Why does the world seem to have gone mad?
How does this phenomenon work?
What’s driving it and where does it go if we’re not careful?
How can we actually use this for good?
The orange pill prescription.
If you’re wondering why the world appears to have gone somewhat crazy, and wonder why no one else notices, rest assured, you’re not alone. The world seems to be more divided than ever before, as a large portion of modern society is literally cheering on the creation of a two-tier class system all across the world. This meaningful portion of society appears religiously attached to enforcing a narrative that resides outside the bounds of reality and goes against natural laws, science and plain old common sense.
What’s even more jaw-dropping is that mainstream media is not only going along with this narrative, but they’re also actively facilitating the division through silencing and de-platforming dissenting opinions.
It appears this segment of society that we’re describing has forgotten what the world fought two world wars for in the 20th century. Western democratic countries banded together to engage in the bloodiest century known to man, purely to fight the dangerous collectivist ideologies that are becoming mainstream norms in all “democratic” countries today in the 21st century.
Figure 1: Source
It’s nearly as if a large segment of society has been literally brainwashed or completely hypnotized.
Figure 2: Source
Well, you may be surprised to learn, what you’re seeing around the world is a form of literal hypnosis. We’ve actually seen this psychological condition occur multiple times in our society in the past century. This condition helps to explain a lot of the madness we see in our world and has recently captured the cultural zeitgeist of the world.
It is a mass formation psychosis.
What Is Mass Formation Psychosis?
If you’re unfamiliar with the term that’s not a problem, I am going to explain what it is today; but more importantly explain the risks it poses to humanity, and most importantly, how we can overcome it.
I first learned about this phenomenon and term listening to the Aubrey Marcus podcast with special guest Dr. Mattias Desmet in October 2021, and recently the idea has gone mainstream, even being discussed at length in two recent Joe Rogan podcasts which captured the eyes and ears of 100 million people worldwide.
The Rogan interviews with Dr. Peter McCullough, and Dr. Robert Malone, are some of the most watched interviews in history, and this quote from Dr. Malone shines light on why they’ve been so captivating.
“What we’re experiencing is a coordinated media warfare, the level of which we have never seen before. I and my peers, who are experienced in multiple previous outbreaks, have never seen this level of coordinated propaganda.” — Dr. Robert Malone, “Joe Rogan Experience” episode 1757
Now, back to the phrase “mass formation psychosis.” Dr. Mattias Desmet, who has a doctorate in both clinical psychology and also statistics, is the doctor responsible for creating the term.
I will be referring to his work on multiple occasions in this piece, as he is uniquely qualified to be speaking to this psychological condition. Dr. Desmet has been lecturing on the topic of mass formation for over three years now, at Ghent University, Belgium, where he works as a professor of psychology.
In this video, Dr. Desmet claims to apply his expertise in statistical modeling, into investigating the COVID-19 statistics and models being used in early 2020. After months of statistical analysis and ‘’running the numbers,’’ on all the data he could find, Dr. Desmett claims that the data and models surrounding covid simply didn’t match the prevailing narrative being propagated in the mainstream news.
In the interview he explains how he felt like all the trusted “experts” and scientists around the world were almost lying with statistics and models that simply didn’t add up.
Figure 3: Source
Now, what is mass formation psychosis?
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Let’s break it down: First, a psychosis is a condition in which the individual loses touch with reality. Once an individual is suffering from a psychosis, their mind is unable to process information effectively, meaning no amount of facts or proof can convince them of a reality that counters the narrative they believe in their mind.
Then the mass formation element obviously refers to this happening to a large portion of society. The larger the crowd grows it reinforces the collective hallucination they believe in.
Dr. Mattias Desmet says that it’s a strange phenomenon that about 20 to 30% of the population in the world have succumbed to, and have become entranced with what’s called a “noble lie.” The 30% almost seem religiously attached to the narrative, or noble lie their leaders are pushing on them, and once accepting of this lie will defend it at all costs.
Now, what’s a noble lie?
Figure 6: Source
They call it a noble lie because if it’s for their agenda that they perceive to be “the greater good,” then they justify the lie as therefore being a “noble” one.
Now I’m sure anyone reading this knows what the “noble lie’’ is. 30% of the population is in full alignment with the noble lie that’s become the dominant narrative, both propagated and enforced by politicians, “scientists,’’ bureaucrats, pharmaceutical companies and worst of all the media propaganda outlets.
