a sovereign being that is bigger than you. Some of the braver folk chose to use science to do their explanation.
Staying with this same line of thinking, when someone we love dies, we are forced to confront our own mortality. Our grief is compounded by questions regarding life and death. Does the
journey end here or does it continue into the afterlife? This has been a strong motivational force behind today’s belief systems. The fear and consideration given to the life after this life has spurred many into making the “right choices” here so that when death comes, the life that we hope continues after us is favorable for us. It is our own way of manipulating the final outcome so to speak because the
alternative as it is been portrayed to us is so grim. Some people prey on our fear of the afterlife that they use it to manipulate us into
getting what they want.
If we hold this afterlife theory in such high esteem, you can imagine how we treat people who are considered mouthpieces of the deities that control the afterlife. Pastors, Imams, Rabbis and all other form of religious leaders are held in such high reverence that their words are considered the words of the deity in question. Generally speaking, these religious leaders are meant to apply morally sound principles in accordance with their respective offices and act in the best interest of their members. If not for any other reason, at least to promote the tenets of the faith they claim to represent. However, this is not always the case as we have come to realize. A lot of religious leaders abuse their roles and influence by deceiving their members into making decisions that only serve their selfish agendas.
The common tactic is to use the name of the principal deity to twists the words that are drawn from the religion’s sacred manual to mean new things that corroborate whatever story they are making up in order to help them successfully manipulate the people. A lot of people have been swindled, physically hurt and even made to commit atrocious crimes under this guise. Another method these false leaders use is claiming to have a vision or spiritual insight into a specific need that the victim has. They create an elaborate story that is a mishmash of lies interspersed with the truth (usually obtained unknowingly from the victim or third parties) and the main goal is to
extort the victim for money, favor or just power play. Some victims are coerced to part with more money than they can ever hope to have. In some cases, young impressionable victims are brainwashed into living in fear under occult-like situations.
But, scenarios like these don't just end in religious houses.
There are people who are not affiliated with any religion, but they like to consider themselves spiritually open. Such people would
encounter fake psychics and mediums who claim to have a strong connection with the netherworld. Again, our attachment to people who have died as well as our concerns for what happens after death clouds our judgments and leaves us open to crooks who would like to manipulate the situation to their advantage. They employ the same trick of the false religious leaders using deception and lies to manipulate their victims. Victims go for a 10-minute psychic reading of their horoscopes and palms only to get strung along for years with promises, altered realities and false hopes. Causing them to spend thousands and thousands of dollars searching for the elusive "truth".
People who place their hope in science are not immune to manipulations. If you are thinking that because your faith is anchored to legible and factual science, you cannot be influenced, think again.
When there is a crisis, people revert to what they believe in. For a science believer, you naturally turn to science. There are cases where people with debilitating medical condition seek out
unconventional medicine in a bid to outlive the disease. Knowing that the best of conventional medicine has failed, they turn to these
outliers who claim to have the solution with their experimental drugs and never-been-done-before medical procedures. Unfortunately, these procedures are too risky, too expensive and often uninsured.
But the slim chance of life is worth every penny and this is what the fraudulent people exploit.
And it is not just in crisis. You have people come up with
wonder solutions to a mass problem like weight loss and so on. They claim that their latest diet fad, wonder pill or technology can
transform us using scientific theories that have not been tested and verified. A lot of people buy into the promise of this transformation based on information that has been specifically manipulated to extort
victims. The main difference between religious con leaders and these purveyors of fake science is that instead of a deity, they use science when swindling their victims. And sadly, most people don’t realize until is too late just how badly they are being affected.
When it comes to belief, those who use dark psychology key into your deepest needs and exploit it. They use that which you hold sacred to manipulate your thought process. And sometimes, the sacredness of it doesn’t really matter. As long as it is important to you, they consider it a gold mine of some sort. And there is no greater time to mine and individual so to speak than when that individual is experiencing a crisis. This is because, in your moment of crisis, you are at your weakest and most susceptible to the
influences of others and people have been known to manipulate things to their own advantage.