Reality: The Taboo Against Truth, Chapter 6

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Reality

and The Taboo Against Truth

Asylum

What is freedom? The word has many different shades of meaning depending on the context in which it is used. It implies an absence of restrictions or controls and the existence of options. The concept implies freedom “from” something or freedom “to do” something. It also implies an entity that is free to choose from various options. It is a state of being where an entity is absent some characteristic or restriction.

We talk of freedom of speech and freedom of the press or we say that some people live in a free country and others do not. We talk of freedom from slavery and the freedom to associate with whomever we choose. When speaking of human beings it is possible to use the term freedom to with regard to choice, as in free will, or to describe a state of being unburdened by something not related to choice, as in being free from disease or free from pain.

The word can also be used in describing an inanimate object. An empty room is free of any obstacles and consequently a person would be free to stand anywhere in the room. A rock is free from having to make decisions. A desk can be free of clutter.

With regard to identity, however, neither inanimate nor animate entities can be free of their identity; they cannot shed the characteristics and properties that make them what they are. Identity is not a choice. A rock is not free to be a car and a human being is not free to be a cat. A hydrogen atom is not free to be a carbon atom, and water is not free to be wine. It is a fundamental property of everything in the Universe that nothing is free to be anything other than what it is.

A human being is not free from its instinct for judgment. For an individual to say that he is free from judgment is to have a judgment and to announce it. Every word that a human being utters is a statement of what he or she judges to exist. If a man says, “Jesus loves me,” he has pronounced his judgment that Jesus, love and his own being all exist and that a certain relationship exists between Jesus and himself that he calls love. If he says, “Ugagagas are blue,” he is saying that he believes that ugagagas, and blue exist and that blue exists as a characteristic of ugagagas.

If a reader reads this and says, “The author of this book doesn’t know what he’s talking about; my mind does not judge,” he has just passed judgment. He has judged that this book exists, it has an author, and the author is not too bright. He has also decreed by implication that he exists, he has a mind, and that judgments don’t come from his mind. The denial of his instinct for judgment is an error in judgment; it is a rejection of his identity as a conscious being that continually sorts things into two categories: existent or nonexistent.

Once a mind determines that an entity exists, then it will decide what characteristics exist as a function of that entity’s identiy. As the mind inventories the characteristics it will associate it with other things that it knows. If the object is green, has leaves, and is very big, the mind will associate it with trees, assuming the mind already knows the characteristics of trees. After making judgments about which characteristics exist in the object, the process of classifying by characteristics will eventually cause the mind to make a judgment about the identity of the object.

A rock does not possess a mind. It is not free to reject the Law of Identity and believe that existence is something other than it is. It is not free to reject Universal Reality or to possess its own subjective reality because consciousness is not a property of rocks.

Consciousness is a property of human beings. Humans have a mind and can reject reality or accept it; they can choose to consider and evaluate evidence or they can ignore it. Humans can deceive themselves into believing that things can exist when there is no evidence they exist; they do this by first believing that evidence exists when it does not. Conversely, they can ignore evidence and pretend that things don’t exist. The human mind is caught in a binary circumstance; it incorporates reality or it rejects it as a function of its instinct for judging.

To be free of delusions, the human mind must be in sync with existence. It cannot be free of delusions if it rejects Universal Reality. It cannot be free of delusions if it rejects evidence, the basis for truth and knowledge. Knowledge is the antidote to delusions. A mind free from delusions is free to think clearly, it is free to exist fully in this world. Like the empty room, it is free from obstacles that block access to the evidence that leads to truth, knowledge and value.

Man’s freedom and Universal Reality are inextricably linked. A mind that is free from mysticism will be free from delusions; it will be free to perceive and analyze evidence and to acquire knowledge of Universal Reality. The mind that is in sync with Universal Reality is a free mind; it is free of delusions and is free to survive and thrive while on earth.

