It's Spiritual Warfare

Not Mass Formation Psychosis

Has everyone gone insane!

Freak-Out!

I've heard that complaint from more and more people over the past two years during this covid "me-too freakout" global overreaction. Well, it appears that human beings have coined a new phrase explaining the insanity/evil currently gripping the world: "Mass Formation Psychosis."

What is that? According to Dr. Mattias Desmet , a psychologist who came up with the phrase "Mass Formation" (Psychosis was tacked on the end by other people), the phenomenon of large-scale mass formation regarding covid has risen from four psychological conditions that currently exist that are closing off human thinking:

1. Lack of Social Bond - People interact online but don't create the intimacy or vulnerability that comes from shared experience, thereby suffering from a crisis of lack of community.

2. People Experience Life as Meaningless or Senseless - People have less and less meaning in their jobs and family.

3. Free-Floating Anxiety - More and more people are depressed and have anxiety disorders from isolation and no meaning.

4. Free-Floating Frustration and Aggression - People feel frustrated and aggressive without really knowing the cause of their annoyance and anger.

When the four conditions listed above are fulfilled, according to Dr. Desmet:

“if a narrative is distributed through the mass media identifying an Object of the anxiety and providing a strategy to deal with that Object, mass formation can thrive. All the free-floating anxiety and anger, becomes attached to the Object. Sudden connection through this heroic struggle together against the Object creates a new solidarity, a social bond that has been lacking, which in turn, creates meaning. People then feel that they can control their psychological discontent by participating in the strategy, even if it’s utterly absurd. That creates a kind of mental intoxication that makes people willing to go along with anything, even if it is utterly wrong and illogical. They parrot the corporate narrative and adopt the same authoritarian, shaming language they hear from their leaders.”

Wonderful. But is that what is really happening?

In a sense, if you have no belief in God, rely on humanism as your tenet of faith, and think that psychologists, psychiatry and brain-altering pharmaceuticals are the answer to the insanity reigning in this world. Good luck if that is your belief! Has this reliance on humans and humanism worked so far? Has it ever worked to make this world a better place? No.

So, what is really going on? The answer is the world is in a pitted spiritual combat with the prince of this world - satan. What is going on is much larger and more powerful than mankind can control or handle. Good luck humans in relying on man-made psychology while at the same time rejecting religion, Jesus and God. I believe satan and the powers and principalities of evil are quite happy that mankind's hubris is so large that it has rejected the only weapon that can win this spiritual warfare.

Now you’re messing with the Son of God!

Throughout mankind's history, satan and his demons have waged spiritual warfare against God's creations. Satan's goal is to obtain as many souls as possible so that someday he can say to God "see, I am as powerful as you and should co-reign, since your creations now worship me instead of you." His hope is that God agrees and satan is welcomed back into heaven. This of course will never happen, but satan's hope springs eternal and in the meantime apparently it is fun to torture humans. Right now we are in an age of whipped-up spiritual warfare from satan, who is emboldened because of the four elements listed above. Let's see that list again, and how our rejection of God has led to the currently ramped-up global spiritual combat:

1. Lack of Social Bond - Rejection of God, Jesus and his Church has isolated the

   majority of people on this earth. The Church has always fostered a sense of bonding, but that has been broken as religion has been scrubbed from society and the Church itself has decided it is no longer relevent or ESSENTIAL.

2. People Experience Life as Meaningless or Senseless - According to Jesus, the

   purpose of life is to attain the virtues needed to obtain everlasting life after

   death. By practicing the virtues/following the Commandments, you will reach

   individual joy and also produce a more meaningful society. But if you don't

   believe in Jesus and an afterlife to strive for, what is there to believe? Belief

   in going "poof!" after death is no way to live with meaning.

3. Free-Floating Anxiety - Too much reliance on psychiatric drugs has led to more anxiety, not less. Prayer has been abolished from schools, government, sporting events, movies, and basically any public venue. Prayer is the antidote to anxiety, as well as the sacrament of confession. The power of prayer is much

   maligned in society.

4. Free-Floating Frustration and Aggression - Too much reliance on other humans, whether in government, politics, media, schools, etc. can only lead to

   frustration and aggression. Satan knows this, and seeds frustration and aggression by convincing humans that they are as powerful as God. We are not.

   Worship of other humans will always disappoint us because ALL humans are sinful and weak. Only God and Jesus are worthy of worship, when this is realized the level of human frustration and aggression will decrease along with satan's power.

So Napoleon, if we are in spiritual warfare as you say, how do we get out of it? Well, first realize that God allows periods of chastisement where satan and the powers of evil will reign until repentance by humans. This current period has lasted long before covid and will probably last much longer than we can even imagine. Still, we must battle against the forces of evil, and according to the 16th century priest, Father Lorenzo Scupoli, in Spiritual Combat the weapons to use in spiritual battle are:

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1. Distrust yourself - You are nothing without God who created you. When the human self is in control, bad things happen. We know nothing and cannot win this war by ourselves or humanism.

2. Trust God - God wins in the end. Trust that no matter what is happening, God

   is in control and hears all your prayers. Yes, God made satan and allows his

   destruction and evil to reign supreme on the earth, however God is not evil and

   all evil is turned to good. In addition, God will help us deal with our weaknesses toward evil.

3. Use Spiritual Methods - Spiritual methods should be used to discern the Truth. Satan is the prince of lies and confusion. God is the Truth, the Way and the Life.

4. Pray - Learn to pray again or for the first time. As Father Scupoli says "For prayer is the instrument for obtaining all the graces which flow down upon us from that Divine Source of love and goodness. By prayer, well used, you will put a sword into the hand of God wherewith to fight and conquer for you."

5. Rely on the Eucharist - For Catholics, the sacrament of the Eucharist is Jesus

   Christ Himself, His Body, His Blood, His Soul and Divinity. By eating the Body of

   Jesus and drinking His Blood, we dwell in Him and He in us. This union is most

   powerful against satan and the powers of evil.

6. Persevere - Remember that this spiritual warfare will never end until we die.

   Continue on even when all seems lost, knowing that God wins in the end and will vanquish the evil ones.

Phew!

It seems easier just to say it's a mass formation psychosis and wait for things to return to normal as a humanist would want to do. Well, things were never normal throughout the history of mankind and mass formation psychosis or the more proper term - SPIRITUAL WARFARE will continue to the end of days. Take it from someone who lived most of her life running toward humanism and experiencing only depression and emptiness. The only normal is finding personal peace in God and Jesus, and the only joy and meaning is found in obtaining everlasting life.

For all those who made it this far reading without being bored to death, a little fun video to make you laugh: