Mass Formation Psychosis | Explained
Mass Formation Psychosis, alternately referred to as ‘mass formation’, is the explanation of why intelligent people will believe in a narrative that is absolutely absurd. There are very specific conditions that need to be present in order for large scale mass formation psychosis phenomenon and totalitarian thinking to emerge in a society. This video transcript is from an interview where Dr. Matias Desmet, Professor Clinical Psychology, defines the phenomenon and explains its premiere manifestation here in the twenty-first century.
For its revelatory insight into the largest world-wide development of the phenomenon in history, this video is both compelling and shocking viewing. It this expose’ of the phenomenon we can see the insidious development that, evidentially, appears to be as well-crafted for us as it was, quite literally, captivating for tens of millions of people throughout the free world.
For an understanding of the basic premise upon which totalitarian rule must be established, this video is required viewing.
So effective in stealth and rapine, mass formation psychosis results from seemingly rational persuasion techniques that are incrementally and systematically employed to the degree that even the subjects of its totalitarian goals become the instruments for its operation and success.
Even those trained to recognize it, who have studied it, had the phenomenon slide by them undetected in its formation for several months before realizing that they, themselves, are living through its horrible, intended, consequences.
At the conclusion of the spell-binding presentation one arresting question in particular from the panel on the origin of responsibility for this phenomenon’s outbreak visibly strikes Dr. Desmet. His measured, retrospective response to the question will dramatically strike the viewer with a power beyond what the most able and talented writer-director team could summons to a stage.
Editing
The editing of this transcript includes the addition of headings to identify and organize key points and terms for reference. Some changes in grammar and sentence structure were made to provide for smoother transition from oral delivery to a reading presentation, emphasis was added where indicated, and bracketed text was added to record inferences,
Some portions of the narrative were lifted from where they were aired and dropped into headings where the speaker expounded more fully on them. A change to the order of conditions originally listed at the beginning of the lecture, where condition number three was exchanged with condition number four, was made to align with the order in which these two conditions were actually developed and explained by the author (and this aligns with escalation of severity in the conditions which eventually result in the complete transition to Mass Formation Psychosis).
These efforts, however, are not a substitute for the video interview. They are a resource for organizing and referencing a copious amount of information presented in seventeen minutes.
Finally, some observations as would be requisite for so profound an explanation of the formation of mass psychosis follow the transcription, and are indicated respectively throughout the transcript as they are prompted.
Mass Formation Psychosis (Mass Formation)
&
Totalitarian Thinking
As explained by: Dr. Matias Desmet
Video Transcript
(Transcribed and edited by: David Dansker)
Psychosis occurs when an individual loses touch with reality—a break that can be terrifying to experience, or to observe in a loved one. Hallucinations—perceiving something that doesn’t exist—and delusions, or false beliefs, are hallmarks of psychosis.
– Psychology Today
Brief Introduction
DESMET: There needs to be very specific conditions before mass formation and totalitarian thinking emerges in a society. These conditions are as important as the media itself, but that does not take away that without media you cannot create mass formation, or crowd formation, at a scale as we experience it now, and as a scale as it has been experienced shortly before the second world war in Nazi Germany, and in the first part of the twentieth century in the Soviet Union.
You need mass media to create a mass phenomenon at that scale.
Bio
INTERVIEWER 1: You are a psych-analytic psycho-therapist, you’re a lecturing professor a Ghent University in Belgium, and you specialize in the mechanisms of mass formation and totalitarian thinking. Is that correct?
DESMET: I am a professor of clinical psychology at the university, and I also have a master degree in statistics. In this crisis, I’ve been taking the perspective of mass psychology, yes, indeed. In the beginning of the crisis, I had been studying the statistics and the numbers, and actually I noticed that they were often blatantly wrong, and, at the same time, that people continued to believe in it, and to go along with the mainstream narrative. That is was why I stated to study it rather from a perspective of mass-psychology because I knew that mass formation has huge impact on individuals’ intelligence and cognitive functioning, and I had the feeling that this was the only thing to explain why highly intelligent people started to believe in a narrative and in numbers that were, in many respects, utterly absurd.
Conditions Necessary for Mass Formation Psychosis
Now, four things need to exist, or need to be in place if you want a large-scale phenomenon to emerge. The first thing is there needs to be:
- A lot of Socially Isolated people where they experience a lack of a social bond.
