The Wetiko Virus

"Built into the very fabric of the system of wetiko is a progressive disincentive for its members to realize the level of depravity into which they have fallen. What keeps us stuck in denial is an inner self-protective mechanism that shields us from the overwhelming awfulness of the shock that would necessarily ensue if we were to consciously experience and shake off the lies that we have been living, a disillusionment that would be too much for most people to bear.

The major obstacle blocking us from seeing through our own self-deception is our unwillingness to consciously experience the pain, shame, guilt, mortification, and trauma of this realization. Part of this realization is dealing with the shock of realizing that we have given away our power to those in positions of power over us who have misused that power; it is quite a shock to realize that those who were supposed to be protecting us were the very ones from whom we most needed protection.

These multilevels of realization literally shatter our self-image, our identity of who we think we are, as well as our sense of belonging to a collective, social fabric. It is truly an unforgettable, soul-shattering moment when we have the courage to look in the mirror and see that we have been "out of our minds," "beside ourselves," having suffered a genuine "break from reality," in the sense that we have been unwittingly supporting the collective madness and have been complicit in our own victimization.

To see the magnitude of the depraved situation we have been faithfully living in and to realize how sick we have become can be so overwhelmingly traumatic that we shun its onset, as this horrifying realization has programmed within it a counter-incentive to fully experience itself. What is required from us is a courage and clarity analogous to that experienced by cult members who with brutal honesty snap out of their collective brainwashing and repudiate the systems of belief in which they were held in thrall.

Realizing our complicity in the collective madness is simultaneously liberating and traumatizing, creating higher orders of freedom while simultaneously inducing a form of PTSD, itself a form of madness.
In other words, to realize how we have been part of the collective madness is truly "shocking" and induces a form of madness, just as trauma can literally cause a fever in a person. The fever is potentially the organism's way of metabofizing and healing the trauma, just as the trauma of seeing how perilously asleep we've been can propel us to wake up. This form of trauma can potentially so "shake us up" that it can snap us out of our fear-based, frozen paralysis of feeling stuck and can mobilize and inspire us into empowered action.

Paradoxically, it is the trauma itself that activates the response in us which potentially leads to its own; creative resolution. In these moments of shock we have the opportunity to break our habitual patterns, see through our implicit assumptions, snap out of our denial, and step out of our programming so as to literally rewire ourselves.

These shocks are like gaps in our awareness that are open doorways to potentially higher orders of freedom. These brief moments in time don't last very long, however, so it is important to expeditiously go through these portals and take advantage of them when they are available. If we don't, there are backup systems in place for dealing with shocks within our psyche that can override this potential opening in our awareness and re-install the ruling, reigning mechanical programming within our wetikoized mind."

~ Paul Levy, Dispelling Wetiko

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"Buffers' are created slowly and gradually. Very many 'buffers' are created artificially through 'education.' Others are created under the hypnotic influence of all surrounding life. A man is surrounded by people who live, speak, think, and feel by means of 'buffers.' Imitating them in their opinions, actions, and words, a man involuntarily creates similar 'buffers' in himself.

'Buffers' make a man's life more easy. It is very hard to live without 'buffers.' But they keep man from the possibility of inner development because 'buffers' are made to lessen shocks and it is only shocks that can lead a man out of the state in which he lives, that is, waken him. 'Buffers' lull a man to sleep, give him the agreeable and peaceful sensation that all will be well, that no contradictions exist and that he can sleep in peace.

'Buffers' are appliances by means of -which a man can always be in the right. 'Buffers' help a man not to feel his conscience….Only a man who fully realizes the difficulty of awakening can understand the necessity of long and hard work in order to awake. Speaking in general, what is necessary to awake a sleeping man? A good shock is necessary. But when a man is fast asleep one shock is not enough. A long period of continual shocks is needed.”

~ Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous