Spotting Evil
so we can thwart its reach
Trump received an awful lot of heat for this comment, but gosh, it resonated with me. So much so that I've been wanting it embroidered on a sweatshirt —
I’m going to protect them, whether they like it or not.
As someone who has been tasked with this challenge, I can tell you that it's not easy battling the evils that others don't yet acknowledge or see. There's a physical, psychological, and emotional burden to spotting the dangers of evil and demons before anyone else does. It's even harder when others perceive them but won't admit they exist.
Since my mom's death, which was very much perpetrated by the reach of evil, I've been asking myself a series of questions —
Why do some people see evil while others don't?
What makes people embrace evil mistaking it for good?
What are the attributes of those who recognize evil?
Why do those who do see it remain silent?
Ignoring evil doesn't make it go away.
The term evil gets thrown around a lot these days. It's another word that is so overused that it has lost its meaning — not an accident. Five years ago I barely used it. Then it showed its face, and I've been unable to look away.
Evil is defined as "profoundly immoral and wicked" or "profound immorality and wickedness, especially when regarded as a supernatural force." Yep, that tracks.
Dare I say the main issue at hand is that EVIL IS EVERYWHERE. We are so inundated by it that we've lost our perspective. We're worn down and numb. The outlandish and perverse has become the everyday. The profundity is no longer profound.
We've pushed the window of acceptability so wide open that we're about to fall out of it. Some already have.
This was readily apparent as I watched the final episode of the horrific series Cross. After seven episodes of brutal torture, murder, stalking, abuse, kidnapping, and more, the eighth episode begins with a warning, "This episode contains storylines that include suicide or suicide ideation. Viewer discretion is advised." That's where they draw the line!? The entire show centers around a serial killer having a woman trapped in his basement, but sure, suicide requires an intro card.
I've spent the past couple of days breaking down the points of connection that prime fans of Sabrina Carpenter and Doja Cat and horror movies to have their energy harvested, all of this under the guise of entertainment. It's far from it. This is evil knowingly sucking the marrow of life from the living. We've been told that up is down and down is up so many times that it's no wonder that people can't get their bearings.
The solution is simpler than we think. It's relearning to trust our intuition.
How does one do that? We readily start admitting to the frequency of lies. Double entendre intended! Lies hum like a failing overhead florescent light. They slowly drive you mad while you simultaneously endeavor to tune out the noise. AND… lies are everywhere. We're so swamped with them that our nervous systems are constantly on the verge of collapse.
In addition to the lies that are overt, we've been beaten into doing and saying the socially acceptable thing instead of what is true or factually based. We're told that words are violence and that questioning someone's pronouns will result in suicidal attempts. How fragile must your worldview be to crumble at some poking and prodding? I can speak to this personally.
Do you think that the world readily accepts those who claim to speak to galactic beings and ghosts? They do not. So the heck what! I know that what I perceive is true no matter how many people question it or tell me that I'm doing the Devil's work. Opinions of strangers on the internet or even people who know me in my day-to-day life do not dissuade me from my internal knowing. If your view of yourself is so precarious that someone can topple it in an instant, the answer isn't to point your fingers at others. Look inward first.
I've been hit on by men and women throughout my life. The whole Midwestern friendliness thing is often confused for flirting. Do I question my own sexuality? No. I take the overtures for the compliment they are, regardless of gender. When someone mistakes me as a man seeing only my short hair, do I fume with rage? Of course not. I'm secure in who I am. Being called sir does not change that.
Yet we're told to walk on eggshells so as not to upset the apple cart or those around us. Fine in theory, but it doesn't work. We slowly erode our own sense of the world and intuition at the alter of political correctness. This has incredibly real consequences.
Mainly, we're no longer listening to our own internal guidance mechanism and are abandoning it for the hypothetical of what may please someone else. It's a lose-lose situation where no one's best interests are served.
Personal protection and security expert Gavin de Becker often shares the scenario of a woman stepping onto an elevator as he addresses "the gift of fear" when interviewed — his conversations with Mike Rowe and Joe Rogan are both worth watching. The story goes something like this — a woman is working after hours. She's the last one in the office. As she finally wraps up her day, she steps into an empty elevator corral. When the elevator arrives, there's a man in it that makes the tiny hairs all over her body stand on end. She knows with every fiber of her being that somethings is amiss. But the man is [insert minority group], and she doesn't want to appear racist. She ignores all of the alarm bells going off in her body and mind and steps onto the elevator anyway. Consequently she is raped or murdered or comes to some other unwanted end.