- A lot of people who experience a lack of ‘sense-making’ in their life.
- a lot of free-floating Psychological Discontent, not connected to a specific representation. (free-floating: It needs to be in the mind without people being able to connect it to something.)
- A lot of free-floating Anxiety, not connected to a specific representation. (free-floating: It needs to be in the mind without people being able to connect it to something.)
When we have four things in place, then society is highly at risk for the emergence of mass phenomena,
and these four conditions existed shortly before the corona crisis. There was like an epidemic of burn-out. Over 40-70% of the people experienced their jobs as completely senseless, this is described in the book Bullshit Jobs [Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber]. And if you look at the use of psycho-pharmaceuticals, it was huge, and this shows how much discontent there was in our society. For instance, in Belgium, every year Belgium’s, who are 11 million people, use over 300 million doses of anti-depressants alone. That’s huge. [EN-1]
So, you see that these four conditions really existed; lack of Sense-making, lack of Social Bond, free-floating Anxiety, and free-floating Discontent.
A Closer Look at free-floating Psychological Discontent and free-floating Anxiety:
3). free-floating Psychological Discontent: Now, the discontent actually existed before the corona virus [as noted above]. There was an epidemic of burn-out. [EN-2]
4) free-floating Anxiety: Free-floating anxiety is the most painful psychological phenomenon someone can experience. It is so extremely painful it leads up to panic attacks; to all kinds of extremely painful psychological experiences. What people want in this situation is something to connect their anxiety to. They’re looking for an explanation for the anxiety.
The 2 Steps Necessary for these 4 Conditions to Emerge as Mass Formation
Now, if this free-floating anxiety is highly present in a population, and the media provides a narrative and a strategy, Mass Formation can emerge. [EN-3]
STEP 1 –
Mass-Media Deployment: The media provides a narrative which identifies, indicates, an object of the anxiety, and at the same time describes a strategy to deal with this object of anxiety. Then, all the anxiety connects to this object, and people are willing to follow the strategy to deal with this object. No matter what the cost is. That is what happens in the beginning of Mass Formation. [EN-4]
STEP 2 –
The Heroic Battle – When the mass media campaign is successful, Then, in a second step; people start a collective and heroic battle with this object of anxiety, and in that way a new kind of social bond emerges, and a new kind of sense-making, Suddenly, life is all directed at battling the object of anxiety, and in this way establishing a new connection with other people.
The Resulting Change
The Sudden ‘Switch’ from Negative to Positive – from a Negative State to a Positive State – And that sudden switch from a negative state – a radical lack of social connection, to the opposite – to a massive social connection that is experienced in a crowd: This sudden switch leads up to a sort of mental intoxication. That is what makes Mass Formation, or crowd formation, the exact equivalent of hypnosis.
Mental Intoxication – The Mechanism of Mass Formation – So, what happens is that, at that moment when people experience this mental intoxication, it doesn’t matter anymore whether the narrative is correct or wrong, even blatantly wrong. What matters is that it leads up to this mental intoxication [which acts to relieve their free-floating anxiety].
That is why they continue to go along with the narrative, even if they could know, by thinking for one second, that it is wrong. That is the central mechanism of Mass Formation, and that makes it so difficult to destroy. Because for people, when the switch is made and the intoxication takes effect, it doesn’t matter when the narrative is wrong.
To Change This Horrible State of Affairs
It is important to understand what our logical first response to Mass Formation is, and that it why it is ineffective, and even counterproductive. What we all initially try to do, is we all try to show constantly the narrative is wrong by using facts, but for people [in Mass Formation], that’s not what it is all about. For them, it’s all about the fact that they don’t want to go back to this painful state of free-floating anxiety.
So, what we have to realize, if we want to change this state of affairs, is that the first thing we have to do is to:
- Acknowledge this painful anxiety, to think about why we got in this state of lack of sense-making, lack of social bond, the free-floating anxiety, this massive free-floating psychological discontent, and
- Try to tell [or rather show] people that we don’t need the corona virus [or other crisis] to establish a new social bond. We have to look for other ways to deal with the psychological problems that existed prior to the crisis, and try to find other solutions. We don’t need this kind of mass phenomenon [Mass Formation] to solve this problem. [EN-5]
Mass Formation Psychosis is actually a symptomatic solution for a real psychological problem. And this crisis, in the first place, is a large societal and psychological crisis much more than a biological crisis.
