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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And

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today, I want to challenge you to think, what are the psychological, spiritual, and social

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implications of wearing a mask and consequently joining the COVID cult, as I call it? The CDC has

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pronounced that wearing cloth coverings of masks over your face when in public can help prevent

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asymptomatic carriers from spreading the coronavirus to others. And the CDC's updated

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guidelines call for Americans to use cloth masks or whatever is available to help prevent the spread.

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And consequently, dear listener, as I don't need to tell you, this isn't new news. Mask mania has

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swept the country. Mask or die! I have found in my own anecdotal experience, my own personal

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experience, that the more fervent, zealous, and evangelical the mask wearer is, in his insistence

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that you wear yours, well, consequently, the less informed he is about the efficacy of masks. There

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seems to be an inverse relationship between the two. A correlation there is, however, between zeal and

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ignorance when it comes to masks. Most mask-muzzling zealots simply have not done their homework.

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They take at face value what they've been told, and they follow like lemmings over the cliffs of Dover,

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or they follow like sheep who follow the Judas goat to the butcher. They follow the mandates of their

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mask-muzzling government minders. But there is something larger at work here. When the true facts

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of the case are brought to light, masks do nothing to stop the China virus. Masks do nothing to stop

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the China virus. This fact has been abundantly substantiated in many studies in the past, long

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before the China virus entered the American lexicon, or COVID-19 for that matter. And these studies

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had no ax to grind. They had no point to prove in regards to the politics of mask-wearing. No,

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they simply demonstrated scientific facts. Follow the science? Well, let's follow the science.

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What were these studies? Let me point you to an article by Dr. Dennis Rancourt.

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Dr. Dennis Rancourt, excuse me, R-A-N-C-O-U-R-T. And he's a PhD in physics

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at the University of Ottawa. And he's a seasoned professor of research and investigation too.

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And he published in April of 2020, a paper that's entitled, Masks Don't Work, A Review of Science

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Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy. Once again, that article is entitled, Masks Don't Work,

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A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy. Now in this paper, Dr. Rancourt,

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reviewed seven different studies done on the efficacy of masks in stopping viral transmission,

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not bacterial transmission, but viral transmission. And they were studies that were done between 2010

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and 2020. And his conclusion, what is Dr. Rancourt's conclusion? Let me read his rather extensive

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conclusion. And I quote, no randomized controlled trial. And parenthetically, the randomized controlled

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trial, the RCT, is the gold standard of empirical research too. He says, no randomized controlled

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trial with verified outcome shows a benefit for healthcare workers or community members in households

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to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions. Likewise, no study

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exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to wear masks in public. Furthermore, if there were any

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benefit to wearing a mask because of the blocking power against droplets and aerosol particles, then there

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should be more benefit from wearing a respirator, an N95 respirator, compared to a surgical mask. Yet

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several large meta-analyses and all the randomized controlled trials prove that there is no such

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relative benefit. Masks and respirators do not work. Unquote. This, dear listener, is the science.

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Follow the science, we're always told. Follow the science and put your mask on. Well, that's the mantra

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of St. Anthony Fauci and the so-called health professionals at the CDC and the NIH, the National

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Institute of Health, who are so eager to muzzle us with masks. But in reality, they do not follow the

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science. They do not cite any randomized controlled trials to substantiate their claims because there are

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none, as Dr. Rancourt so devastatingly points out. Their science is merely bald-faced assertions

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without support coming from government bureaucrats posing as scientists. By wearing masks, most Americans

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are following the voice of authority, not the voice of science. At least we should be clear about this

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fact. And additionally, too, what I love about Dr. Rancourt. Towards the end of his article, he asks

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several pertinent questions about mask wearing. These questions have a direct impact upon our health,

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too, but which have not yet been subjected to randomized controlled trials. And those questions

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are, Dr. Rancourt asks, for example, do used and loaded masks become sources of enhanced transmission

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for the wearers? For the wearers and others. And then he asks, do masks become collectors and retainers

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of pathogens that the mask wearer would otherwise avoid when breathing without a mask? A very good

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question. Masks can be great transmitters of disease, not preventers. And then he asks, what are the

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dangers of bacterial growth on a used and loaded mask? Then he asks as well, what are long-term health

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effects on health care workers, such as headaches arising from impeded breathing? Oh, my wife

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suffers from headaches after wearing a mask after just 45 minutes or an hour. These are good questions

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to ask. And then he asks, are there negative social consequences to a masked society? Oh, there

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certainly are. We have seen that anecdotally, if not in studies, right? And then he asks, finally,

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are there negative psychological consequences to wearing a mask as a fear-based behavioral

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modification? That's almost a rhetorical question, because indeed there are negative psychological

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consequences, spiritual ones too. And I will unpack these here in a few moments. But I would like to ask

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then, why do authorities mandate masks if they're no good? If they're instruments that do not do,

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what is claim for them? Why command the use of a useless thing? Useless, at least for the purpose

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for which it's pleaded. Oh, herein lies the thrust of the rest of my broadcasts, because it goes to the

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heart of power and control, always at the obsessive hearts of politicians and government bureaucrats.

