Art is a fundamental tool and weapon to the minds of its audience. Through altering the senses and imitating reality, one can manipulate reality itself. This is a powerful alchemy which has consequences to both the consumer and the creator. We will begin with perception:

Ideas do not directly influence reality. Your hands do. Your actions shape the physical world around you. However, an idea, communicated with a proper utilization of the senses can alter your mind and heart, the driving force behind your hands.

Through cooperation, each person aligned with a particular idea set in motion is a force multiplier, adding exponential potential towards altering reality in line with the idea. The most efficient way to distribute an idea usually attacks two senses, sight and sound. Thus media.

Today we will be looking at several mediums of art and entertainment, namely movies, books, and music. All art, information, and entertainment is propaganda. Even if it is aimless and unintentional, all art and media has at least a trace of imprint from its creator.

Especially talented creators will sacrifice a piece of themselves towards their creation. If they align themselves with their work especially well, you will notice a distinct personality change in yourself when consuming the medium and in others. Think about who listens to TOOL.

The same applies to fans of any particular band or movie. Why do we attribute common stereotypes to Jimmy Buffet loving boomers or call Marvel fans soyboys? Their distinctive features come from imprint through consumption. These internal changes lead to secondary physical ones.

This transmogrification is a known and obvious symptom of actual physical consumption (you are what you eat) but not as well known or documented in regards to how the things you watch, read, listen to, play, and enjoy all alter you in serious ways over time.

Creators of ideas to be consumed, say you draw pictures or have a SoundCloud. Perhaps you make YouTube videos or write fanfics. If so you may be wondering how you can excel at creating something that leaves a permanent mental, spiritual, and physical change to your audience.

In order to do this purposefully in a direct manner, you must first have some degree of talent in what you are doing, then you must be experienced through much hard work and repetition until you've mastered your craft. Then comes the hidden esoteric magic of creation: Sacrifice.

Sacrifice is the pendulum which swings the fate of outcome for all mankind. Every single beneficial thing that has ever happened to you is because of some sacrifice, whether it be literal or minor and banal. The Sacrifice of an Artist is rooted in an altered meditative mindset.

Athletes have their own version of this mindset (in the zone) but for a creator, there are many ways to achieve it. The most common "easy path" is through the consumption of narcotics, alcohol, hallucinogens. The "hard path" is a very personal process nobody can explain for you.

Some of the greatest artists, musicians, and writers have an innate ability to tap into this zone and pull out ideas. These ideas are NOT an internal creation, rather a telepathic communication to a vast aether of ideas which humans can barely comprehend in such a state. A muse.

And thus we reach the Soul Imprint. Any creator of an idea must translate the raw abstract energy from the idea he has borrowed from this aether and translate it into something comprehensible to many. Through sacrifice, he rips a piece of himself away to bring it into being.

Mileage may vary, each creator that has excelled at this has had personal issues stemming from the consistent altered state they put themselves in, sometimes leading to their death, or worse, their loss of an ability to create something exceptional.

Drugs are not a magical secret to becoming talented. Mediocre people become even more insufferable and mediocre when they are high or drunk. But the exceptionally talented, with chemical assistance, have produced some of the greatest works of art you yourself may have enjoyed.

Stephen King’s best books were written when he was a cough syrup abusing drunk. Apocalypse Now was filmed in a nightmarish jungle cocaine haze. Michael Kirkbride went missing and was found in a trailer naked with a bottle of whiskey and cigarettes high on peyote writing Morrowind

Philip K Dick wrote A Scanner Darkly as a true story about how he depersonalized addicted to amphetamines. The best albums from the Beatles are thanks to doing LSD. Hemingway was a drunk. Scorsese was a coke addict. Drugs are NOT the only way to reach this state however.

The fundamental process for creating something great need not include drugs whatsoever. Stanley Kubrick was adamantly against doing drugs. Roger Waters never once took drugs while the leadman for Pink Floyd, entirely because of watching Syd Barrett fall apart on narcotics.

Now that one has established the necessity of an altered state to reach the aether of creativity from which one must pull an idea, now we reach the implications of imitation and its consequences on the audience. We will begin with theater.

Ancient Romans understood the dangerous power of imitators. They would praise actors on stage yet when they walked the streets, they would spit on them and throw rotten produce at them because they possessed the means to overthrow social order. A powerful and correct assertion.

Through the process of imitating something, you mantle its essence and temporarily possess the authority and image of whatever you imitate. The talent of the imitator, guided with sensory manipulation (special effects) can create a living god on a screen.

Edward Bernays, brother of Sigmund Freud, and considered the pioneer of propaganda, once wrote that the relative size of an image on a screen correlates to the viewer's impression and influence. This is why movies in theaters will always seem better than on a TV or your phone.

Mass manipulation has given way to a less theatrical but more reliable form of idea propogation: Repetition. While not as impressive as the theater screen, your TV’s, laptops, and phones enjoy a relentless barrage of content from Digital Streaming Services.

The extent of propaganda in entertainment is as old as entertainment itself, especially film. Hidden messages in movies serve an open purpose and a secret purpose, spoken in different languages on screen. The open purpose is manipulation of the public consciousness.

This manipulation has become brazen and unsubtle, due to mediocrity from nepotism in writer's rooms in Hollywood and elsewhere. But it was always there. Whenever a character is given aesthetic imagery, calm demeanor, and good tone while doing horrible things, that is programming.

Furthermore, you will see characters who are painted as antagonistic, but because they are played too well, written too well, or simply the truth of what is trying to be villainized shines through the manipulation, they become fan favorites and are accidentally emulated sometimes

The final manipulation may even be accidental but it serves a valuable purpose for media manipulation: Acclimation to Mediocrity. By movies, books, music, and video games becoming shittier over time, younger audiences adapt a taste for mediocrity, making media easy to produce.

The secret purpose involves a degree of mysticism but it is the Sacrifice of Revelation. Sometimes a work of art will eerily predict a major event or trend occurring years or decades later, long after the media is forgotten from public consciousness.

This serves the purpose of acclimating the population to the preposterous nature of some escalation in their society or tragic event, lessening their eventual reaction to a familiar malaise, rather than a natural human unpredictable backlash. But there is also a magic purpose...

Imitation of an event in a particular manner can prevent an event from occurring. Imitation of an event can also ensure this event WILL happen. The differing outcomes involve a ritual magic symbolism unknown to the average person. But examples of this magic are present in history

The most prominent example is Preventative Theater, practiced by the Native American Iroquois Huron and Seneca tribes in the northeastern United States. They would wear masks and imitate their dreams in order to satiate them, lest they be struck by disease or misfortune.

However there is a twin effect of manifesting reality through imitation of it. Many of you may understand the power of positive visualization. Now imagine if you had a specific outcome of events you wanted to come true, but you had hundreds of millions of people to visualize it.

Movies time and time again have "predicted" events or trends coming true over time. Yet when you have a nation that essentially worships entertainment, you have an entire country of people unwittingly participating in magic rituals which creators have sway over the direction in.

Someone materialist or close minded may reflexively cringe at the idea of "magic" but keep in mind that a magician is primarily an illusionist, someone presenting to you a carefully crafted lie to trick you into believe something which is not. This is the crux of creation.

I use movies as an example because I am most familiar with them and they arguably have the largest effect on the population. But all media you consume does this. The music you listen to, the books you read, the games you play, even paintings you like. Be aware of what you consume