Oldos Huxley: "The final revolution"

So far, we are desperately fighting for freedom of speech, sensuality and use of various products of the world chemical industry - the final enslavement of a person occurs. About what methods of non -violent submission of mankind exist among the knowledgeable authorities, today is told by the English writer, the author of the famous anti -utopia “On the Divine New World”, one of the first researchers of Mescalin and the inventor of the concept of “psychedelic” - Oldos Leonard Haxly. On the air is the premiere of the “Book Regiment of Theo” column and a lecture read by Haxley on March 20, 1962 in Berkeley College, USA.

In the past, the revolution was aimed at changing the existing state of affairs in order to change a person through the environment. The political revolution, the economic revolution and the religious revolution - all of them were not directed to man directly, but at his environment.

Today we are dealing with a different approach that can be called the final revolution when it becomes possible to influence the mind and body of people directly. Of course, the impact of this kind has taken place since the beginning of time. But before, this effect for the most part was exclusively violent. Terror methods have been known since time immemorial and were used with varying degrees of ingenuity: sometimes with extreme cruelty, and sometimes with a fair amount of skill acquired by trial and errors in the use of torture, prison and restrictions on various types.

But, as they say, with bayonets you can do anything, but just do not sit on them. To control a group of people for a long time, it is necessary to achieve their consent. Pure terror cannot be effectively used indefinitely. Sooner or later, you will have to include an element of belief and try to make people agree to what is happening to them.

The essence of the last revolution with which we are now dealing with this is precisely this: we are at the stage of development of methods that will allow the ruling oligarchy (which has always existed and, presumably, will always exist) make people love their subordinate position. My interest in this problem prompted me to write the book “On the Widden New World”, which refers to a society that uses all available methods in order to standardize the population, eliminate “uncomfortable” human differences and streamline people into a kind of caste system of a modern type.

Some methods from the described by me exist today. In addition, there is a movement towards this kind of control, through which people can even be forced to enjoy such a state of affairs, which no person in their right mind should take as a norm.

I would like to compare “ On a marvelous new world ” with another anti -utopian parable - “ 1984 ” by George Orwell. Orwell wrote his book at a time when the Stalinist regime of terror was in full swing, and the Hitler regime of terror just fell. Therefore, his book is a projection of the near past to the future: he draws a society in which control is carried out exclusively with the help of terror and violence against the mind and body of a person.

My book, written in 1932, was not overshadowed by the idea of ​​terror, so I had the opportunity to explore other, non -violent control methods. I am convinced that the scientific dictatorships of the future (and I think that they will exist in different parts of the world) will be much closer to the model described in the Word New World than to the model from 1984. But not at all because of the humanistic views or remorse of the conscience of dictators of the scientific era, but because the model I described is much more effective.

After all, if you achieve the consent of people with their subordinate position, eliminate any differences between them and subordinate the methods of mass production at the public level, this will allow you to build a much more stable and strong society than if you rely solely on punitive detachments and concentration camps.

And as the dictatorships become more and more scientific and more and more aimed at a perfectly functioning society, they will show more and more interest in the methods that I described in the "Word New World". It seems to me that the aforementioned final revolution is really not so far away, because the methods necessary for monitoring this kind already exist - the only question is who is the first to use them on a wide scale.

Terror method

Pavlov made some very far -income discoveries about animals and people. Among other things, he discovered that conditioned reflexes developed by animals or people in a state of physical or psychological stress are sunk into the subconscious deeper, and it is much more difficult to get rid of them.

Of course, this fact was found empirically much earlier and was widely exploited. But the difference between previous intuitive methods and modern ones is the difference between the method of trial and error and a truly scientific approach. There is a significant difference between us and, for example, inquisitors of the 16th century. We know much better what we are doing, and thanks to our theoretical knowledge, we can significantly increase the scale of coverage and level of efficiency.

The English psychiatrist William Sargent in his book “ Battle for Reason ” shows how great religious figures of the past intuitively reached the Pavlov method. He says, in particular, about the method of treatment used by John Wesley , based on the principle of extreme psychological stress. He told the audience about the torment of hell (thus making people extremely vulnerable to suggestion) - and then sharply reduced this tension, offering hope for salvation in paradise.

Today we know why these methods worked. And if desired, we would definitely be able to develop them much further than it was possible in the past. On the example of prisoners of war and factory workers in China, we had another opportunity to make sure of how Pavlov’s methods used systematically work. There is no doubt that using these methods, you can create a huge army of unconditionally devoted people. And I believe that these methods are a significant development of past terror methods, because they combine terror with the voluntary adoption of the current state of affairs.

The method of suggestion

Without a doubt, people always knew about suggestion and, although they did not use the word “hypnosis” - they definitely practiced it in a variety of species. Today we have much deeper knowledge in this area and we can use it as it was impossible in the past. For example, it was always known that people are subject to suggestion to varying degrees. Only today we own the exact statistical data about the share of such people in society.

Any experienced hypnotist will tell you that about twenty percent of people are easily hypnosis - and about the same number of people lend themselves to hypnosis with great difficulty. Between these two extremes there are a huge number of people who can be hypnotized, making some efforts for this over a certain time.

Once, a general profile was conducted in the Boston Hospital on several hundred men and women suffering from postoperative pains. The injections were made at the request of patients every time the pain became unbearable, but in half the cases they were introduced by morphine, and in half the cases - water. About twenty percent of patients felt the same relief from the water as from morphine, and about twenty percent did not feel any relief from the water. The rest of the patients received some relief in some cases.