Hypnosis
A mass formation is a very unique psychological condition that is almost like a mass hypnosis. What one observes with the mass hypnosis is that the fraction of the population that’s embroiled in this noble lie, are completely unable to process new data and facts that challenge the narrative they believe in.
Now, hypnosis is an extraordinarily powerful tool. If you can focus someone’s entire mental state on a problem and a subsequent solution, anything is possible.
An example of just how powerful hypnosis is, becomes evident in its use with patients who are allergic to general anesthetic. Hypnosis has even been used in the place of general anesthetic for major surgeries that would normally be excruciatingly painful to an individual.
Figure 7: Source
“Trained hypnotherapist Alex Lenkei has gone under the knife without general anesthetic an astonishing six times, saying he much prefers putting himself into a hypnotic trance to the traditional drugs used to bring about loss of consciousness.”
The state of hypnosis can be so powerful that the patient can be wide awake in a hypnotic state, yet not feel a thing as the surgeon cuts through their bone.
As we enter year three of “14 days to flatten the curve,’’ we Bitcoiners often wonder how the blue-pilled are so out of touch with reality, as more and more holes in the narrative continue coming to light.
However, it begins to make more sense when understanding the group of people captured in the mass formation are in a state of hypnosis. They can only focus on what their leaders tell them to focus on regardless of what common sense or other information they may receive that contradicts what they have been told.
Now, that’s what this mass formation psychosis is, but how does it happen, and most importantly how do we get out of it?
Figure 8: Source
Four Conditions Required For A Mass Psychosis
For a mass formation psychosis to occur, Dr. Desmet outlines that there must be a very specific set of underlying circumstances present and affecting individuals to make them vulnerable to this psychological condition.
First Condition:
The first is that there has to be a segment of the population that seems to be disconnected from society.
When one isn’t feeling connected in a community, family or team, they appear to be more susceptible to falling into this mass formation psychosis.
Since the 1970s in particular our society has become more and more disconnected. We’ve seen the gradual breaking apart of the nuclear family, as it’s become too expensive for one family figure to be the breadwinner:
Figure 9: Source
Since leaving the gold standard in 1971, real wages have stayed flat when adjusted for inflation, yet the cost of living has continued to go higher. This has forced both parents into the workforce, leading to the family spending less time together as they try to afford the ever-increasing cost of living.
Figure 10A: Source
Money problems are often cited as one of the top reasons for divorce. As the departure from a sound monetary system takes place, it’s been harder and harder for families to make it, contributing to skyrocketing divorce rates, and incarceration rates climbing to all-time highs!
Figure 10B: Source
The religious crisis of the 1960s was another signal that society was moving away from previous norms and into a more disconnected state. The rise of atheism and the absence of faith and coming together on Sundays to share in collective beliefs and ideology, has further disconnected society. The media wants to tell you today that we organize based off of race or sex, or sexual preference, but that’s all identity politics that’s only meant to further divide us.
Over the past decade in particular, everything has been highly politicized and weaponized by the media to further divide the people. This has only been accelerated through technology and the rise of social media, as we now interact with more people than ever before, but we’re actually lonelier and more disconnected than ever before. Social interactions are becoming more quantitative, based on likes and shares, however a smaller emphasis is being placed upon the quality of those interactions.
With Facebook rebranding itself to “Meta,’’ and the World Economic Forum becoming increasingly interested in the “metaverse,” it appears these technocrats want to cattle herd us into their idea of a totally centralized, Orwellian version of the metaverse.
Figure 11: Source
Considering all those influencing factors in totality, and then layer in the two years of the government-enforced lockdowns and you can start to see how people have never been so disconnected before.
Second Condition:
The second condition that must be present for a mass formation psychosis to ensue, is a lack of purpose felt by the individual. A feeling of purposelessness can come from one’s disengagement in their professional life, but can also be a consequence of the first condition.
A recent poll asked 150,000 full- and part-time working Americans many questions about their jobs. The results were shocking, showing that 70% of workers are completely disengaged at work and hate their job. This further highlights the lack of purpose and fulfillment society has, which makes us more vulnerable to falling into a mass formation psychosis.
The Third Condition:
The third condition that must be present in the individual, is a lingering sense of untethered anxiety. People feel stressed all the time but don’t know why or what is causing it. The fiat money hamster wheel that requires society to work more than ever before just to keep up is a large contributing factor that’s causing this stress amongst the population.
This is highlighted by the number of people suffering from anxiety, which is rapidly growing as one in five people now suffer from anxiety (source) and about 25% of women are reported to be on antidepressants (source).