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What they have achieved is a circumstance beyond their wildest dreams, I submit to you,

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dear listener. What they have achieved is the initiation of a large portion of the world's

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population into the COVID cult, what I have come to call the COVID cult. Unless you think I'm being a

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bit overdramatic with that title, please, just please entertain this analysis of cultic initiation.

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I'd like to spend the rest of my time in this broadcast on cultic initiation. And this was a topic

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that was researched and documented by Dr. Arnold Van Genep in his article, The Rites of Passage,

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or his book, excuse me, The Rites of Passage, published initially at the turn of the century

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from the 19th to the 20th century, that is, and then republished in 1960. That book,

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The Rites of Passage, by Dr. Arnold Van Genep, documents the three stages of cultic initiation.

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And I'd like to go over those with you here in the time remaining. And those stages are,

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number one, what Dr. Van Genep calls separation, or what we would term social distancing. Separation.

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A very important part of every normal person's psychological, emotional, and spiritual health

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and well-being is the everyday contact that we have with family members and loved ones and friends and

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neighbors and our workmates. A six-foot distancing is only a token of the larger distancing that's

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expected from the initiate into the cult. All relationships, including those with spouses and

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significant others, they, too, must be disciplined with distancing, mustn't they? Normally, too,

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life is filled with macro events, aren't they? Our lives are filled with big events like birth,

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death, and the funerals that result, marriage, high holy days, if you're a religious person for the

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Christian, would be Easter or Christmas. Baptism, too, is very important in the Christian's life,

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or graduation, first communion, all these things. These are significant markers in our lives,

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life passages, if you will, that define us, and they gratify us, and they fill our lives with

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essential meaning. But social distancing, that is, separation, in Dr. Van Genep's terminology,

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separation has demanded that we forfeit or severely alter, beyond recognition,

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all of those life passages. And we do it for the sake of the COVID cult. Not only is life marked with

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macro events, dear listener, filled with meaning, but also life is filled with the thousands of micro

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events of daily life, but so meaningful nevertheless. Things like greetings or hugs, handshakes, smiles,

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farewells, close face-to-face conversations, even the small inflections to our words and gestures

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that we give by a slight frown or a grin or a pout or pursed lips or oohs and ahs, right? But have you

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noticed how you have been separated from your fellow humans by these profoundly silly and destructive

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behaviors like mask wearing? That indeed does hide those small inflections of the face that aid in our

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words and gestures. Elbow bumps instead of handshakes? Face masks that choke not only your oxygen intake,

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but your facial expressions, and they banish you to virtual anonymity. But you are marked as one of the

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compliant initiates, however, into the COVID cult, and everybody recognizes their fellow cult members

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by their masks. We are also expected to alter our most cherished and intimate relationships for the

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sake of the COVID cult. That's the essence of separation in Van Gennet's terminology. Now, formerly,

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we would meet our spouses or our lovers or our BFFs for lunch, or we'd go jogging with a neighbor,

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maybe, or you'd go to the office Christmas party as the normal pattern of life with those we love.

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On and on we could go. Life, communication, connectedness are intimately bound up with

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this daily routine of communication and fellowship with those we love. And we take it for granted

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until it's gone. But these things too are expected to go away for the sake of the COVID cult. There's a

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reason why cult leaders and groomers take this as their first step. The people in our world,

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our loved ones, our fellows, are our first defense against coercion and manipulation by outside

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authority. When we are stressed and pressed, when we're confused and disoriented, it's our community,

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our knit-together community of friends and loved ones and neighbors. They are there to bring us back,

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to put our feet back on the ground, to calm us down, right? Well, distance someone from these network

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of friends and neighbors and workmates, and you distance that person from all that has given him

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meaning and support. This is not new in history. What's happened to us? Ancient mystery cults like

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the cult of Dionysius. They would kidnap the initiate in order to remove him or her from their network of

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loved ones and neighbors. And this was to prevent interventions. Scientology, another example of a

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contemporary cult. Scientology insists that the initiate be willing to leave friends and family

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for an indefinite period of time. And that is to be determined by the auditor or the cult leader.

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This measure is also intended to minimize intervention once the grueling process of auditing,

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as the inner examination of the self and the tearing down of the old self and the rebuilding of

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the new is called auditing. Once this is underway, minimization of interventions must be maintained.