Totalitarian Thinking
Mental Intoxication – A Phenomenon of Totalitarian States
From this state of mental intoxication, you can explain all the rest of the phenomenon of totalitarianism. The mental intoxication leads to a narrowing of the field of attention; it makes the people only see what is indicated by the narrative. [EN-6]
For instance, people see the victims of the corona virus, but they don’t seem to see at a cognitive level the collateral damage of the lock-downs, and all the victims that are claimed by the lock-downs. They are also not able, at an emotional level, to really feel empathy for the victims of the lock-downs.
That is not because they are very egoistic, [caring about yourself, and your own needs, self-centered, absorbed, involved] no, it’s just an effect of this psychological phenomenon. Defiantly, it’s even as a consequence of Mass Formation people do not get egoistic at all; rather, to the contrary.
Mass Formation focuses your attention so much on one point that you can take everything away from people; their psychological and physical well-being, their material well-being. You can take it away, and they will even not notice it. And that is one of the major consequences of Mass Formation.
Hypnosis
And it, Mass Formation, is exactly the same a hypnosis, or classical hypnosis.
All the people who have been studying and describing Mass Formation have remarked that Mass Formation is not similar to hypnosis, but that Mass Formation is exactly equal to hypnosis; Mass Formation is a sort of hypnosis.
When a hypnotist, during hypnosis, focuses someone’s attention on one point, you can cut in his flesh, and the person will not notice it. That is what happens all the time when hypnosis is used as a kind of anesthesia during surgical operations. A rather simple hypnotic procedure is sufficient to make people completely insensitive to pain. You can, without any problem, cut in their flesh, and even under some circumstances you can perform an open-heart operation in which the surgeon cuts straight through the breast bone, and the person, the patient, will not notice it.
So, that shows us that the focus of attention is strong, both in Mass Formation or hypnosis; that people are really insensitive to all the personal loses they experience as a consequence.
Radical Intolerance of Dissonant Voices
Another consequence that is very typical for totalitarian states is that people become radically intolerant of dissonant voices.
Because if someone tells another story, or if someone claims that the official story is wrong, then this person threatens to ‘wake the people up’, and they will get angry because they are confronted with the initial anxiety, and the initial psychological discontent, and so they direct all of their aggression at these dissonant voices.
At the same time, they are radically tolerant towards their leaders, for the people who pronounce the main-stream narrative. These people can actually cheat, and lie, and manipulate and do everything they want, and they will always be forgiven by the crowd because the crowd seems to think that they do it for their own [the people’s] sake. And that’s also part of the mechanism of Mass Formation.
INTERVIEWER 1: What do you think? This is not an accident, who is responsible for this mass hypnosis, is it one of your colleagues?
DESMET: That’s a good question [LONG PAUSE]. I have no idea. I described it, of course, the mass hypnosis, but I don’t know about the origins. Sometimes is arises spontaneously. Sometimes is it provoked artificially.
INTERVIEWER 2: If someone has lots of money, has billions, he can buy science, he can make universities, he can pay anything. Do you know how many collogues, that have the same education as you have work in such firms that make consultants to those who are going for money, going for power, who are on the market? That can be bought? How many percent of skilled people like you, do you think, are working in such organizations? If we would guess?
DESMET: It depends how you define ‘working in such organizations’ I think. But, you know, what is strange—it’s a strange thing—that most psychologists do not really recognize these processes in the present state in this crisis. In this state. It’s very strange, because actually, it took me six months to understand that what we had to do with was a problem of Mass Formation.
From the beginning of the crisis, I noticed there was something, and I noticed that, in one way or another, nobody seemed to see that a lot of the numbers, and the figures about the mortality rates of the virus and stuff, that they were actually radically wrong.
And then, I started to think, like, ‘What is happening here at the psychological level? What, for Christ’s sake, it happening here?’ And it took me until the summer of 2020 before I really figured out this is a problem of Mass Formation! And I had been lecturing about it for three or five years!
So, I think that a lot of the psychologists are aware of what is happening, I’m sure of that. If there are some of my colleagues who are involved, and really intentionally provoking this mass phenomenon—at my faculty—I don’t think so. I know that in Great Briton there are some psychologists that mentioned that they were hired by the government to provoke fear and anxiety during the corona crisis, but I am not aware of similar things in Belgium.
