The concept of “the black pill” is still relatively new. The “red pill” goes much further back - long before its recent hijacking by some subsection of boys hating on women, referring to the decent down rabbit holes of “alternative” information sources as per the popularization from The Matrix movie. Whether diving into countercultural vortex offering peeks behind the veil of societally-constructed fuckery perpetuated in mainstream media & institutions of indoctrination via “conspiracy theory” circles or the newer “truther communities,” there have been many opting for the “red pill” - discovering that the realities of our world greatly differ from the ideas we’ve been collectively sold by “authorities…”
I dunno when the “black pill” exactly became a thing, though the term first hit my attention maybe a couple of years ago. Uncomfortably, there was much about it I could relate to; and the further along we’ve gone, the more I’ve had to admit that at some point, I, too, had crossed the incredibly fine, blurry line from red to black.
It was a slow & subtle onset.
Perhaps complete with a bit of denial, as I first learnt of the black pill - more easily observing the “doomer” mentality & pessimism in others than wanting to confess iterations of the same in myself.
It’s kind of an insidious motherfucker. A cynicism that crept in so naturally, easily rationalizable - almost parasitic, implanted so undetectably with unnoticeable precision, only to grow over time, consuming an increasing amount of joy, enthusiasm, and optimism. Never fully taking over, but always there, leeching off life-force to feed fundamental fears, doubt, and uncertainty that life “is working in our favor.”
It was sorta unexpected… while there are surely many who just more recently started chomping down red pills and graduated straight to black, I’ve probably been indulging the red for well over a couple decades, building up a tolerance, and maintaining a reasonable amount of optimism throughout that time. Maybe it was the intensity of shit that went down globally during the plandemic that shocked my system; perhaps I was extra susceptible due to the heartbreak & grief of a separation, already having gone through some very hard knocks and losses that left open a gap for the black pill pessimism to creep in. Maybe there’s been some overlap with the “cynicism” that’s been said to be common among Human Design 6 line profiles “on the roof” (which I am… plus at the “midlife crisis” point.) But whatever the reason(s), it did. Humbling as it is to confess.
a friend sent this meme, saying I was the doomer… shook me kinda deep, as hard to deny the resemblance… 😬
The response to my writing, Lack Of Discernment & Critical Thinking In The “Truther Community”, last week was a bit surprising, and that whole outlook speaks volumes to this issue…
Why the topic had struck such a chord: perhaps because of its uneasy reflections of how I fell into “black pill” territory… a sound capacity for discernment & critical thinking, probably being key components of the mental-emotional-spiritual immune system that’d keep one from crossing that threshold between red & black. And no doubt, there may be few other collectives where the black pill is more common than in “truther” communities;
For as much as many of us have ‘committed ourselves’ to “seeking truth,” as easy it may be to digest & circulate memes imparting fragments of “truth,” it’s a whole other complex undertaking to escape the grips of cognitive biases & logical fallacies. Unfortunately (or not), there’s still an immense amount of covert, unspoken beliefs & assumptions inherent in much of the content found circulating under the guise of “truth,” no matter where it comes from - the mechanism of human psychology filtering & coloring nearly everything…
And for as much as “red pill” content may be propagated with intent to “free” others from the artificial matrixes as shining light on their traps and what awaits outside programmed constructs of reality, there remains a foundational presumption in the dualistic “reality” of the imprisonment itself which gets overlaid onto all that follows… reinforcing the construct, cage, and game. As much as many of us have wanted to believe that simply becoming aware of certain aspects of this all equates to “awakening,” we’ve fooled ourselves. As much as our egos might want to believe in our superiority, having “seen the light” and embarked on some holy mission to “awaken” others, many still remained ‘trapped’ in the mind’s constructs, judgements, and divisiveness - whether leaning towards delusional overoptimistic bias that we’re all “ascending” and shall soon ‘arrive’ on 5D earth full of unicorns & rainbows, or the weight & density of the 3D matrix… misappropriating to it a disproportionate amount of “negativity” with an inadvertent conclusion that to remain in it equates to some hellish failure or fate without possibilities constructive evolutionary advancement, collective success, or at the least, balance.