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And then also the maximization, the initiate experiences in attachment to his new community.

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Oh, all these things. Separation, the practice of social distancing or separation has had a spectacular,

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wildly successful effect on Americans, hasn't it? Our cult groomers have used fear very effectively to

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drive us to it. Oh, the most sacred rites of passage in life have gone forfeit to the cult, haven't they?

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Funerals, weddings, birthday parties, oh, gone away. Our elderly loved ones languish in nursing homes,

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dying of loneliness rather than COVID. Even newborns are socially distanced from their mothers at birth

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because of the fanaticism of the COVID cult. I even saw a picture recently of separated newborns

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with shields and masks on. How absurd, how mad. Also the hallowed festive games we shared as a nation

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are dead too. This bothers me too. They are hollow figures, the sports of our nation, hollow figures of

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their former selves. The national pastime baseball has struck out. Football has run out the clock with

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Americans with its alienating politics and cave into COVID. Basketball as well has found a more

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profitable following in China and has abandoned its roots in America. Well, Dr. Van Ginnup has

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effectively described this important initial phase of cultic initiation, separation, but it's not the

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only one. And I can move on to number two. Dr. Van Ginnup also describes marginalization.

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Marginalization, or as we would put it, lockdown or shelter in place or isolation. And here in

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marginalization, the initiate is taken out of the life that he knew before and through drastic and

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sometimes threatening measures, he is marginalized. I quote now Dr. Leonard George, who in an article

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helps to summarize Van Ginnup in his book, Alternative Realities. Dr. George's book is

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Alternative Realities, another good book on this subject. And he says, far from the stabilizing

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features of everyday life, the initiates experience uncertainty concerning who they are and about

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what is real, unquote. Ah, the essence of marginalization, getting you to question who you

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are, getting you to question reality. Familiar, comforting routines are disrupted. Daily schedules

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are upended. Life as such, no matter how gratifying or unhappy it may have been before. All of it

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though, comes to a crashing halt. And that's tumultuous, no matter how happy you were before.

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And it is amazing how successful this measure of marginalization has been in initiating Americans

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into the COVID cult. Most cults initiate members on a one-by-one basis. Our cult groomers have managed

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to accomplish marginalization on a massive national scale. Admittedly, such a huge undertaking is not

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perfect. Not everyone becomes hypnotized completely, and some not at all, like me. The ambitious

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effort at mass marginalization may be partial and incomplete, but it is huge nonetheless. We have to

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hand it to our cult groomers. In the previous history of pandemics, the sick were quarantined.

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They were isolated. But for the first time in history, everyone was quarantined, healthy and sick.

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We were isolated, locked down, marginalized, in Van Gillip's terminology. Combined with this previous

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step, separation, the initiate enters the most dangerous phase of his transition to a new normal.

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Ah, this is because the process of marginalization is so thoroughly dissociating from routines and

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patterns of life. We are by nature creatures of habit. Without a measure of predictability in our

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lives, why, our stress and adrenaline levels will kill us very quickly. The unknown, the uncertain

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moment, the seeming random events unplanned for, all these tend to wreak havoc on the human psyche

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and the well-being of the average soul. Part of the fight in the survival of the fittest is indeed to

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reduce to a measure of predictability our daily life circumstances. Locking down our lives utterly

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destroys this civilized pattern. And Dr. Van Gennep warns that this is a very dangerous moment for the cult

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initiate. Those who may have been on the edge of stability already, or have a marginal sense of worth

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and self-esteem, or who maybe are vulnerable to new traumas, these may be destroyed further or they may

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even commit suicide. In the ancient world, initiates to the cult of Dionysius were famous for the attrition

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rate due to death. They were known for their excesses, that is, drugs and drunkenness, violence to others

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and to self-madness, self-mutilation. And this often occurred during this phase of initiation, that is,

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the phase of marginalization. This has been, in fact, one of the tragic consequences of the COVID cult

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lockdowns. Dr. Michael de Boisblanc, Dr. Michael de Boisblanc of John Muir Medical Center in California

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reported that he has seen unprecedented numbers of suicides and attempts because of the lockdowns.

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He says, and I quote, we've seen a year's worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks, unquote.

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And the date reported was May 26th of this year. And CDC director Robert Redfield has said this,

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and I quote, there has been another cost to the lockdowns that we've seen, particularly in high

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schools. We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far

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greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we're seeing

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the deaths from COVID, unquote. Oh, dear listener, with the stressful and traumatic, this phase of cultic

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initiation is necessary, however, to the transformation of the initiate to his status as a cult member.

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Oh, once this has been achieved, though, marginalization and separation, once these two

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things have been successfully achieved, the final phase is introduced. What is that final phase?

