Changing Images of Man

1982 book by O. W. Markley and Willis W. Harman

Changing Images of Man is a high-level systems science text, an instruction for elites engaged in government, foundations, think tanks, and intelligence operations.

The study’s is predicated on the assumptions that there is a crisis of overpopulation, and realising a desirable future path for humanity requires fundamental changes in industrial culture, challenging the existing conceptual premises, attitudes, and ethics.

The book charts conceptual changes "needed" to guide society toward a benign post-industrial future. This involves the candid objective of retooling and re-engineering the worldview of Western man, especially American man, through social engineering.

The core strategy is the manipulation of archetypes and archetypal images to institute a new worldview. Research fields spanning behavioural studies, hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, and sensory deprivation informed the creation of this textbook.

Industrial era has left man alienated, displacing cosmological mysteries with cold rationality. Therefore, the book advocates for the societal reintegration of man as a piece of the ecological society, necessitating a move away from the patriarchal, Eurasian heritage toward an ecological-based religion promoting gender equality and Feminism.

The Genesis of a New Worldview

This calls for a comprehensive transformation of economic man, science, ecology, evolution, by _Changing Images of Man_, and establishing of a new worldview and ethic designed to guide society towards a beneficial post-industrial future.

A fundamental shift requires fundamental changes in industrial culture, challenging existing conceptual premises, ethics, and attitudes in light of the complex, interconnected global macro-problem, where current societal problems are intrinsically linked to the industrial era’s structure and the reductionistic paradigm of science, which are unresolvable without a fundamental shift in perspective.

The goal involves charting the changes necessary for this benign transition. The project is focused on retooling and re-engineering the worldview of Western man, regarding his view of himself and society.

This shift is deemed essential because the industrial state, despite its material successes, is poorly suited to providing man with meaning; the resulting alienation and displacement of cosmological mysteries by cold rationality mandate the reintegration of man to his sources of meaning.

Engineering the New Paradigm

These assessments are partially correct, Western man has lost his way, and lacks meaning, and should be turning back to Christianity to reclaim his way. Yet the elites hate the individualism of Christianity and desire a more pliable population.

Instead the central strategy employed to institute this new worldview is the manipulation of archetypes and archetypal images through social engineering.

This re-engineering effort drew on extensive research fields, including hypnosis, behavioural studies, psychotropic drugs, sensory deprivation, studies of authoritarianism, group dynamics, and esoteric religious teachings.

The intention is to shift society from its current trajectory, a system where micro-decisions based on prevailing rules lead to detrimental macro-decisions, to one where micro-decisions align with beneficial collective outcomes.

This involves promoting awareness of the unavoidable nature of the transformation, constructing a guiding vision of a workable society, and fostering the systematic exploration of man's inner life.

Core Characteristics of the New Ethic

This emergent image of mankind must satisfy several stringent requirements, each shrinking the role of the individual, and instead promoting the collective:

1. A Holistic Sense of Perspective A holistic perspective and understanding of life is vital to regaining a sense of meaningful purpose and integration across the level of self, society, and the universe. This perspective is designed to reintegrate man as a piece of the ecological society.
2. An Ecological Ethic This ethic requires an eschatology, and coming together around an end-of-days scenario that requires limiting our resources, portraying the human as an integral part of the natural world, working together to save the world.
3. A Self-Realisation Ethic This ethic is meant to invert the man-over-nature ethic and the material-growth-and-consumption ethic, which are attributed to having generated many problems due to preoccupation with selfish, material ends on a finite planet.
4. Integrative and Multi-Dimensional Nature The new image of Man must incorporate the concept of the transcendental. They understand that having something above man which bind him is key to a stable society.

The new image must integrate and reinterpret these successful historical images for a globalised populus without being in direct opposition to existing images.

1. Evolutionary and Open-Ended The new image must be experimental, avoiding dogmatic and paradigm-bound attitudes. It must portray the person and human culture as growing elements in an evolving cosmos, fostering the view of man-as-(in)-process.

Religious and Social Reframing

The effort seeks a new religious sentiment - a new constructed religion of Perennialism.

This new system requires the discarding of the patriarchal White Eurasian heritage. The shift advocates for an ecological-based religion that actively promotes feminism and gender equality to bring more Feminisation of society and religion.

Ancient Eastern societies are much more collectivist and more complient, so Hindus, yogis, and practitioners of Daoism, are identified as ideal religions for the future post-industrial world. The theological concept of the mystical body of Christ is necessary to resuscitate, though reframed as the mystical body of mankind one with nature, devoid specifically of Christian attribution.

Crucially, the new image aims to transform American society from an individualist one—a trait deemed the main issue with Americanism—into a collectivist institution and society. Strategies directed toward this goal include demasculinisation and the promotion of the feminine/goddess ideal. Man must be re-engineered to understand, through social conditioning, that he is a member of the whole and a piece of the ecological society.

The central goal is ultimately predicated on promoting a new understanding of man’s existence where survival depends on the behaviour of the whole species, emphasising co-operation over competition, and stressing the survival of the wisest over the physically fittest.

Conceptual Retooling and Social Engineering

The project of re-engineering the human psyche to align micro-decisions with desired collective macro-decisions draws upon extensive research across various specialised fields.

Hypnosis and Altered States:

Research on hypnosis, self-hypnosis, and hypnotic phenomena is integrated into the social engineering framework. Deep states of hypnosis are not required for many effects, suggesting that self-suggestion can be widely employed.

Systematic explorations of man’s inner life and subjective experience is promoted, manipulating conscious processes using techniques like biofeedback and altered states of consciousness. The expansion of awareness is explicitly fostered to enhance personal and cultural evolution.