Once I spoke with a person who was engaged in the production of records for listening at a stage of slow sleep. These records are designed to strengthen sexual pleasure, increase sales, gain wealth and so on and are sold on the terms of a refund in case of failure. So, he said that about fifteen to twenty percent of buyers regularly write outraged letters with complaints that records are not given the result. At the same time, about twenty percent of people write enthusiastic letters, saying that their life has become much better. Among the other buyers there are those who get only minor results, but after the beliefs they continue to try and eventually achieve a positive result.

Of course, if all people were unbearable, an organized society could not exist; And if all people were suggestible, the dictatorship would be inevitable. Fortunately, there is a moderately suggestible majority that holds us from the dictatorship and at the same time allows us to form an organized society. Nevertheless, the presence of twenty percent of extremely suggestible people means that any demagogue who can persuade them to their side gets the opportunity to overthrow any government.

Hitler, like no other, understood the weaknesses of people and used them fully. He knew that a conditional reflex acquired in a state of tension or fatigue is much stronger than under ordinary conditions. That is why all his speeches were proclaimed at night. He directly says to Mine Kampf that he did so because at night people are more tired and, therefore, are less capable of resisting suggestion than during the day.

Of course, today we have the technical methods of wide spread of the voice and the image of a demagogue, allowing you to create a hallucinatory effect. This is a huge difference between modern and ancient demagogue. The ancient demagogue had the opportunity to appeal only to those people to whom he could shout - modern demagogues are able to influence millions of people at the same time, and the spread of its image allows you to create a strong hypnotic effect.

Pharmacological method

In the Word New World, I came up with a drug called Soma, which, of course, could not exist in this form, since it was simultaneously a stimulator, sleeping pills and hallucinogen. These three effects are difficult to combine in one drug. However, using several different substances, you can achieve a similar effect now. In addition, today we have drugs that change the state of consciousness. If you turn to history, it becomes obvious that a person has always had a weakness for narcotic substances, and the effect of all natural stimulants, sleeping pills and hallucinogens was discovered long before the start of history.

For example, in the settlements of the early Neolithic, found during excavations in Switzerland, Mac's heads were found. Therefore, people used this most ancient and dangerous drug long before the emergence of agriculture. The discovery that a person was a drug addict before becoming a farmer gives a new curious look at the nature of man.

However, the difference between ancient and modern hallucinogens is that the latter are much safer. New psychedelics (such as LSD-25 or psilocybin) can cause huge transformations in consciousness with the same body consequences as a couple of cocktails.

Of course, pharmacologists create an increasing number of magic drugs that are even more dangerous than those diseases that they treat. Each year, medical reference books contain an ever longer chapter devoted to phenomena (diseases provoked by doctors). Such drugs can give incredible results, but they should be used extremely carefully. At the same time, there are a number of drugs that affect the central nervous system that can cause euphoria or have a sedative effect without any tangible harm to human health. In the hands of the dictator, such substances can be used to cause in people the highest degree of happiness even in the most terrible circumstances.

But this is possible even with the use of old primitive substances. Once my neighbor, reading Milton’s “ lost paradise ”, remarked: “Beer explains the ways of the Lord much more successfully than Milton.” But beer is a narcotic substance that is much more primitive than modern drugs. And we can say with confidence that new psychedelics and hallucinogens are able to do much more than Milton and all theologians taken together to facilitate the burden of a person in the face of the frightening secret of life.

In my opinion, it is this method that opens the widest possibilities for the final revolution, providing a high degree of control, but not through terror, but by creating a much more pleasant life than usual. It is so pleasant that people will begin to love the state of things that no person should love in a sober mind.

Implant method

Experiments with the implantation of electrodes into the brain were widely carried out over animals, as well as in several cases over incurable mentally ill. Anyone who watched the behavior of rats with electrodes implanted into various brain centers would be horrified by what could wait for us if this technology is in the hands of the dictator. In the Laboratory of the University of California, I had the opportunity to observe two groups of rats. In the first electrodes were implanted in the center of pleasure. The button installed in the cage was associated with the electrode wire and sent current to the brain, stimulating the center of pleasure and causing ecstasy. The rats liked it so much that they pressed the button eighteen thousand times a day. Moreover, when they took the button for one day, the next day they pressed it thirty -six thousand times. And they continued to do this, not paying attention to either food or the opposite floor, until they fell off their feet from exhaustion. In another group, the electrodes were implanted between the centers of pleasure and pain. The result was a bizarre mixture of ecstasy and torment. The rats looked at the button with suspicion for some time, and then pressed it and bounced off with a piercing squeak. After that, they waited for a while before pressing the button again. But each time they pressed again - that’s the most incredible. In one of the scientific journals, I read an article about electrodes in the brain of chickens. Only instead of the wire was a receiver controlled at a distance was used. As a result, one could observe a striking picture: the sleeping chickens suddenly woke up, the awake chickens instantly fell asleep, the chicken behaved as if they had laid eggs, and aggressive roosts fell into discomfort. In the case of sick people, such experiments also brought amazing results. Nonal patients in psychiatric medical workers, suffering from deep depression, pressed the button - and in one moment they became funny and joyful.

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Of course, today these methods are used only for experimental purposes. But what can happen if these incredibly powerful technologies fall into the hands of unscrupulous people in power?

We must know what is happening and use our imagination to imagine what can happen. Then we should find a way how to use this enormous power that is available to us thanks to scientific and technical discoveries, for the benefit of mankind, and not for its degradation.