considered ridiculous in occult circles. It is considered timeless and sacred. There is a long tradition of hermetic and occult knowledge being taught through secret societies originating from ancient Egyptians, to Eastern Mystics, to the Knights Templar to modern day Freemasons. Even if the nature and the depth of this knowledge was most probably modified and altered throughout the centuries, mystery schools kept their main features, which are highly symbolic, ritualistic and metaphysical. Those characteristics, which were an intricate part of ancient civilizations, have totally been evacuated from modern society to be replaced by pragmatic materialism. For this reason, there lies an important gap of understanding between the pragmatic average person and the ritualistic establishment.

“If this inner doctrine were always concealed from the masses, for whom a simpler code had been devised, is it not highly probable that the exponents of every aspect of modern civilization – philosophic, ethical, religious, and scientific-are ignorant of the true meaning of the very theories and tenets on which their beliefs are founded? Do the arts and sciences that the race has inherited from older nations conceal beneath their fair exterior a mystery so great that only the most illumined intellect can grasp its import? Such is undoubtedly the case.” - Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

The “simpler code” devised for the masses used to be organized religions. It is now becoming the Temple of the Mass Media and it preaches on a daily basis extreme materialism, spiritual vacuosity and a self-centered, individualistic existence. This is exactly the opposite of the attributes required to become a truly free individual, as taught by all great philosophical schools of thought. Is a dumbed-down population easier to deceive and to manipulate?

“These blind slaves are told they are “free” and “highly educated” even as they march behind signs that would cause any medieval peasant to run screaming away from them in panic-stricken terror. The symbols that modern man embraces with the naive trust of an infant would be tantamount to billboards reading, ‘This way to your death and enslavement,’ to the understanding of the traditional peasant of antiquity”- Michael A. Hoffman II, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare

In Conclusion

This article examined the major thinkers in the field of mass media, the media power structure and the techniques used to manipulate the masses. I believe this information is vital to the understanding of the “why” in the topics discussed on The Vigilant Citizen. The “mass population” versus “ruling class” dichotomy described in many articles is not a “conspiracy theory” (again, I hate that term), but a reality that has been clearly stated in the works of some of the 20th century’s most influential men.

Lippmann, Bernays and Lasswell have all declared that the public are not fit to decide their own fate, which is the inherent goal of democracy. Instead, they called for a cryptocracy, a hidden government, a ruling class in charge of the “bewildered herd.” As their ideas continue to be applied to society, it is increasingly apparent that an ignorant population is not an obstacle that the rulers must deal with: It is something that is DESIRABLE and, indeed, necessary, to insure total leadership. An ignorant population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It simply follows trends. Popular culture caters to and nurtures ignorance by continually serving up brain-numbing entertainment and spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized. Many people ask me: “Is there a way to stop this?” Yes, there is. STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP AND READ A BOOK.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” - Thomas Jefferson

The Bible says, “I said, You are gods” – But is this entirely true?

by Discerning the World

Many a preacher today teaches that we are gods, or little gods, based on the incorrect interpretation of scripture. Some are very subtle in the way they teach this message, others come out right and just say it.
The verse they will show you to try prove their point is John 10:34 ”Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?

But let me explain what Jesus really meant:

Jesus was in dialogue with the Jews of His day and quoting from the Old Testament Psalms, saying: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? The Jews wanted to stone Jesus for calling God His Father and making Himself equal with God. So Jesus quotes Pslam 82 to them to show the distinction between himself and those in Pslam 82 who were called ‘gods’.

Pslam 82 was written AGAINST certain unjust rulers in Israel’s history. Men of high distinction (Judges/Rulers) were almost seen as gods because of the power they wielded over the nation. The problem is these men were UNJUST. Verse 82:2 says: ”How long will you judge unjustly, And showpartiality to the wicked? and verses 6-7 say, 6 “I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.” 7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.” So these rulers are not gods, they were given this name by mere men, but were they still children of God? Yes. But they will die like everyone else. So the point Jesus was making was that if unjust rulers can be called gods (by men), how can the Jews who wanted to stone Him object to Him saying that he was the Son of God?

Can you see how easily scripture gets twisted and the next minute you have men and women running around teaching New Age teachings under the banner of Christianity.

BEWARE of ANYONE who tells you that you can be a God or Christ. When you become a born again Christian you grow to become more Christ-like, you DO NOT become like Christ or a Christ or anything Divine for that matter. However in Charismatic churches you do; you become a little god - ‘Faith’ becomes an actual force that you wield at your command as you speak things into existence. This is totally and utterly occult. The New Age religion believes in something similar, that each person is a god/goddess, they just have not realised it yet – a god trapped in a human body part of a huge cosmos – trying to turn the world into one spiritual tower of Babel.

THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD:

1. Deuteronomy 4:35,39 — Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him. (39) Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

2. Deuteronomy 6:4 — Hear, O Israel: The LORD thy God is one LORD. [Note in Mark 12:28-34 how Jesus and a Jewish scribe he encountered understood this text.]

3. Deuteronomy32:39 — See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

4. 2 Samuel 7:22 — Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God; for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

5. 1 Kings 8:60 — That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.

6. 2 KINGS 5:15 — And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

7. 2 Kings 19:15 — And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

8. 1 Chronicles 17:20 — O LORD, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

9. Nehemiah 9:6 — Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

10. Psalm 18:31 — For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

11. Psalm 86:10 — For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
12. Isaiah 37:16,20 — O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou has made heaven and earth. (20) Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.

13. Isaiah43:10,11 — Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.

14. Isaiah44:6,8 — Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Fear ye not, neither be afraid; have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

15. Isaiah 45:21 — Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time: who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.

16. Isaiah 46:9 — For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.
17. Hosea 13:4 — Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me; for there is no savior beside me.

18. Joel 2:27 — And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

19. Zechariah 14:9 — And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

20. Mark 12:29-34 —And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

21. John 17:3 — And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

22. Romans 3:30 — Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

23. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 — As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

24. Galatians 3:20 — Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

25. Ephesians 4:6 — One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

26. 1 Timothy 1:17 — Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

27. 1 Timothy 2:5 — For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

28. James 2:19 — Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Beyonce to Sasha Fierce: Symbolic Occult Rebirth

By Vigilant Citizen   

 Along with her new album, Beyonce has presented her fans to a new alter-ego named Sasha Fierce. The singer affirms that this new persona is the fun, more sexual and more aggressive side of her. This is however the “general public” version of the story. The esoteric meaning revealed by the symbols surrounding this new persona is much deeper: Sasha Fierce is a symbolic representation of an artist taken over by evil to obtain success.

“I have someone else that takes over when it’s time for me to work and when I’m on stage, this alter ego that I’ve created that kind of protects me and who I really am”.-Beyonce

Good Beyonce with cross

Evil Sasha Fierce mimicking devil horns

The theme of the album “I am…Sasha Fierce” revolves around the duality between the godly Beyonce and the evil Sasha Fierce. This spiritual duality is fought in the songs, the pictures and the videos. Notice on the above images the Christian cross of the good and pure Beyonce versus Sasha Fierce who is mimicking devil horns with her hands. Songs like “Ave Maria” and “Halo” on her album contain obvious spiritual connotations and can be interpreted as either religious songs or odes to her satanic possessor. The persona of Sasha Fierce – who is presented as a separate entity- always wears heavy makeup on her eyes, if not sunglasses which represent her deceptive nature.

Website pictures

Before we get into an in depth analysis, let’s look at the main picture displayed at beyonce.com, which sums ups perfectly the purpose of this article.

Baphomet’s vehicule

Sasha Fierce is wearing a metal plate featuring prominently the face of Baphomet, who is also featured on the sigil of the Church of Satan:

Sigil of Church of Satan

Baphomet’s head is the only part of the picture that is in color, which shows the importance of this symbol. Another head of Baphomet sits right on top of the first making things even more significant. Sasha’s “dress” is adorned with stylish rear-view mirrors and motorcycle handles, which makes Sasha Fierce the vehicle of Baphomet. This exact outfit was used for a George Michael video…someone, somewhere thought it would be a perfect fit for Sasha Fierce. In her interviews, Beyonce describes her performances as Sasha Fierce like an experience coming right out of The Exorcist.

“When I’m onstage I’m aggressive and strong and not afraid of my sexuality. The tone of my voice gets different, and I’m fearless. I’m just a different person.”

Another way to put this is that she has allowed herself to become possessed…

The Birth of Sasha Fierce

Sasha Fierce was born when I did ‘Crazy in Love.’ People, when they meet me, expect that all the time, but that person is strictly for the stage.” - Beyonce, People Magazine, November 18th, 2008

Why did Beyonce say that? How can a character be born during a song like “Crazy in Love”, which doesn’t have anything to do withSasha Fierce? The answer lies in the video.