People around the world are living in a constant state of fear and anxiety like never before.
The Slippery Slope Into Tyranny
The Fourth Condition:
Once the people have given in to the first three conditions, then someone appears: a leader, someone that can focus all of their pain and anger, and their untethered anxiety onto a single problem. Once their fear and anger has a point to focus on, this new leader emerges and provides a way out, a solution to bring them from this place of despair and into a new better reality.
This is where the crucial part of mass formation psychosis occurs. The hypnotized masses will naturally seek relief in this narrative when in a hyper-emotional state of fear, disconnectedness and anxiety.
This leader naturally becomes an idol to the masses. The dream sold to the people in our current predicament, was that a small sacrifice of a 14-day lockdown to “flatten the curve’’ would end the pandemic and ensure the hospitals wouldn’t be overrun. Obviously the governments of the world have run with all sorts of narratives after getting their foot in the door and granting themselves these emergency powers.
Now, after the narrative has been propagated that includes the plan to escape the anxiety and fear, the people involved in the mass psychosis will all of a sudden feel a sense of relief.
Once the hypnotized masses collectively go through the steps involved in the leader’s noble lie, they feel connected again, they gain a new kind of solidarity or social bond after playing their part in this “new normal.’’
The hypnotized 30% are so consumed by the narrative, that they will unconsciously degrade their physical, emotional and economic health, as all their attention is placed into pursuing their role in the narrative.
Figure 12: Source
Many parts of the new normal have become a tribal ritual for the masses. This is evident in how they proudly conform with their orders and get angry at anyone else who does not comply.
We, who have assessed the events of 2020 and 2021 with rational, independent thought, commonly ask ourselves, why can’t they see through the lies?
Let’s not forget, hypnosis is all about focus. Once society is under this psychosis, they’re unable to think rationally for themselves, as they are very focused on their role. They’re so hellbent on escaping their anxious state that they’ll trust anyone that appears like an expert if they’re regurgitating the narrative and they are displayed on the mainstream news as an “expert.’’
This video unveils just how coordinated the messaging amongst the mainstream media has become. It nearly makes you ask the question “are they all reading off the same script?’’
The never-ending stream of propaganda has turned minds once capable of rational thought, into a playhouse of narratives and baseless lies.
It doesn’t matter how many times the narratives change and the “elite’’ move the goalposts, the hypnotized masses will continue to believe in them. This video shows just how many times the narrative has shifted over the past two years alone.
Now, directly from Dr. Desmet again, when the society is under the spell of mass formation psychosis, they will support a totalitarian governance structure capable of otherwise unthinkable atrocities.
Figure 13: Source
“Crimes the individual alone could never stand are freely committed by the group (smitten by madness).” – Carl Jung, “The Symbolic Life”
Totalitarianism In The 20th Century
This set of conditions combined with an opportunistic, power-hungry leader generally leads society into a totalitarian nightmare. The world has seen many atrocities committed by similar power-hungry regimes in the 20th century, while their population was suffering from a mass formation psychosis. Today, a large subset of society is happily cheering on the same future, so long as the message comes from the mouth of someone that appears to be an ‘’expert.’’
Whether it was Vladimir Lenin or Joseph Stalin in Russia, Mao Zedong in China, or the Holocaust in Germany, the world saw the perils of totalitarian regimes over the 20th century, as over 100 million lives were lost in the fight against communism.
It’s important to remember, these leaders started slowly and used a foot-in-the-door marketing campaign. The German people didn’t start supporting Hitler on the premise that the plan was to round up the 6 million Jewish people and participate in one of the greatest atrocities in human history. It started slowly, step by step.
Figure 14: Source
What we’ve learned during those events was that even the most highly-educated people went along with events such as the Holocaust. Education level is not necessarily a factor that makes you immune to mass formation psychosis. Highly-educated people essentially lost their minds from the propaganda being spread by the power-hungry leaders.
The general method by how the ruling totalitarians create a totalitarian system is through menticide.
Figure 15: Source
Menticide always starts with inducing the masses with fear and confusion, and in particular waves of fear and terror that never let the individual escape the feelings of fear.
Figure 16: Source
What’s most scary is the individuals are generally unaware they’re under a psychosis while suffering from it.
Figure 17: Source
Totalitarian states cause grave damage to society and its population. One would think we’ve learned our lesson from those episodes of totalitarianism in the 20th century. Sadly, it appears we’re at the precipice of a global totalitarian regime re-emerging in the 21st century, except this time, on a far larger scale.