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That final phase in Dr. Van Genup's terminology is called aggregation. Aggregation. We call it the new

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normal. What the cult leader does, what the groomer does in initiating the new person into the cult,

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is begin to aggregate the separate parts of the man's personality into a new one. Here, Van Genup observed

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in aggregation that the cult leader or leaders now provides that which is necessary to the propagation

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of the cult, the initiate's new self-concept. He or she is now groomed to be a contributing member of

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that society. Once again, as Dr. Leonard George puts it in his book, summarizing Dr. Van Genup, he says,

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they are taught the knowledge and given the symbols appropriate to their new rank. Following their

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initiation, when they return to the society, they are, in a sense, reborn. They have had old truths

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canceled and new ones revealed, unquote. Very descriptive. We have to hand it to our cult programmers

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in the nation, whether it be political or medical cult groomers. They have thoroughly immersed us in

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the new knowledge, and they have bequeathed to us the symbols appropriate to our new rank,

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as Dr. Van Genup would put it. That is, our new rank is that of obedient and compliant slaves.

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The mask is the ubiquitous symbol of that rank. Fellow slave, I recognize you by your mask.

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Additionally, we have the knowledge of appropriate social distancing, right? And new normals, all this

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new language, having a swab stuck up our nose for regular testing. That's new knowledge, right?

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Plus a whole new lexicon with which to display our knowledge. Aren't we proud of ourselves?

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We're so much a part of the team. Oh, dear listener, the mystery cult of Dionysius, once again, going back

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to ancient Greece and Rome, the mystery cult of Dionysius was a mystery because there was a body of

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knowledge concerning the gods, which was only communicated to the initiated. Ecstatic, mysterious

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trances could be had. Secret invocations could be made to conjure the presence of the gods.

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Secret cures and potions could be assembled from secret recipes. Yes, the knowledge of the cult,

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right? Even as the knowledge of the COVID cult continues to grow. And Scientology, to use our

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contemporary example, Scientology as well promises a new knowledge of the self through the mystery

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process of auditing. Now, auditing is a grueling process of rigorous self-examination and sometimes

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brutal criticism, which issues in trauma and disintegration of the personality and sense of

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self. And what the programmer does then, the skillful programmer rebuilds that self in the image

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of the cult, such that the initiate is, in a sense, reborn, as Dr. Van Gennep, excuse me, would put it.

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A new birth, right? Oh, all of those moments of isolation and self-reflection and disintegration

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of the personality are not wasted by our programmers. Oh, all of the media is and was and is focused,

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excuse me, with 24 hours. You remember this, especially during the weeks of the pandemic and

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lockdown, that 24-hour wall-to-wall coverage of the crisis, so-called, all the while rebuilding the

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image of who and what we were now, right? Because of the virus. Oh, out of whole cloth was created the

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new normal, which is Dr. Van Gennep's aggregation. Yes. There are other features as well. There are

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other features to this pandemic and this COVID cult. First of all, the initiate does not have to give

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his or her consent in order for these measures to be effective. That's important to assert.

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You don't have to give your consent in order for these measures to be effective. In fact,

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oftentimes, we do not even have to be aware that these techniques are being used on us.

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Oh, that's precisely what has happened to most of us, but that nevertheless, no, in no way inhibits

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their efficacy. They're still effective. We see that all around us. Oh, and then as well,

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there is a dissociative attachment, a dissociative attachment, which obtains in the process

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of initiation. That is, the initiate buys into the cult wholeheartedly because he or she has

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sacrificed so much and undergone such a radical change that to go back to the old ways would

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represent an even more radical step. As Dr. Van Gennep has said, old truths have been canceled.

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New ones have been revealed. Oh, yes. A new normal has been achieved. To go back would be a radical

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step, a more radical step. And as we see with cult members all around the world, perhaps you know

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some relatives or friends that have been immersed in cults because no amount of reasoning with them

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or no amount of rational thought seems to dissuade this new initiate. And that's true with people all

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around us, the mass Karen. Oh, those who insist that this shutdown was necessary. On and on we could go

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because facts don't matter to the cultist. Appeals to old attachments fall on deaf ears. Only the cult

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counts. Only the COVID cult counts now. And we've seen the programmers have a miserable success rate

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at persuading once confirmed cult members, don't they, from leaving their newfound family and their

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new way of life. Oh, that's what's in for us if we're not careful, dear listener. The COVID cult has

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claimed many, many thousands, millions of victims here in this country. This has been Pastor David

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Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday. We are

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not a part of the COVID cult. We have been meeting right along at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner

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of 4th and Boulevard. Once again, we meet on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of 4th and

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Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or feedback at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.