Delusions, the rejection of Universal Reality, inevitably limit Man’s freedom. Without access to Universal Reality Man cannot be free of delusions and insanity; he is doomed to live in the asylum of his own fantasies. There is no scientific evidence that one man has a “right” granted by nature to control or enslave the life of another man. Man is born in a state of freedom; given a life separate from others and the ability to move freely through the physical world. Men who reject Universal Reality take freedom away; they make up all kinds of restrictions that have nothing to do with the nature of Man’s existence. Their delusions, their rejection of nature, lead them to place mystical restrictions on the lives of others.

Restrictions on Man’s freedom are by default an adulteration of Universal Reality. Freedom is Man’s natural state in life; he is not born in chains, just as he is not born in clothes or speaking a particular language. Any restrictions on his freedom prevent him from fully experiencing and understanding Universal Reality which is inextricably linked with his freedom. This point cannot be stressed enough: in order to be in sync with Universal Reality, Man must live in his naturally free state. It is not possible for an individual mind to be consonant with Universal Reality unless it lives in a state of freedom.

The fact that Man’s freedom is inextricably linked with Universal Reality creates a paradox; Man is not free from Universal Reality. It is not possible for a mind to function property unless it is consonant with the laws of Universal Reality; the human mind evolved in response to the laws of Universal Reality, it is an expression and a function of how the laws of the universe work. Universal Reality has created Man as a free being with a free mind, yet the reality of that freedom can only be realized when Man’s mind remains tethered to Universal Reality, when it relinquishes all efforts to escape from existence.

The Universe has given every individual a natural ability to protect himself from the delusions of his fellow man. Every individual has a unique mind designed to operate independently from other minds, just as he has a unique genetic makeup. The information necessary for survival is not a function of any unique consciousness but exists independently of any Man’s mind; if is part of the environment. It can be accessed by all minds that are free, willing and able to look for it and study it. Nature has provided that one man’s delusions should not interfere with another man’s understanding of Universal Reality, just as one man’s genetic susceptibility to a particular disease will not alter another man’s resistance to the same disease.

Some minds are more resistant to delusions and irrationality than others just as some individuals have a greater genetic resistance to disease than others. Nature uses the process of evolution to provide that every man have his own genetic makeup (excepting identical twins and clones) and his own mind. Those with genes that are well adapted to their environment and those with minds that can comprehend and use Universal Reality to their advantage will survive longest and produce offspring that are better suited for survival. Those individuals with maladaptive genes prone to disease and minds that are prone to delusions will die off leaving the rest of the species intact and unharmed.

Many people are horrified by the process of natural selection. The rejection of natural selection, however, inevitably leads to eugenics, a process whereby human beings collectively determine which characteristics are desirable and which individuals should mate with each other in order to perpetuate the passage of those genes. Every individual that mates is practicing eugenics on a small scale by choosing a mate who has desirable qualities; this is as nature intended. Once individuals no longer have freedom to choose their mates, however, some form of mandatory eugenics is at work. Any restrictions on freedom will ultimately translate into eugenics; giving one group an unnatural economic advantage, for example, will assist them in propagating their genes while making it more difficult for others to survive.

The uniqueness of each individual mind and the freedom to express that uniqueness are essential for the survival of the human species. Without unique minds and the freedom to independently acquire knowledge of the laws of the universe, Man would be little more than another species of insects; spending very short lives eating, having sex and producing offspring as a way of keeping the species alive.

The fact that every man has a unique mind does not negate the fact that humans are also social animals. Evolution has also rewarded individuals who can work well with others because there are survival advantages to trading knowledge, cooperation in problem solving, and division of labor. Just as Man is born free, it is also a Universal Reality that he can benefit greatly from his associations with other human beings, as long as those associations do not deprive him of his freedom. By default, relationships that restrict Man’s freedom and enslave him to the will of others divorce him from Universal Reality and force him into a state of delusion. In this delusional state, a man who was born free believes that his life is not his own.

Many people will look back at history and conclude that Man cannot be free. They will argue that a free Man is an inherently aggressive man who preys upon other men. Societies inevitably become “dog eat dog” unless Man’s freedom is restricted. The validity of this argument cannot be verified, however; Man has never been free from mystical controls on his life so it is impossible to know how he would behave if he had been free. The history of Man on earth has been plagued with many forms of mysticism forced upon individuals by religion, government and cultural norms. When Man is forced by mystics to divorce his mind from Universal Reality, the rational man will lash out in self-defense. The irrational man will remain the delusional man that he always was.

It is mystical to believe that Man cannot handle freedom because no evidence is available to determine how individuals act when they are free from mysticism. By definition, when individuals are in sync with Universal Reality for the first time in history, they will act like sane people for the first time in the history. Sanity is not an arbitrary mystical definition that can be fabricated by psychiatrists, psychologists, priests or bureaucrats; it is a function of the human mind’s relationship with existence. If a human mind can distinguish between existence and nonexistence it will be a rational, sane mind.

Man’s freedom is inseparable from Universal Reality; it is his natural state in life. Man cannot experience freedom as long as the many forms of mysticism stand in his way. Until everything is known that can be known about Universal Reality, Man cannot be completely free of mysticism. He is doomed to live in an intellectually and emotionally toxic environment that threatens his survival and denies him access to the universal language that unites him with his fellow man.

Once in the realm of delusions, a mind is not free to rationally judge or choose. To exercise judgment and to make rational choices an array of options must exist. How does an individual choose between buying ugagagas or miphers? If there is no evidence of the properties and characteristics of ugagagas and miphers, it is not possible to know anything about them or to assign value to them. There is no information upon which to base a rational choice. If an individual says, “I choose miphers,” it is impossible for him to provide a rational explanation of why a mipher has value for him. In the realm of nonexistence, there can be no freedom of choice because there is nothing to choose.

Without choices there can be no freedom; options that do not exist cannot be evaluated or chosen; they are not there. Imagine a bride trying to choose a china pattern in a store with no china. Picture a person who wants to buy a car standing in a showroom with no cars. Neither customer can make a choice because the products they want to buy do not exist. The only choice they have is to go someplace where options actually exist. Where options exist, choice exists. Where choice exists, freedom exists. Where freedom of choice exists, the reality of the individual mind making the choice will manifest itself. The mind was made for judging, without choice judgments cannot be made, and the state of a given individual’s mind remains a mystical mystery that cannot be solved.

If the store had only one china pattern or the showroom had only one car, the buyers would still have no choice. In order for freedom to exist, there must be more than one option to choose from. In order for there to be complete freedom, there can be no restrictions placed on existing options. Freedom either exists or it does not with regard to a particular choice.

In the United States we have freedom of religion; individuals can choose their God. The principle of separation of church and state prohibits the creation of a state-sponsored religion, creating the illusion of choice among religions. Rational choices cannot be made with regard to religion, however, because nobody has ever been able to prove the existence of God. Freedom of choice can only come from the rejection of religion and mysticism; freedom can only exist when there are existing options to choose from. Choosing between china patterns or cars that don’t exist is not a choice at all.

When individuals choose a religion they are choosing a group of people who share their beliefs. The individuals and the beliefs exist and that serves as the basis for their choice. Freedom of religion is a freedom to choose mysticism and a group of people who share similar mystical beliefs; it is not a choice of God because no evidence of God exists leaving no evidence to choose from. Choosing a religion is like the bride looking over the empty counters in the store and then saying, “I choose that one,” and then another group of people coming over, looking at the same empty place and saying, “Oh yes, we choose that one, too. It’s definitely the best.” They share the ability to reject the same evidence, and that is the basis for their shared belief. They have all chosen to be in the company of others who share the same fantasy. They are choosing beliefs which are not the same thing as choosing a God.