Dangers Of Totalitarianism In The 21st Century
For a world that’s supposedly come so far in terms of human rights and democracy over the previous century, the world is still a mess. 4.3 billion people (55% of the world) still live under authoritarian regimes (source).
If you understand those previous examples of totalitarianism, what’s going on today all around the world should scare the living daylights out of you. Here we have Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada, calling those that don’t go along with the narrative “racist and misogynistic extremists.”
Figure 18: Source
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, is using a similar playbook to Justin Trudeau, as he recently came out announcing he wants “to piss off” unvaccinated people.
Figure 19: Source
They’re focusing the unseated anger and aggression that the masses feel, and weaponizing it by turning the vaccinated people against the group of people who believe in bodily autonomy. This sets a very dangerous precedent.
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Propaganda used on a population who has undergone a mass psychosis is a profoundly powerful tool.
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Gustave Le Bon is best known for his 1895 work “The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind,” which is considered one of the seminal works of crowd psychology. In it he theorized the masses would create a new state of totalitarianism, as he saw mass formation and crowd psychology becoming more dangerous through the 19th century and into the 20th century. Judging by the events of the 20th and now 21st century, he was right.
“The totalitarian systems of the 20th century represent a kind of collective psychosis. Whether gradually or suddenly, reason and common human decency are no longer possible in such a system: there is only a pervasive atmosphere of terror, and a projection of ‘The enemy’, imagined to be ‘In our midst’. Thus society turns on itself, urged on by the ruling authorities.”— Joost Meerloo, “The Rape of the Mind”
The Freedom Fighters
We’ve spoken a lot about the brainwashed so far in this piece, but let’s not forget, there’s also around 30% of the population that’s actively fighting back against the narrative when a mass formation emerges:
Figure 22: Source
There’s no clear explanation as to why the mass formation follows a general distribution. It appears individuals who are more connected, have a good family and work life structure are more likely to oppose the mass formation. These people generally have a sense of purpose, are surrounded by a strong community and are less likely to fall into this mass psychosis because they don’t suffer from the above-mentioned fear and anxiety. It also appears people who value individualism are not as swayed by the groupthink present in mass formation.
Figure 23: Source
If you’re reading this description of the people fighting the mass formation and thinking it sounds like the Bitcoiners, I agree. Bitcoiners base their principles and philosophy on not blindly trusting people and instead verifying information presented to them.
The Bitcoiners, and the other people in the 30% not psychologically affected by the brainwashing campaign, have an important role to play in getting our society out of this mass formation psychosis.
Figure 23: Source
The other large group involved in the psychosis, is the 40% of people in the middle who just follow along with what’s easiest.
They just want life to be easy and normal and may follow the brainwashed into a digital panopticon if there’s no perceived alternative. Some in this subset may believe the whole thing is irrational, but just aren’t as ideologically motivated to stand up for the truth as the 20-30% fighting the narrative are.
Now let’s talk about how Dr. Desmet suggests we can get out of this – a doctor’s prescription if you will.
The Doctor’s Prescription: “Yes, Bitcoin Can Fix This”
When confronting someone who is possibly part of the psychosis you can’t speak hatefully or shame them as being a ”sheep’’ or ”brainwashed.”
Dr. Desmet explains the steps:
First:
We must live and speak the truth and continue to keep speaking out. This can help to break down the narrative, as the conflicting narratives go a long way to awakening the 40% of people in the middle. This is why you see the leaders trying to promote this ‘’new normal,’’ desperately trying to censor and silence all dissenting voices, even from professionals speaking out against the narrative.
A great example of the censorship was on full display after tens of millions of people were searching for the term ‘’mass formation psychosis’’ following the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcasts with Dr. Malone and Dr. McCollough.
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Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don’t be evil.” They ironically changed their motto in 2018 and certainly confirmed itself to be “evil’’ throughout the recent mass formation psychosis ordeal.
Figure 26: Source
What exactly are “reliable sources’’ as defined by Google? Would it possibly be as defined by their so-called “fact checkers’’ who were also quick to attempt to brainwash the masses in the ordeal?
Figure 27: Source
Would it surprise you to learn that the former chairman of Reuters is also an investor and board member of Pfizer? No conflict of interest there?
Figure 28: Source
It’s for these reasons that people are beginning to distrust what has long been considered the “mainstream’’ media over prior years. More and more people are turning to more honest, unbiased sources of information. The growing viewership base of independent media sources like Joe Rogan or Tucker Carlson is testament of people actively seeking out the truth from people who don’t have an agenda to sell.