Behavioural Modification:

Behavioural studies and behavioural engineering are foundational to their undertaking. Techniques such as operant conditioning are studied for their efficiency in understanding and controlling behaviour.

The aim is to systematically shape human behaviour, under the guise of securing the survival of the culture, although this necessitates "casting off mentalistic concepts such as [[Free Will]] and consciousness".

Psychotropic Agents:

The use of psychotropic drugs and psychedelic drugs, alongside sensory deprivation, was investigated for their role in consciousness research and their ability to induce altered states.

Group Dynamics and Authority Studies:

Research into group dynamics and studies of authoritarianism and prejudice, including the tendency to view others in terms of stereotypes, are cited as critical influences in understanding and managing human behaviour and social expectations.

Subliminal and Suggestive Influence:

Conditioning techniques, including subliminal persuasion, are also recognised as ways to achieve transformation. The power of imagining and autosuggestion are highlighted, resting on the basic law that every idea entering the conscious mind and accepted by the Unconscious is transformed into a reality and becomes a permanent element in life.

Technological Mechanisms of Control

The feasibility of implementing widespread social change is supported by the existence of developing psycho-technologies capable of controlling and shaping the individual.

• Directed Conditioning: The implementation of objectively constructed reinforcement patterns in adult life and directed emotional conditioning in childhood.
• Neurological Intervention: The use of remotely activated electrodes in the brain (electrocranial stimulation) and electrical brain implants are recognised as powerful methods for understanding and controlling behaviour, having been studied in connection with figures such as Jose Delgado and B. F. Skinner.
• Genetic Modification: The potential use of modifying genetic makeup to activate different human potentials.
• Surveillance: Sophisticated electronic surveillance mechanisms are listed as a means to detect aberrant behaviour patterns.

These efficient psycho-technologies, which could shape and modify behaviour and motivational states, might lead to a form of friendly Fascism, a managed society built upon technocratic ideology, where man is viewed as a sophisticated machine whose behaviour should be shaped efficiently for the benefit of the collective.

The transformation of the human image relies heavily upon social engineering and paradigm warfare. The strategies detailed utilise research from MK Ultra physicians and behavioural psychologists, to alter human consciousness through operant conditioning and physical control of the mind.

To prevent the dystopian brutality associated with _1984_, the intended social order resembles _Brave New World_, employing mass behaviour-changing drugs and controlled social structures to maintain order within a technocratic framework.

Institutional and Ideological Strategy

The engineering of the new worldview is pursued through various strategic interventions across institutions and social values:

• Transformation of the Individualist Ethos:

A central requirement is the transformation of Western society from an individualist entity into a collectivist institution and society, addressing the overemphasis on individualism.

• Demasculinisation and Feminism:

Strategies directed towards collectivism include the promotion of the feminine/goddess ideal and demasculinisation in the West. The effort advocates for an ecological-based Perennialism that actively promotes feminism and gender equality to invert the patriarchy.

• Pedagogical and Institutional Capture:

The text operates as a high-level systems science textbook intended for elites in government, think tanks, foundations, and intelligence operations, ensuring the new ideology influences institutional thought leaders. Institutions like churches and synagogues have become tools of social justice, requiring the capture of their engine and soft power to steer them towards the creation of new archetypes and images.

Guiding the Transition:

Strategies for the transition are facilitative, seeking to foster naturally emerging patterns to minimise social disruption:

1. Promoting the idea of the unavoidability of the transformation.
2. Fostering the construction of a guiding vision of a workable society compatible with the new image and paradigm.
3. Encouraging a politics of righteousness and a heightened sense of public responsibilities in the private sector.
4. Planning adequate social controls for the transition period while safeguarding against longer-term losses of freedom.

The Obsolescence of the Economic Man

Economically, the text prescribes a move towards stakeholder capitalism, which is a euphemism for a new form of socialism characterised by strictly enforced limits on growth and population stagnation.

This ecological ethic demands the erasure of national borders in favour of planetary citizenship, where corporate entities supersede the authority of the nation-state.

Ultimately, symbols such as the all-seeing eye are appropriated to represent the new aeon of a holistic, monitored global society.

The Imperative for a New Ethic

The new ethic required for the future comprises two primary components:

1. Ecological Ethic: This ethic positions the human as an integral part of the natural world - a cog in a greater wheel - and emphasises the oneness of the human race and the total community of nature over man.
2. Self-Realisation Ethic: This ethic holds that the highest value lies in the development of selfhood, asserting that the proper end of individual experience is the evolutionary development of the emergent self.

Man must be re-engineered through social conditioning to make him think that he is not an individual, but a member of the whole, necessitating his reintegration as a piece of the ecological society.

Survival is deemed dependent upon the behaviour of the whole species, shifting the emphasis from competition to co-operation, and stressing the survival of the wisest over the physically fittest.

The systematic exploration of man’s inner life, through techniques like self-hypnosis and consciousness research, is promoted to aid personal and cultural evolution.

Principal Architects and Advisers

The text's intellectual authority is drawn from an extensive network of academics and influential figures. Willis W. Harman and O. W. Markley served as Project Supervisor and Project Director, respectively.

The Advisory Panel, which offered helpful formative suggestions and critiques, included notable figures such as Rene Dubos, Henry Margenau, Margaret Mead, and Sir Geoffrey Vickers.

Major contributors to the report included Joseph Campbell, noted for being heavily freemasonic influenced, and Floyd Matson. Furthermore, the behaviourist school played a key role in the book's production. B. F. Skinner and Carl Rogers were involved.

The work also draws upon the concepts of prominent globalist figures, including Jonas Salk, whose work The Survival of the Wisest is an important text advocating the necessity for the scientific elite to engage in mass depopulation due to resource scarcity.