Existence is fundamental to truth, knowledge and values; it is also a prerequisite for freedom of choice. Freedom, by itself, is not the cause of Man’s aggression toward his fellow man. The problem is mysticism and the fact that it provides no real options since it is not based on evidence. The lack of options is a lack of choice and a lack of freedom. Once an individual has divorced his mind from evidence and Universal Reality, he has sacrificed his own freedom to choose and control his own life as well as his ability to acquire knowledge or determine values.

As long as religions, government and cultural standards encourage mysticism, Man will not have freedom, choices, truth, knowledge or values. Freedom of religion is a state endorsement of mysticism and religion unless an individual is free to reject mysticism and religion without penalty. The bride in the store with no china must be at liberty to say, “There is no china in here, therefore I have no choice. I’m going someplace where china exists so that I can have real freedom of choice.”

A society that grants special refuge to mystics is an asylum for those who reject the reality of evidence in favor of mystical fantasies. It is a sanctuary for those who erase the line between reality and unreality, confusing existence with nonexistence. It is a refuge for those who wage war on reality and consequently on Man’s natural free state in life.

Ironically, individuals who reject the collective, socially-acceptable delusions of a mystical society are sent to asylums for the insane; diagnosed as paranoid and delusional, unable to deal with reality. They are outnumbered. Their adherence to Universal Reality naturally puts them in conflict with collective delusions. Those who do not suffer from the collective delusions of a mystical society are punished and ostracized, like individuals who are considered possessed by demons. The major difference between an individual who is imprisoned in an insane asylum and the individual who still functions in the mystical society is that his delusions are unique and not shared by others. The fantastic world of an insane individual is does not conform to socially accepted and encouraged delusions making it impossible for him to function in society.

A view of the universe that is not supported by evidence is not threatening to those who share the same fantasies. Religious people believe in things that are not supported by evidence, they talk to God and they speak openly of how God talks back to them and watches over them. Roman Catholics believe that a priest turns a wafer of bread into human flesh and a goblet of wine into human blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist. At Mass, after this magic is performed, Catholics line up to eat what they believe is the body and blood of Christ. Although there is no scientific evidence that the bread and wine are anything other than bread and wine, Catholics are not being committed to mental hospitals in great numbers. This hallucination, like all religious hallucinations are regarded as religious in nature and is given special protected status under the United States Constitution. Mystics have a safe haven in a society that supports mysticism. A society that is built on mystical premises like the belief in a “right” to control or own the minds of others is by definition a mystical society.

The test of sanity is whether or not an individual’s beliefs can be supported by evidence. Whether an individual’s delusions are so unique that they get him committed to an asylum or so universal that that they earn him promotions to the highest levels of social status does not change the fact that delusions are delusions. An individual whose mind is out of sync with reality is an individual who is out of sync with reality whether he is the President of the United States or a poor homeless man in a mental hospital. A socially-acceptable or widely-held delusion is still a delusion that cannot be supported by evidence.

The rational study of evidence is the only sanctuary from delusions. The segregation of existence from nonexistence through science, reason, and logic will grant humans asylum from both collective and unique forms of insanity. It is only through the rational study of Universal Reality than man can be free from mysticism and delusions and the resulting aggression toward each other.

Freedom and coercion by force of law or violence are a binary circumstance. It is not possible to be free and be a slave to another man’s will at the same time. A man is free when freedom exists in his life, not when it doesn’t exist. A man is a slave when freedom does not exist in his life, not when it exists. If freedom exists in a man’s life, he is free; if he is free from freedom, he is a slave to others. If a man believes that he is free when his life is regulated by others, he has a delusional view of his own existence.

A free market is a market without regulations or controls. A regulated market and a free market are mutually exclusive. To believe that a market can be free and controlled at the same time is a mystical fantasy. It is a Universal Reality that no man has the right to control the life of another and therefore a free, unregulated marketplace is the only economic system consistent with Man’s natural state in the universe.