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What we need to do is politely and gently point out the fact that the data doesn’t make sense, and continue to point to all these clear conflicts of interests the mainstream media are involved in. Dr. Desmet suggests using humor “memes,” while poking holes in their narrative can also be helpful in breaking down the narrative.
Figure 31: Source
Remember, we have to do this with love, not violence. If we laugh derisively at the person, or show violence and aggression in our arguments, it can focus all that angst onto us and make us look like the enemy. Becoming frustrated and getting into arguments with the brainwashed only legitimizes the narratives that they’ve been indoctrinated with from the media, declaring that we’re the enemy.
Second:
The second thing we need to do is to build closeness and togetherness. We need to bring people together. Remember, people connect over shared values. The Bitcoin Conference 2022 is expected to have 35,000 people, all with different identities, race, gender, preference etc … but all sharing the same values of freedom, sovereignty, sound money etc.
We need something that can rally people together on a shared value system and Bitcoin is doing just that. And we definitely do not show violence. Remember, love, not violence. Because if we show violence it can focus all that angst onto us and make us look like the enemy.
Finally:
The most important thing is that the people that have become susceptible to this did so because they were unhappy with where their lives were and they are following the leader to a new place, a new reality. So trying to convince them to “hold the line” and stay where they are will not work, as they are unhappy in that place.
So what we must do is show them a new path forward, a new better reality. We must show them a place they can feel connected, share values, and a sense of purpose. Their unhappiness with their prior life is part of the reason they’ve accepted the “new normal’’ narrative. They don’t want to go back to their old life.
Former Soviet Union political dissident and eventual president of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, talked about the importance of building parallel structures within a totalitarian society:
Figure 32: Source
He noted these structures were more efficient than political action against the totalitarian regime.
These structures provided an enclave for freedom for the rational individuals in the society and helped to shine a light on the madness of the portion of society trapped within the totalitarian nightmare.
We need to show the masses the true reason they’re working too hard and failing to get ahead is because the money is broken. We need to show them the source of all this angst and anguish, the source of all this disconnectedness, the source of all this lack of purpose is all because of the fiat money system. The fiat money system is a system built on theft, lies, and deceit and is a moral cancer on our modern society. Our broken money and associated inflationary monetary policies are the reason for our lives getting harder, which has largely contributed to their feelings of anxiety and stress as we struggle to get off the fiat money hamster wheel.
The fiat money system enables the government to print unlimited amounts of money, thus stealing the value from our people’s savings via inflation, and then the government can then use that money against us the people. The government is able to pay police officers to enforce their tyrannical rules via their printed money, and also run their propaganda programs with the value that they extract from our savings.
The Bitcoin community is the perfect parallel structure to bring down for our current day mass formation psychosis. It is an island of sanity where radical truthfulness and sovereignty are principles highly valued within the Bitcoin community. The Bitcoiners even have our own slogans that can single-handedly help our species escape this mass formation psychosis.
Figure 33: Source
Remember, mass formations are generally based on “noble lies.” As soon as one begins to verify the propaganda they’re told, it becomes immediately clear where the truth lies.
Bitcoin also takes the power to print money out of the hands of the government. If the government had to fund its war against the people through direct taxation alone, the people might start to realize just how wasteful governments are.
Bitcoin, beginning with its incorruptible 21 million hard cap supply, ground our world back into reality. The majority of Bitcoiners appear vehemently opposed to this new normal, and can act as role models for those still searching for truth.
Figure 34: Source
Bitcoiners are the manifestation of Carl Jung’s “redeemer personality.’’ We always speak our minds and will call out any untruths irrespective of being afraid to come off as confrontational. We even get called ‘’toxic’’ on occasions by those perpetuating the lies that we loudly call out. This radical adherence to truth is why the Bitcoiners are the ones most likely to create a parallel structure that shines a light on the world that’s literally living in a lie.
This is my call to humanity. We need to take the doctor’s prescription to cure this mass formation psychosis, before things get really bad.
Two diametrically opposing futures await our civilization on the other side of this mass formation. If we let this psychosis go on for too long, we could all be living in a digital panopticon where our every interaction, transaction and thought is tracked by a social-scoring-led nation state. Or, we can opt out of that Orwellian nightmare and transition to the parallel structure that Bitcoin helps to build in the coming decentralized revolution.
It all starts with the money.
This is a guest post by Mark Moss. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
