THE "WAR ON EVIL'

DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF EVIL

 By Edward Winchester

United States Military Objectives for War:  

War planners are trained to begin every military exercise by asking "the right questions" about military objectives. The importance of correctly defining military objectives was emphasized to me when I first reported to the Pentagon in 1968 as an Air Force operations research officer.  On this point President George W. Bush stated clearly and unequivocally that the military objective for U.S. and allied military forces is a “war on evil” to eliminate the evils of terrorism. However, the stategy for eliminating evil is flawed.

The Taliban, Al Qaeda, and radical religious militants were seen as perpetrators of evil.  In a State of the Union Message President Bush warned that in the next stage of operations he intended to broaden the scope of the war to include an "evil axis" of nations threatening peace and stability in the civilized world. 

The enemies of the United States on the other hand have a similar objective.  Their objective is to eliminate evils, which they see in the United States.  The mutual objective of the United States and of terrorists is to eliminate evil.  Terrorists declared a so-called holy war or “jihad” against the United States. A holy war is different than conventional warfare because it introduces theological and spiritual elements into the war making process.

U.S. military forces including military chaplains and civilian leaders at the Pentagon typically lack the knowledge and skills needed to respond to “jihad’ or holy war.  Pentagon authorities also lack any capability for Spiritual Defense. There is no Secretary of Spiritual Defense” to address the root causes of "evil" even within the military. 

Is “evil” a religious belief only, or is there some other reality which gives rise to it? What is “evil?”  Where does evil originate? What is the nature of that which inspires fanatics and misguided individuals to commit evil acts of killing and torture and violence in the name of God? Should so-called civilized and God fearing nations respond to attacks with more violence and by sanctioning the evil that war is?  Is there such a thing as a necessary war? Or, are some people essentially evil, so that the solution is simply to get rid of them completely?  Modern war planners have no directives and instructions for dealing with these issues. People are looking in the wrong places for answers to those questions. There are better ways than combat and humanitarian relief programs to win the minds and hearts of adversaries.  Once again the goal should be: Changing Perspectives on Global Security By Changing Consciousness.

In the final analysis neither those who support war with Iraq, nor peace activists opposed to war have clearly and accurately defined and identified the root causes of evil which give rise to all the problems addressed by countless congressional inquiries, investigations, audit reports, and special studies.  The Department of Defense urgently needs a new strategy for combat effectiveness in the case of spiritual warfare. Military forces need to know how to maneuver on the Battlefield of Consciousness. Professional war planners need to recognize that adversaries can be transformed rather than killed.  There is in fact something more mysterious that blinds minds and hearts. The most succinct and relevant answer is that it is cognitive dissonance and the lack of eugenic radiance that dulls individual consciousness causing a lack of wisdom and vision.  That condition in turn leads to unwise decisions and paths of destruction.

Analysis: What Is "Evil" ?

No. 1:  A War Between Light and Darkness

When the conscious connection with the Source of Light is limited or blocked, there can be little light inside people’s minds.  Therefore, it is sometimes impossible to find solutions to problems and difficult to discern or identify the real root causes for evil. Spiritual Defense Initiatives of the Pentagon Meditation Club are based on the assumption that there is spiritual warfare going on inside most, if not all people everywhere.  This is the “Battlefield of Consciousness.” Therefore, we prescribe a technology for generating more internal light as a first step toward transforming human behavior and solving problems that result in wars. Mystics and saints refer to this process as “enlightenment.”

The presence of Light in a human body is seen as an electrical and mathematical encoding of the brain and central nervous system; its absence is marked by death.  It is possible not only to have this light, but "to have it more abundantly," which is a process of enlightenment. Previous spiritual defense initiatives have demonstrated that more Light in the minds of people who used this technology, most notably criminals, produced definite changes in thinking, leading to transformation of behavior. 

Empirical evidence leads to the conclusion that “evil” comes into the world only through the aberrant behavior of (unenlightened) human beings. Of course, it is people who ultimately bring devastation, war, and terrorism. The fact that some people bring joy and goodness into the world, while others are bent on bringing hell into their own lives and the lives of others does not mean that the latter are evil people.  This dichotomy leads to a supposition that the light that some people have is brighter than for others. Therefore, it can be argued that people are basically good, and that some people with less light make choices that take them down the wrong track in life.  They make unenlightened choices that are not life-supporting.  Apparently their access to the source of enlightenment is limited, or blocked.

Military actions do nothing to bring enlightenment to distressed minds or to transform behavior. Therefore, spiritual recrudescence (raising consciousness by receiving more light) must become part of basic training and a necessary first step for spiritual warfare and combating evil.

Israelis claim to see the evil in their adversaries. But like a mirror reflection, Palestinians can see and point to the evil in Israel. 