[END TAPE AT 17:12/109:25]
Notes:
Prof. Mattias Desmet: Is the Corona Narrative part of a Totalitarian Mass Hypnosis? Matias Desmet. Stiftung Corona Ausschuss, Oval Media. Video Interview. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://fakeotube.com/video/3788/dr.-reiner-fuellmich—prof.-mattias-desmet-english
The Dr’s Prescription for A Mass Formation Psychosis, Mark Moss, Financial Trends Personality. January 6, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T40SU9kGEb4&list=PLPCDpSSJSnLu_XcSvSiFq7S1EFFn2vWbM&index=1
Editor’s Notes:
Transcript References
EN-1: For another example, the use of antidepressants alone in America almost doubled over the 15year period leading up to 2015 (1999 -2014) from about 8% to about 13% of adults.
EN-2: Discontent was enhanced during the pandemic through the lock-down which caused the withdrawal of things that people enjoyed. Further, the discontent was exhibited during this pandemic by employees refusing to go back to their jobs when they could, and by a mass exodus from the work force by a phenomenal amount of employee quitting their jobs for no other reason than worker dissatisfaction. Mostly, except for lack of fulfillment, this Psychological Discontent was not attached to a specific thing, but their forced hiatus from the work place allowed for time to fully appreciate the discontent they felt with their working lives.
EN-3: An authority may engineer or exploit these conditions, and will use mass media propaganda to complete this two-step process.
EN-4: This impression of the sheer evil attendant to this mass formation psychosis, with its manipulation of cause and effect, and utility value for diabolical ends, is not an isolated one. It has also been observed, to one degree or another, by other social commentators who, while they generally pursue subjects that are outside those of religion and psychology, have nevertheless felt themselves compelled to comment on Mass Formation Psychosis (link).
EN-5: This qualifies as a type of blindness, an induced spiritual blindness (2Cor. 4:4) where the only message with the power to breakthrough it is the power of the author of the Gospel of salvation (Luk 4:18).
EN-6: We see this same ‘narrowing’ of the field of perception take place physiologically in the chemically induced state of people who are experiencing trauma; when the release of adrenaline and other hormones cause tunnel vision in the trauma victim.
On Mass Formation Psychosis:
There is no way a responsible Christian cannot pause for observation here. Not only to acknowledging painful anxiety, but also to dispense its cure. Pause, not only for acknowledging the need for a social bond, but also for calling out the diabolical bond of blind slavery, and for identifying the true social bond of peace. This can be done by making the Road to Emmaus comparison by way of antithesis. Specifically, as it may be illustrated by the condition of mental intoxication.
Intoxication itself is state where, at the outset, a warm, comforting glow is felt as an effect. The intoxicant may even produce a burning sensation within the body. Then, depending on the strength of the intoxicant, a sort of euphoria is experienced as concerns and anxieties are diminished in the mind of the intoxicated. In this state, former inhibitions to actions and beliefs are mitigated, and a person is more likely to be persuaded by what appears, for the time, to be a clearer understanding. Indeed, some report that a clearer mind is obtained by the process for a short duration. Without moderation, people can be manipulated, controlled, and even have their live ruined by this force.
Mental intoxication can be much stronger. It is comparable to hypnosis in its strength and power. Its distillation and use on the manipulated is nothing short of diabolical.
It is the result includes a ‘new kind of sense-making’, which is anti-reasoning. Less than a shadow of a genuine article, it is an imitation.
We see this idea more clearly when we consider that the things of this world are shadows of their express image, or manifestations provided to us to enable us to see and understand more clearly the real power and creative force behind, and responsible for, all of creation (Rom 1:19-20). “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Rom 1:20).
We see other examples of heavenly things expressed on earth as shadows of heavenly things. When Moses built an earthly tabernacle he did so following instructions given from the heavenly tabernacle; his effort being patterned after it (Heb 8:5).
The law was a shadow of the greater things that were to come in Christ, who descended from heaven and who put on an earthly tabernacle, a human body, to redeem men.
Now, notice how powerful an effect that the genuine relief has for psychological distress and anxiety on its recipients.
We meet these two men enroute, traveling form a major city to an outlying suburb. They are without the inner circle, but close enough to have witnessed the events that had transpired over a period of three years, and culminating in such a horrendous end that it left them without the ability to make sense of it all.
