High Ranking Master 33rd Degree FREEMASON Discusses TV PROGRAMMING | Manly P. Hall
".. I THINK In The PROBLEM Of TELEVISION We Have A LESSON That We MIGHT Give A Lot Of THOUGHT To THESE Days ..
.. MAN Is A THINKING Creature .. He Should NOT Be Brought Up By A TRAINER Like A DOG .. He Should NOT Be Taught ONLY To OBEY .. He Should NOT Be FED Because He OBEYS .. He Should NOT Have A Life Of LUXURY, Perhaps, Because He HAPPENS To OBEY A RICH Person .. The ACTUAL Problem Is That The HUMAN BEING Has A MIND That Was GIVEN To Him To THINK With ..
.. It Was An ACTIVE Organ, An ORGAN To Do SOMETHING .. MOST People In VARIOUS Fields Of ACTIVITY Never PARTICIPATE In Those PRACTICES And POLICIES Which STRETCH The Mental POWER And MAKE It Do THINGS That We WANT It To Do .. In The MODERN World We TRAIN The MIND By EDUCATION To Give Us A PROFESSION Or A TRADE Or A CRAFT or MEMBERSHIP In A UNION Or WHATEVER It May Be ..
.. We LISTEN To The INSTRUCTION, We GET The JOB, We STAY With The JOB, And In ALL This PROCEDURE We Have Done Very Little THINKING .. We Have FOLLOWED Policy, We Have OBEYED Rules, We Have DONE What The BOSS Told Us To And We MAY Have Taken A Few SPECIAL Courses In COMPUTERIZATION Or SOMETHING Of That NATURE, But The REAL Creative FACULTIES Of The MIND Have NOT Been USED At ALL ..
.. So At The END Of ONE Of These HARROWING Days, We Come HOME And SIT Down In Front Of The TELEVISION And PERHAPS Spend Anywhere From 2-6 HOURS Watching WHAT?? .. We're NOT Watching ANYTHING That Was Going To MAKE Us Really THINK A Good Deal .. IF It's An EDUCATIONAL Program It'll Be Turned OFF Very QUICKLY ..
..We Watch SPORTS, We LISTEN To The NEWS - Which Is USUALLY Highly Influenced POLITICALLY .. We Go Through A Few HORROR Dramas, WESTERNS, A Few Very POOR Humor PROGRAMS And Then SETTLE Down to The GREAT Run Of FAMILY Epics In Which We Learn NOTHING But May CHOOSE 1 or 2 Characters To PULL For Because They SEEM To Create SYMPATHY ..
.. And 1 or 2 Whom We Love To HATE Because We Don't LIKE Them .. Now This CONSTITUTES A Big INTELLECTUAL Experience And By The TIME We've FINISHED With That We're So EXHAUSTED We FALL Into BED .. In The DAY Time We Have ALL Kinds Of DOMESTIC Programs .. PROGRAMS Which MAY Or May NOT Bare Upon Any FACTUAL Situation ..
..We MAY Have A Few INSTRUCTIVE Ones On NON-Commercial PROGRAMMING But We LISTEN, We WATCH, And Then We Just Go OUT And Get A Cold BEER Or Something Of This NATURE .. NOTHING Happens UPSTAIRS In OURSELVES! .. NOTHING Is Being DEVELOPED As A FACTOR In The GROWTH Of OUR Own THINKING .. We're NOT Thinking And If We Are THINKING, We're Not DOING Anything About It Because MOST Of The THOUGHTS Are NON-FACTUAL ..
.. So, Here We GO All THROUGH An Entire LIFETIME Surrounded By All TYPES Of INFORMATION Which We Accept ONLY Through The EYES And EARS And WHEN The TIME Comes We Do Very LITTLE To SOLVE Our Own PROBLEMS .. If We Get SICK We Go To A DOCTOR And MAYBE We Will Do What He RECOMMENDS And If We Do Not LIKE What He RECOMMENDS We'll Get FURTHER Advice On The SUBJECT ..
..But ACTUALLY We Have INSIDE Of OURSELVES A MIND That Does Not Become HEALTHY Unless It Is EXERCISED And EXERCISE Is USE!..EXERCISE Is Not SITTING And WATCHING, Exercise Is Not READING .. EXERCISE Is THINKING .. THINKING With The FACULTIES That We POSSESS And Which We Are SUPPOSED To ENRICH Every DAY Of Our LIVES .. EVERYTHING That HAPPENS To Us Has SOME Kind Of MEANING But We ACCEPT It Through The EARS Or The EYES And It FADES Away ..
..The MIND Is Not INVOLVED In The PROCESS Of Personal GROWTH In MOST Cases .. We USE The MIND Only As A COMPUTER Or As A Machine NEVER As A CREATIVE Or THINKING Equipment .. So SOMEWHERE Along This LINE We Have To FACE What We Might TERM A GRADUAL Deterioration Of The MENTAL POWERS Within OURSELVES .. And This DETERIORATION Is Very OBVIOUS In SOCIETY As We KNOW It TODAY ..
..We Are NOT Doing As GOOD A JOB Of LIVING, THINKING, ACTING As Our ANCESTORS Did .. We Have CREATED A SITUATION In Which THOUGHTS Are LIABLE To DESTROY Us RATHER Than PROTECT Us .. And In The FACE Of This We SETTLE Back INTO A Daily ROUTINE In Which The GROWTH Of Our Own INNER Life Is VERY Much WEAKENED .. When We Get A Man WORKING For An OLYMPIC Gold We FIND Him EXERCISING Every DAY And The RESULT Of His EXERCISE Is That His BODY Becomes MORE And MORE An INSTRUMENT Of His PURPOSES, He Gains CONTROL Of HIMSELF ..
.. A PERSON Whose MIND Is Being Used EVERY Day To Find New VALUES , Do NEW Things That Have NOT Been DONE, IMPROVE The QUALITY Of LIVING, SOLVE The PERSONAL Problems Of HIS Life .. THESE Are The Things That HELP To EXERCISE The MIND .. The CREATIVE Thinker Is A Person SELDOM Seen Or MET .."
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Full Lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIq94...
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Manly Palmer Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990) was an author, lecturer, philosopher, 33rd° freemason, scholar, astrologer and mystic.
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