Sahu's Online Library
Is the mainstream media making us sick?
| 
How to maintain a steady ship in an ocean of fear, panic and macula degeneration
There are a great deal of ads, shows and news stories being thrust out to the public across all mediums these days telling us of all the dangers in society – what foods are bad for us, how many ways smoking can kill us, how dangerous the roads are, why it’s not safe to walk around the city at night – the list goes on and on. Recently I saw an ad telling me that I could already be going blind, I just didn’t know it yet. That’s odd. I would’ve thought that if I were going blind, something would have tipped me off by now.
For the most part, these warnings come from people and organisations genuinely concerned for our welfare. The problem is that they are all unconsciously adding fuel to a collective creative force that manifests without discrimination. What we believe, we conceive. The more we believe in rising violence, road tolls and illness, the more we create it.
Our society’s phenomenal ability to create without limits has long been hijacked and used as a fear factory that has served to control and manipulate the population and the time has come to reclaim this power and start creating that change we all wish to see in the world.
Don’t believe the hype
We all understand that smoking is not particularly helpful to our bodies. But to take this as a just one example of the impact of mass media today, remember that various peoples of the world have been smoking for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Just looking at one or two generations back, there are a multitude of people who have ‘amazed’ modern scientists by living long lives that ended by some cause completely unrelated to the fact that they smoked one or two or more packs of cigarettes a day since they were a teenager.
It is unlikely that our generation will have so many of these stories. The ‘amazing’ stories of the next generation may well be the ones who live to old age despite being exposed to passive smoking in their youth.
But how much of this is because smoking has suddenly become so much more deadly, and how much of it is because we have, as a society, convinced ourselves – and thus our creative will – that exposure to cigarettes will make us very sick and will almost certainly kill us?
“Every cigarette is doing you damage” – an entire campaign was concocted around this extremely destructive affirmation that needled its way into the subconscious of millions of smokers (not to mention non-smokers).
Evidently it helped some people to quit (albeit out of fear), but most did not, meaning that the most substantial consequence of the entire exercise was to make it more likely that the remaining smokers would develop smoking-related illnesses due predominantly to mass suggestion, as now would their passive smoking counterparts.
It is perhaps a radical idea, but how many lives might be saved by getting rid of the profoundly disturbing words and images, deliberately crafted to have a deep and lasting impact, off the television, radio, newspaper and cigarette packets themselves?
Don’t get me wrong. This is by no means an endorsement of smoking, nor is it meant to dismiss the dangers of reckless driving, city violence or chronic eye diseases. My point is that the current means that are being used to address these issues are quite possibly exacerbating the problems rather than solving them.
People often smoke, drink, drive fast or lash out when they are stressed or angry. What if, rather than devoting time, energy and millions of dollars on flooding the collective consciousness with news and warnings about these ‘increasingly prevalent’ dangers, those resources were spent on ads, news items and shows aimed at helping people relax, develop more patience and learn how to deal with their anger and tension?
What if, instead of telling us that we’re ‘bloody idiots’ and ‘dickheads’, that drowsy drivers die and smoking kills, our televisions and radios sent positive, uplifting affirmations deep into the heart of our collective creative will, helping to eliminate the initial cause of our destructive tendencies instead of feeding them?
But what can I do? I’m only one person?
In one of the Halloween episodes of The Simpsons, the giant advertising mascots came to life and started to destroy the city. The only hope for the citizens of Springfield was summed up in the jingle, “Just don’t look!”
Easier said than done, in this case, but reducing your exposure to mass marketing, television and radio advertising is a plan with several desirable outcomes (more time to yourself being one of them).
Another tip is to watch how many of these negative affirmations you take on through watching, listening or reading unconsciously. Stay centred when you’re tapped into these collective broadcasts and consciously choose not to take on anything that is clearly a product of fear, guilt, blame or shame.
For ‘only one person’, you are jam-packed with Divine goodness – with the secrets of the universe in the mix – and you already know what’s best for you.
Make your daily choices out of your desire for life and vitality, not out of a fear of sickness or death.
About the article
First Printed in Inner Self magazine, East/West Edition 21, page 26
About the author
An astrologer and Reiki master, Claire Hennekam runs workshops and weekly meditation sessions in addition to seeing her own clients. She works out of Sahu Healing Space in Melbourne (www.sahu.com.au), a centre she created to provide the space and resources for clients and practitioners to pursue their own healing journeys. You can contact Claire on 0407 359 347, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