The psychology of these men we are now familiar with. Nothing made sense to them. Even though they had some access to reliable, accurate information; a narrative that fully explained what was happening, and why it was happening, they could not see it through the propaganda of their government.
They are psychologically discontent, and they have nowhere, or on no one, to append their tremendous anxiety.
They have recently left the city where their fellow citizens are on lock down, not bending their knees to the government narrative. They refuse to be vaccinated with the government serum of Cesar is King.
They are so out of favor with the government rulers that should they show their faces they risk imprisonment, or worse. Even hordes of their fellow citizens have turned on them, searching them out to report them to the government (Mat 26:69-75). They had followed a man, a great teacher, who worked miracles to heal the sick, give speech to the dumb, and sight to the blind. He held out the promise of being their deliverer, and King. He contradicted the official narrative, and the rulers sought to de-platform him on every level.
His threat to their authority was of the most serious kind. He claimed to possess the cure of everlasting life for those who were conscious of their frail mortal existence, and honest with themselves over the righteous recompense due for their deeds done in this life (those deeds in that secret ledger kept by all that show plainly our deficits are never expunged by our credits).
No longer would the people need to depend on the reconning of rulers to transact their peace. Their mediatorial role in this most high regard was about to be demolished. The legitimacy of their mandates torn asunder.
An innocent man, who acted and spoke with the power and authority of God, had yet been seized by the rulers and brutally excoriated, and executed. Incredibly, three days later, the body of Jesus diapered from the tomb. The contingent of soldiers set to watch his tomb by the rulers experienced an earthquake, and witnessed an angle, his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, rollaway the huge stone form the empty tomb’s opening. They were scared nearly to death.
When the soldiers made it back to the city, they reported to the rulers what they had witnessed. The rulers, desperate to sustain their power over the people, gave each of the soldiers a great sum of money for a bribe. The instructed them to claim that the followers of Jesus came and stole his body while the soldiers slept. A purely desperate and hastily drawn fabrication in light of the fact that the penalty for a soldier falling asleep at his post was death.
All this had transpired to take its heightened effect on the population of free-floating discontent and free-floating anxiety. These men we find walking down Emmaus Road were demoralized. They were nearly one step from the ‘change’ over to the government’s orchestrated mass formation psychosis. Perhaps, if the government can reach them first, they will succumb to the government fermented mental intoxication.
Here is where Jesus, the resurrected Lord, meets them on their journey. He expounds on the writings of Moses and the prophets that detail what the wonderful plan of salvation included for their deliverance. He makes clear that the final sacrifice for their sin must have been made by one who knew no sin who should die in their place on the cross, only to be resurrected from the dead because death could not hold him. Before he parts their company, they constrain him to stay with them by reason of it being of meal time. They are so moved by the revelation of truth they are transformed from a state of anguish to a one of euphoria.
They simply must have his words continue and his presence remain:
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luk 24:30-32; emphasis added).
The word of God is the genuine narrative for the human condition, and the supernatural relief of that condition. By it, the pattern of heavenly things are revealed to us, and even the love of God that brings with it a peace of such power as to surpass our understanding in its awesome effect upon us. There are shadows of it in God’s creation, but they are provided to reveal these heavenly things to us.
Totalitarians will continue to rise up by perverting purposes of God’s creation with the desire of enslaving men in their servitude. At last, the final totalitarian will rise up who is the Anti-Christ who will make no mistake that the goal has always been to make men bow down to worship him as their god. We can see foreshadowing of his arrival on the scene stronger and clearer than at any other time in history. This means the time is short.
What is the cure for Mass Formation Psychosis? It may well take the tact outlined by the good doctor, and by which may be supplied that cure administered by the Gospel.
1) Acknowledge this painful anxiety, but do so by delivering its cure.
What is the cure for free-floating anxiety? It is this:
Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Php 4:6-7; emphasis added)
2) Try to tell people they don’t need this crisis to establish a new social bond, or to deal with psychological problems, but do so by telling them of the other way which is Jesus; the way, the truth, and the life (Joh 14:6). He is the new social bond of unity in peace for all who will hear his voice and be called into a new social body; the body of Christ. In this new bond there awaits the genuine humility of new brothers and sisters who are patient and supportive of one another in love, sharing in the confident expectation of being made worthy of God by the power of His Spirt where with He raised Christ from the dead, and who will also quicken (make alive) our mortal bodies (Eph 4:1-6).
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive forever) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Rom 8:10-11)