The video tells the story of the birth of Sasha Fierce by depicting the steps towards Beyonce’s transformation. Through symbolic scenes, we first see Beyonce walking towards a speeding car (wih Jay-z in the backseat). The driver is the entity that already took over Jay-Z. Beyonce loosens up her hair to prepare herself and gets on a stage to begin initiation, symbolized by sexual dance moves. She then reaps the rewards of the selling of her soul with fame and fortune. Next, she is emulated by young girls who copy her dancing style. In the final scene, the good Beyonce gets literally blown up while sitting in the backseat of a car by Jay-Z – who calls himself “Young” in the song. As you know, Jay-Z isn’t young, but, in this song, he is considered “Young” after his recent rebirth on the dark side. After the explosion, Sasha Fierce magically appears next to Jay-Z, looking sexy yet devilish. In his verse, Jay-Z refers to Beyonce as “Young B” because she was just reborn.

1- Beyonce goes up on a symbolic stage and mimicks ritual sex for initiation

2- The flashes represent celebrity and success

3- Surrounded by girls who emulate her

4- Stuck in the backseat of a car

5- Explosion of the car, representing the death of the old Beyonce (who was still stuck in the backseat)

6- Sasha Fierce appears out of nowhere

The video of “Diva” uses the exact same allegory of the car exploding.
Video of “Diva”


“Diva” starts with a shot of dummies in the trunk of a car who represent the ”dummies” that idolized and imitated Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce is walking away, wearing glasses who are literally shades hiding her eyes, representing the fact that we are not dealing with Beyonce but a deceiver. After going into a warehouse to dance frenetically, act bitchy and sing about vain subjects like materialism, she comes out and lights the car on fire. The same way Jay-Z blew up the car in “Crazy in Love” (which killed the old Beyonce and gave birth to Sasha Fierce), she blows up the car filled with the mindless dummies who were seduced by her deceitful ways.

Why is Sasha Fierce Often Dressed Like a Robot?

Beyonce’s performance at the 2007 BET Awards carried heavy symbolism. Dressed in a robot suit, she wakes up after being electrically charged . Here’s the performance (you just need to watch the first couple of minutes).



This performance is inspired by a scene of the 1927 movie “Metropolis” where a female robot becomes alive.


The recreation of this scene from Metropolis is quite significant. The movie depicts a society divided between two rigid social classes, the ”thinkers” and the “workers”, who can’t communicate with each other. Maria, a young female worker who has some influence among her exploited colleagues gets kidnapped by the ruling class. She is taken to the laboratory of a mad scientist who created a robot that could take her physical likeness. The scene above depicts the transformation of the robot into Maria, who will then be controlled by the scientist to incite revolt among the workers. The inverted pentagram behind the robot symbolises the initiation of Maria into the evil side. She is designed to bring out the worst in men, causing violence, lust, passion and corruption among them. The robot is a devilish and sexually provocative version of Maria and ends up performing in a decadent nightclub of the metropolis. Her mesmerizing dance caused such excitement that it caused a widespread fight among the men present.

Satanic robot with inverted pentagram in the back

Is this why we chose to portray Beyonce as Maria from Metropolis? To use her physical likeness to propagate evil messages to the “working class”?

Good Beyonce vs disturbing looking Sasha Fierce

In Conclusion

I’m pretty sure I’ll get messages from confused people, wondering why I “see evil” everywhere or something. Those people do not understand a couple of fundamental truths, who aren’t based on wild beliefs but on facts: Record companies like Columbia Records own the image of pop stars like Beyonce or Rihanna. These conglomerates are owned by a handful of powerful people who, more often than not, are initiated into occult secret societies. They believe in the powers of the mind, channeling spirits, Black and White Magick, demon possession, sacred rituals and entities populating the ethereal spheres. In other words, if you don’t believe in the spiritual realm, THEY DO. So the analysis here makes perfect sense to them and they know that the average Joe doesn’t think in those terms…mostly because he was educated since childhood to be blind to those things.

As in anything in life, esoteric teachings range from the sublimely good to the infernal evil. They can elevate your consciousness to a godly level or they make you a slave of malignant spirits. That being said, there appears to be a conscious effort to subject the population to negative imagery through the different outlets of mass media. Plato, the Greek philosopher believed that music had such far reaching effects on the hearts of men that popular songs should be carefully chosen:

“Music which ennobled the mind was of a far higher kind than that which merely appealed
to the senses, and he strongly insisted that it was the paramount duty of the Legislature to suppress all music of an effeminate and lascivious character, and to encourage only that which was pure and dignified” -Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

If Plato, one of the brightest minds of the Western world believed that music played a vital part in the creation of a perfect nation, can you imagine the effects of negative messages on our modern society? Even if the general population only gets the first level of interpretation of songs or videos, it is believed that the hidden meanings and symbols still affect the collective subconscious. The result is people leading vain existences, trying to fill the gaping void of their lives by continually satisfying their lowest impulses. In other words, lost souls that can be easily controlled and manipulated.