Once regulation is introduced into the marketplace in the form of price controls, wage controls or laws that force individuals to buy a particular type of product, some traders have an immediate advantage over others. At the point that freedom is removed from the marketplace, real value also leaves the marketplace; it becomes impossible to calculate the real value of anything because the regulations distort that value. It also becomes impossible for individuals to judge the competence, efficiency and value of their fellow traders; individuals that benefit from the regulation will appear more successful than they would be in a free market and those who suffer from the regulations will become less successful.

Regulated markets not only deprive individuals of their freedom, they hide valuable information about both the products in the marketplace and the relationship that individuals have to those products. Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman points out in his book Free to Choose that price in a market provides information. [i] Once prices are influenced by regulation, the information that the prices might have provided is distorted and consumers are prevented from making choices based on the actual value of products in the marketplace. The distorted market that results from regulation can only provide information about how regulations distort value; the actual market value of the products in no longer available.

Laws dictating morality, laws banning certain groups from the market, and taxation are other ways to distort market values while also undermining fairness and freedom in the marketplace. The criminalizing of homosexuality by heterosexuals has been a study in how a majority, with the full help and support of the government, forces a minority to subsidize a majority lifestyle. The result is that homosexuals suffer economically while heterosexuals benefit economically in ways that would not occur in a free market. Gay men and women have increased legal expenses incurred when fighting harassment by the government or individuals. At one time, laws schools, like most professions, openly discriminated against gays and lesbians, causing the most legal fees to be paid to heterosexuals. The taxes paid by gay men and women support the military, but they have never been able to serve openly in the military, so their money was being taken by force of law along with their liberty and given only to heterosexuals or closeted homosexuals. Huge amounts of money from gay men and women have been swept into the pockets of those who were openly and unapologetically denying them their right to live feely and openly. Gays and lesbians, as well as other childless couples, have also been forced to subsidize the public education of the children of heterosexuals, many who are religious and openly hostile to existence of homosexuals. Heterosexuals have also been given many special economic benefits and tax breaks by marriage giving them even more advantages in the marketplace on top of all the other advantages. The net effect of all these regulations was to confer huge economic and survival advantages on heterosexuals that they would not have had in a free market creating the distorted impression that they are harder working, smarter and inherently more successful than homosexuals.

While homosexuals have been one of the most despised minorities in American culture, there are many other groups of people who have suffered similar treatment in the so-called free market: blacks and other racial minorities, women, children, the terminally ill who are denied access to promising therapies by the law, and prostitutes are just a few. Non-white Americans and women have often been in the position where they have to pay the same prices for goods and services that white Americans pay, while they were being prevented by any number of regulations from working to earn the income. A full discussion of these distortions in the market is far beyond the scope of this essay. These examples are cited to illustrate one point: freedom exists in the market or it does not. If it does not exist the market is distorted, offering artificial advantages to some while penalizing others. The only regulation that is necessary to protect participants in the marketplace is an agreement by participants in the market that would prohibits artificial distortions in the market caused by regulation, stealing and fraud.

As long as freedom is taboo in the market and in society in general, reality will be taboo also. As long as reality is taboo, freedom will also be taboo. The only asylum available to Man is the knowledge that all men are free and it is a violation of Man’s nature to divorce him from his natural state of freedom. The adulteration of Man’s nature is mystical and inevitably results in the loss of his freedom as well distortions of reality.

The fact that certain individuals are removed from society and deemed insane is not proof of their insanity. They may be like the canary in the mineshaft; the first to show the stress of living in a delusional society. Those left to roam free in society might be there simply because their distortions of reality are more socially acceptable. In a mystical society there is no objective standard for determining who is sane or insane because mystical societies by definition reject objective evidence.

The only asylum from mysticism and the distortions of reality that it fosters is Universal Reality. Once a mind correctly separates existence from nonexistence it has brought itself into harmony with Universal Reality and the freedom that comes with it.