Gaslighters: Personal and Political Snakes and Monsters

A few days ago I got a message from my unconscious during meditation that I’m at the 4% level in terms of some new level of integration. I honestly don’t know precisely what that means, or IF it means anything. But…I thought it might be useful to frame this morning’s thoughts from that perspective.

Absorb what is useful, discard the rest.

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Yesterday, I said that if larger, stronger people, if of bad character, tended to act directly. What then, migt smaller, weaker people do if of bad character? “Gaslighting” was a frequent mention. Direct bullying is a threat against the physical survival (or social standing or emotions) but indirect would be an undermining of the sense of self.

“Gaslighting, an elaborate and insidious technique of deception and psychologicalmanipulation, usually practiced by a single deceiver, or “gaslighter,” on a single victim over an extended period. Its effect is to gradually undermine the victim’s confidence in his own ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or reality from appearance, thereby rendering him pathologically dependent on the gaslighter in his thinking or feelings.”

I know that weakened people are vulnerable to this tactic. As I saw someone try to pull this on the political level today, I wanted to draw a line of comparison, so that people can decide for themselves if it is being used against them.