She overrode her built in mechanism of protection in order to save face and avert the possibility of offending someone. The truth is, none of it was about race, yet that was her undoing. As de Becker puts it, "True fear doesn't want to negotiate… fear is a signal that is there to protect you." Unfortunately we've tamped this instinct down and drowned out the signals with constant anxiety that attempts to imitate the signals of true fear.
We see this play out in episode two of Cross when the victim and the serial killer first meet. Having connected on an online dating app, Shannon and Josh have their initial date at a coffee shop. The exchange goes like this —
Josh: Shannon? I'm Josh.
Shannon: You don't look like Josh.
Josh: Sorry. I don't mean to throw you for a loop. Here's the thing, I can't put my real photos on those apps because the work that I do, the spotlight can be harsh.
Shannon: Yeah. Bullshit. Why do married men always do this?
Josh: I'm not married. My last girlfriend, the pressure got really intense, and it's just easier if I keep my private life private.
Shannon: Bet that's bullshit too. Hey, you know if you're going to catfish people, you should get a better story. [stands to leave]
Josh: Wait. Wait. Wait. Listen. I'm sorry. I should have been honest. Okay. I should have been. Before you go will you at least let me buy you breakfast? You can ask me anything you want, and if after that you never want to see me again, I totally get it. [prolonged pause] Look, you're already here. What's it going to hurt?
Shannon: Fine, Josh.
Ignoring those initial cues to get the heck out of there ultimately lands Shannon locked in the basement of a serial killer. She absolutely should have listened to her first instinct not to trust him. Yes, this might be a somewhat overblown example, but it's also an excellent depiction of how easy it is to override your intuition and natural instincts. Her initial response was, "Bullshit," as she stood to leave the restaurant. It wasn't until he played on her weakness of not wanting to judge or condemn that she was cajoled into changing her mind.
This is why I strongly stand by my stance that judgment is a wonderful thing. It too is part of our natural protection mechanisms that lead us away from danger. Tuning it out through the modern idiom of "don't judge" primes us to be manipulated. If everything is fair game, there are no guard rails against unwanted actions or activities. That screams danger, danger, danger to me.
Evil won because it feigned innocence, as it often does.
So what allows you to spot evil and then acknowledge it? It's not religion, at least not entirely. If that were the case, the Catholic Church wouldn’t be the pedophilic mess that it is. Holy wars wouldn't exist. It's not spirituality. Cults would be few and far between if that were the protection required.
My theory, it's knowing who you are unequivocally.
You see your strengths and your faults. You own them. You work to improve both. You're willing to see the world as it is because you understand how you fit into it. You're strong in your convictions because you've come to them honestly but hold room for others to disagree. You have an open heart but rock hard boundaries because you love humanity yet understand the stakes.
Having been through the wringer can help or hinder. Then there are those who have seen clearly from the start. Often others try to beat this out of them through social conditioning. Been there. Done that. It took me years to rebuild my confidence in myself.
I'm not advocating for unnecessary bluntness or the total abandonment of tact. There's a difference between honesty and rudeness. You don't have to say everything that you think. Part of the woke mind virus is to state things under the auspice of care and concern when the actual intent is cruelty. Yet another inversion.
The role of giving voice to the insanity of our times cannot fall to a lone few.
The crux of all of this comes back to personal responsibility. It's amazing how much of what Gavin de Becker says while speaking with Mike Rowe echoes Milton Friedman in his work Free to Choose, even though they're discussing wildly different topics. The more government intervention and overreach exists, the less people take responsibility for their own communities and lives. This will be the downfall of society.
Recognizing demons and recognizing evil sometimes means you cross the street so that you don't engage with it. Sometimes it means you speak out. Sometimes it means you have to take action. The thing is, people aren't simply offloading personal responsibility for their lives onto the government. They make other people carry the load for them as well.
I watched for years as people came to my mom to unload their complaints onto her and ask her to fight battles on their behalf. She was fierce and outspoken and willing to be disliked. The same traits that won her unflinching friendships made her the enemy of those who wished to cloak themselves in lies. But the people who wished her to voice their concerns for them were full of cowardice. They weren't willing to face the slings and arrows that went along with others objecting to their beliefs. This all fell to my mom. Those weren't her battle wounds to endure.
It sucks to see darkness where others don't. It costs you friendships and opportunities. You might even get fired for it. That said, the stakes are worth it. You'll be able to look yourself in the mirror and sleep at night. The people who ultimately find you will be filled with integrity. Maybe this is what people should mean when they talk about agency in your life.
Passivity is a tool of evil. The false notion that everything will sort itself out and that God has a plan ignores one key component — you. You need to act. Burying your head in the sand changes nothing. It allows evil to go unchecked.
It’s one thing to not see the dangers. It’s altogether different to know they exist and ignore them.
