Another
way to say the same thing might be:
‘People only see what
they are prepared to
see.’ — Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Being
an artist, the questions of perception is very important to me. Having been
involved in a cult for so many years, the question of what one sees and what
one doesn't see is an essential inquiry into the heart of this issue. I think
that because a cult plays on what is most important to our beings - our
identity, our spirituality, our search for the answers to life's most intimate
questions - we can become blinded to what we do not want to see, what we are
not prepared to see.
Can one
ever be prepared to see that one has been hornswoggled* into joining a group
where you believe that the people you have laid down your life for do not, in
fact, have your best interests at heart? More correctly, they have only their
own interests at heart and couldn't care the least about anyone else.
Realizing
that I had been royally hornswoggled, I felt like I needed to become a
whistleblower for the sole purpose of preventing them from doing unto others
that which had been done to me. We can call it a "public service
announcement."
*Hornswoggle
- To get the better of (someone) by cheating
or deception: to swindle, cheat,
hoodwink, or hoax.