Americans see the evil of their adversaries, and  often there is a mirror-like reflection from the opposition.  Adversaries become committed  to rooting out evil in the other side.

Look at the picture below. What do you see?  Can you transform the face of evil?  

(Some people see a beautiful woman, others see an ugly one.  Blind spots are scotomas.  Learning how to shift awareness simply by changing thinking removes blind spots. )

Punishment and elimination of terrorists does not bring more light and change, nor will this remove blind spots in minds of Israelis and Palestinians. Their mind sets become more fixed and the plague of war and the evils of terrorism persist.    The next step in rooting out evil is the task of shifting or transforming consciousness.

No. 2  A Psychological Model

General George Marshall made the observation that all wars are fought first in the minds of people before they are fought on the battlefield.  The spiritual war on evil engages an unseen enemy, and the field of battle is your mind – the battlefield of consciousness.  This is the theatre where the fight takes place, the minds and hearts of people everywhere, starting with your self.  The time of battle is your whole life.  There are incredible traps, subterfuges, dis-information, and self-deceptions, which can prevent you from awakening fully to the clear and present danger that threatens you personally and the well-being of those near and dear to you.  The second step for spiritual recrudescence then is to discover how to defend yourself, your family, your relatives and friends from the unseen enemy.

One predominant world view recognizes that ordinary people living ordinary lives are often afflicted with intense fears, anger, hatred, and a host of other undesirable personality traits.  In other ways they may be exceptionally strong individuals. This humanistic world view recognizes the great psychological value of prayer, self-talk, and the power of suggestion for dealing with root causes of evil, but stops there in acknowledging influences of spirituality in world affairs. 

Any talk about spiritual warfare with fallen angels, devils, demons, Satan, and unclean spirits is regarded as absolute nonsense. Such concepts are often attributed to immature understanding of how the human mind works, and to first century concepts and terminology.  Any extension of the influence of unseen entities from individuals to economic, political, or diplomatic issues or to modern day problems including war and terrorism is, therefore, considered to be due to overactive imagination and misunderstanding of psychological archetypes.  According to this world view improvements in human character are to be realized only as each person takes responsibility for the consequences of their own thoughts and actions.  

No. 3 – A Consciousness Model

An emerging view about peace and evil in the world is that the very process of thinking produces thought forms.  Negative thoughts and feelings (hatred, anger, etc.) are said to produce thought forms that carry negative energies, often characterized and even personified as “dark forces.” Some people claim that these can be felt and even sometimes seen.  Those “dark forces” can be consciously or unconsciously projected to anyone at any location on earth. Presumably prayer thoughts can do the opposite by projecting positive energy. 

Therefore, a critical mass of people with positive thoughts, e.g. praying for peace, can have a powerful effect on efforts of diplomats to negotiate for peace between adversaries, while negativity can have the opposite effects.  That is, negative thoughts and emotions obstruct peace initiatives and cause war by producing undesirable influences on entire populations. The argument here is that often people who do not perceive the consequences of their thoughts and feelings need to develop greater sensitivity to the subtle nuances of those unseen forces.  Exactly how this is to be achieved is not clear, but each individual is considered to be ultimately responsible for policing and transforming their thoughts and emotions.

No. 4 – A Religious/Spiritual Model

A dominant view held by People of the Book is that clues for finding an ultimate solution to terrorism and the current state of affairs in the Middle East and other hot spots in the world can be found in scripture.  For example scripture says that the "god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the   

Light  . . ."  - 2 Corinthians 4:4

A widely held belief among the faithful of major religious traditions is that it is not possible to understand the problem of wars and evil by considering only human history. Two invisible spiritual kingdoms exist and are at war: the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan.  The latter is hostile and set on destroying mankind. A supernatural being in charge of one-third of heavenly beings (angels) was cast out of the heights of heaven.  The belief is that those beings and their leader have to this day maintained an organizational structure, so that world domination means domination by spiritual hosts (armies) of satanic beings arrayed in battle order. The battle is not with people with bodies, but with [fallen angels] principalities, powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world.  (Proponents of world view No. 1 hold that this story is religious mythology.)

Are we really up against demon activity and the influence of unseen/unclean spirits?

Are the worldly wise (personified by World View No. 1) already duped by dark forces; their minds and hearts blinded and their ears closed, so that they are unable to hear or see the truth about the horrible invisible enemy? Are people sometimes invaded and animated by the powers of darkness – fallen angels, unclean spirits, and non-corporeal entities?   Indeed there is need for discernment “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.”  Religious minded people often look behind the history of empires and human events to identify dark, satanic forces at work.  In this context spiritual recrudescence must include deliverance from forces which inspire people to engage in war and terrorism.

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