You've probably noticed it, the words you see and hear influence how you perceive and experience the world.
There are words that make us cringe and others that make us laugh.
We think mostly in words.
We doubt in words.
We worry in words.
We pray in words.
We love in words.
Words can make us click "Buy Now" or go on the street to fight for a cause.
Where do the words get their power from?
A word in essence is a neutral thing. It's a combination of letters or symbols, depending on your culture.
Words are "recorded" and "played" in an area of your brain called the cortex. If you hear a new random word, you will be able to recall it, but it will have no meaning for you.
If you hear or see a new random word in a context of some form like a certain situation, the experience you have will be linked to the words. In that way, you've created an emotional connection to the word. There is a whole "science" behind it, called NLP.
But, for this article we don't need to dive deeper. Let's get back to the word "Terrorism."
When we see, hear or use it, we often immediately feel like a victim ourselves. And if you consume the news every day, it's easy to become pessimistic, and that will affect your whole life.
If you look at the responses of the world leaders, it seems as if they have their head in the sand. They don't know what to do other than to "bomb back" and declare a state of emergency. It's because they are all unconscious.
What happens when two unconscious parties fight against each other?
Right, the unconsciousness on both sides becomes intensified, or more "extreme" so to speak.
That's why I propose to introduce a different word that we're going to use from now on whenever we talk or write about what we call "Terrorists" or "Terrorism".
The expression we should use instead is, "Egoic Extremists." It contains the state of consciousness and the extreme manifestation of it.
Who are the real terrorists?
Why do the people we call "Terrorists" refer to us as "Terrorists"?
We in the west believe that they are the "Terrorists", because they attack us at our homes. They bomb our airports, subways, shoot people at concerts and fly planes into buildings.
They must be the "Terrorists". There is no doubt about it, right?
Let's do a little thought experiment...
Let's assume that you are one of them. Just for a moment, adopt their view of the western world.
What will you find?
You start to believe that the people in the west are the "Terrorists," because they declared war out of the blue for no apparent reason, they invaded your country, destroyed most of your buildings and infrastructure.
If you would take a neutral view, and determine who is the real "Terrorist" by the number of people that have perished on both sides, it will no longer be clear who you should call terrorists.
We accept what people do based on our conditioning and what we belief are the "good" people, because they appear to be "one of us".
I'm not here to judge whether what people did was right or wrong.
Consider this:
In the past 14 Years, over 3,300 people perished due to Al Qaida attacks. But in the Wars of Afghanistan and Iraq alone at least 600,000 people perished. That's over 181 times more "extreme" what we - the western people - did. And over 90% of the deceased on both sides were civilians. [1]
Some people in the west call the War of Iraq pure terrorism.
We find that hard to believe, because we have a different image in our head when we hear the word "terrorism." It's up to you to decide who are the real terrorists based on what you were made to believe, but I suggest you use a different word from now on.
Imagine if we would call these people openly, "Egoic Extremists."
I use the term "Egoic" as a metaphor for all mental images, ideas and beliefs about how these people think who they are (as seen in my drawing above). And the term "Extremists," because it's an extreme form of the expression of the individual ego.
There are several reasons why this makes sense:
- We point out the root cause of what makes people do these things - their extreme ego.
- We show these people that we don't have anything against their religious beliefs.
- We give these people a chance to become aware of their extreme ego.
- We remind everyone that we all have similar egoic patterns, however not so extreme.
Again, the term "Egoic Extremist" is nothing negative or "bad", it's just a clearer way to describe the mental condition of these human beings.
If you feel hurt, because I've put you or your leaders into that category, that is a valid feeling. That feeling is created by your ego, because it doesn't want to be discovered.
That would be its death. The death of the ego is the only way to save us, not the death of "Egoic Extremists."
Besides that, "War against Egoic Extremism" would no longer make sense. You can't fight a war against the ego. You can only take the necessary measures to defend yourself against it, but the only long-term solution is to help people become aware of it.
It doesn't matter how long they've been programmed to believe something. And, certainly, it doesn't matter what belief system they alienated to pull the strings of their followers.
All that matters is whether they are aware of their ego or the voice in their heads.
Until they are aware of that, they have no choice but to follow their beliefs as if they were remote-controlled robots.
What if we would use the global infrastructure of the media to send messages that would help them recognize their egoic patterns?
It's not easy to teach a person who believes he or she is blind to open his or her eyes to see. They are afraid that they have shut their eyes for so long for no reason. They would rather keep them shut so that they can be right and tell you, "I am blind, I can't see."
Giving them glasses won't help.
You can only show them a way to become aware that the only reason he or she keeps his or her eyes shut is because he or she believes in what the voice in his or her head says.
Of course, a headline with the term "Terrorists" sells more newspapers. At least until the new expression "Egoic Extremists" is integrated into our vocabulary.
And, I even propose that all manifestations of extreme egoic behaviors, such as shootings, bombings, and other forms of intense violence are from now on collectively labeled by the term "Egoic Extremism."
This means the term "High School Shooting" becomes "Egoic Extremism" and "Suicide Bombing" becomes "Egoic Extremism."
At first it seems as if this one word change is a practical approach, but my concern is for the very long term.
As a new culture we need different words.
And I promise you that slowly introducing these kind of words is going to change the situation on this planet.
They set the direction for whole humankind and serve as pointers for the path we have to walk together.
Stay peaceful.
I write & create for all of you who hold the vision of a conscious culture. Get a PDF with 80 Meditation Cards here: www.fabimarkl.com
Resources:
[1] My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State, Jürgen Todenhöfer