Action takes many forms. We're not all meant to stand on the street with a megaphone. It can be a quiet conversation amongst friends or a heated debate at a local PTA meeting. Most of all, it requires trusting your instincts unequivocally.
You can’t wait for the perfect rhythm of the Double Dutch. You have to jump in and risk getting tangled in the ropes. This means not using joy as a numbing mechanism. Let's not mistake real joy for the pretend kind, the one that masks real emotion. The same goes for anger. If you're supplanting one emotion for another, what aren't you willing to acknowledge or feel? What are you hiding? Why are you lying to yourself?
How else are you numbing yourself to life? Booze? Drugs? Sex? There are so many tools at our disposal these days. I imagine that evil does a little dance each time someone picks up a blunt to zone out from the day. Check! That one's not a threat.
Tucker Carlson launches an impassioned argument for the benefits of sobriety in a recent post-election no holds barred interview —
It's such a thrill to be sober. It's not that hard actually. And if you're not sober, you're never going to achieve the purpose for which you were created. That's just a fact. You're not, and it makes you weak.
This is what evil doesn't want us to know. We are most potent when we are fully alive.
While this seems obvious, this isn't the way that most people are living their lives. I'm not sober (in the AA sense that Tucker means), though I rarely drink. I used alcohol to drown out the presence of ghosts through most of my twenties and realized there had to be another way. Facing the world without an intoxicated view is far more rewarding. What if sober also means seeing with clear eyes and an unburdened mind? What if it's about calling a spade a spade? I sound like the football team going onto the field in Friday Night Lights, "Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose." But it's true. Evil hasn't a clue what to do with that.
Truth is a superpower.
Honesty is one of the most unwavering energetic frequencies that exists. All others tune to it or spin out in total chaos. We're watching that as we speak.
Still wondering how to regain trust in your intuition? This is the roadmap.
Be honest with yourself, others, and the internal signals that you receive. Don't drown out your inner wisdom for social acceptability. You're cutting yourself off at the knees. Seek truth and understanding. The two almost always go hand in hand. Leave the door open to reevaluating and changing your mind. Eliminate lies entirely. With them you're building on quicksand.
The best part, people always know where you stand because you're unwavering.
Honesty and truth are always at your disposal. Intuition is prewired. Now it's up to you to strip away everything that has been distorting those incredible assets that are right there waiting for you. Claim your superpowers.
Eager for more thoughts on the thwarting of evil?
P.S. If you chose to watch the recent Tucker interview, completely ignore the checked out audience. Their body language doesn't even try to hide their distain for being in the room with him. The video editor clearly loathes Tucker. It baffles me that this was cut and released in its current form. My dad even wrote the founder of Genius Network, the host of this interview, voicing these very observations. You know what he received in return? A note from a staffer saying that his read was totally wrong and that the audience was enthusiastic and engaged. In other words, he was told to ignore what was in front of his very eyes.
Thank you so much for sending this email. I was in the room and can tell you the energy was high and our feedback from those in attendance some of the highest we have received. I watched the video again and perhaps since I was there have a different take, one of focus, not boredom.
Nonetheless, I can assure you that Genius Network Members are some of the most engaging, giving and high achievers found in a single community.
The irony of all of this is that it perfectly proves a point that Tucker makes during the interview, trust the sniff test. If it doesn't smell right, you'll know. Don't eat that expired meal. Don't trust the person who makes you involuntarily sneer. Trust your dog senses. We know instantly how we feel about someone or something, yet we've been socially conditioned to override that intuitive knowing.
We fall prey to wanting to know the why behind our instincts or overriding them with intellectualization. We try to be nice when we should really aspire to be kind. What’s more, there are those who have been tricked into seeing danger where it does not exist while ignoring that which is in front of them. We want evil to be dark and ugly so that we can blatantly point and say, "There it is!!" It's not. It sounds like emails that try to convince you not to trust your own eyes.
“Recognizing demons and recognizing evil sometimes means you cross the street so that you don't engage with it.”
The battle is real. 😅 I almost fell for it last night.
A possessed-by-something person threw open a cafe door, mumbled something and violently threw a book across the floor. It slide directly in front of me. Everyone who witnessed it was in a WTF state. I wanted to help the staff by picking it up off the floor. But then I realized it was a perfectly timed trap, and touching the book would have resulted in getting hit with a dose of poison. Thank goodness I stopped myself. 😅
So much of what you share has helped me understand the world we can’t see, and how to navigate it. Glad you are sharing publicly again girl!! 🙌🏼
So much powerful information here, Libby. A roadmap in these times to your own center and how to live from that place amongst all that is. 🤍