It’s been the shift from red’s “question everything,” to “question everything *mainstream… because it’s all a lie, so the opposite must be true.” From applying critical thinking & discernment equally to everything, to just that on one side of the fence we’ve been moving away from… and in process, leaving our defences open for falsehoods to be propagated freely - not necessarily intentionally or maliciously, but as a byproduct of cognitive bias & logical fallacy at play/work. Suddenly, we’ve unconsciously gone from learning there are in fact many grand conspiracies, to believing ”everything is part of a larger, evil conspiracy - accompanied with a disempowering assumption of the fallibility of the average man & woman, contrasted with fear of an overarching power of an elite with their political-corporate-military-industrial-pharma complexes. While the red pills help lifted the veils to the structures of the matrix and gave glimpses of hope we might either transcend or change them, the black pills dragged us right back down into fear & despair that there is no escape. That the agendas set in motion are set for every “truther’s” worst-case scenario, that the increasing numbers of people actually “waking up” are moreless irrelevant, and the only hope for ‘survival’ lies in adherence to yet another rigid, extremist path concocted through yet another dogmatic, fundamentalist “us versus them” paradigm requiring war waged and victims made of all not onboard with the “enlightened” consciousness and countercultural agenda.
Few may voice this outright. But read between the lines of predictable comments found everywhere in these circles on anything having to do with CBDCs, Agenda 2030, the WEF & WHO, food & medicine technologies, politics, etc, and the patterns become apparent.
And by God, it’s getting fucking tiring, already.
For as much evidence one could point to in support of pessimistic/cynical outlooks, I miss the lightness & joy of life only accessible with a balance of realistic optimism. No matter how “real” the evils & injustices of the world are, the cost of years spent in fear and a doomer mentality are too great. While the mind might seek certainty and cling to whatever provides an illusory sense of it, the pervasive erosion of quality of life that comes with viewing the world through shit-colored glasses isn’t worth staying in the space opened by the black pill.
It’s fascinating to consider how rewinding a decade, I was managing to balance all the red pills with an optimistic vision for what good could still come through all those organizations & technologies, curating a following on Twitter reflective of an inspiring vision of creative collaboration for innovative solutions to our biggest global challenges. I hadn’t yet swung to the extremes of the right - both brained and politically-leaning (although I still maintain all politics is bullshit - “left wing, right wing, same bird”), seeing & believing in the exciting potentials that could be birthed through using technology & the benefits of institutional resources constructively with some youthful leadership. Or even more fascinating, how I managed to swing to such an opposite extreme, (influenced by distorted right-leaning “truther” & “conspiracy” sources).
Perhaps it’s all been part of a process - having to experience the extremes of both polarities to open access to the full spectrum and activate the discernment to see the truth, value, time & place for all within it… eventually ‘finding’ the balance in a middle-ground.
But I can’t pretend it’s quick & easy undoing the effects of that black pill.
For as much as I could regularly walk myself through the logic that things aren’t actually as bad as the emotional-driven self amplifies & distorts certain data points to be to validate its confirmation biases, while I could choose to focus more on the positive taking place in the world & my life, the roots of our subconscious belief systems run deep and take time to unearth, unravel, and transmute.
And change is required. “Easier said than done” sometimes, for us creatures of habit.
Though there’s been numerous online groups/communities I’ve found solace in, sharing certain outlooks, there comes a time where it may be necessary to walk away. An alcoholic committed to recovery would probably be wise to avoid hanging out in bars… and as unwinding from the perceptual messes left from the black pill, it’s surely as equally helpful to exit spaces & relationships where they’re still being distributed & consumed.
And sure enough, there must come places & times where new truths need to be spoken. Even if that requires occasionally playing the role of black sheep in groups that were the black sheep. (Or is there yet another subconscious trap at play in this outlook - presuming the need for a “black sheep…” a self-identification many have taken on, which might indeed correlate with the shadowy experience of the black pill…?)
Truthfully… I don’t fucking know.
While our advancements - the technological perhaps mirroring the energetic - may be rapidly accelerating the rate at which we’re evolving, taking us through life curriculums that’d formerly take years in mere minutes & hours, the complexity of this larger quantum holographic reality program is certainly beyond the capability of any human brain to fully grasp in a single lifetime, let alone moment - perhaps with the exception of some brief ventures beyond the boundaries of space & time, fuelled by a good psychedelic trip.
As much as we might like to pretend we know more than we do at times - aligning with collective beliefs (falsely) promising certainty, whether “love & light” or “doom & gloom,” to support those delusions of knowledge/awareness - perhaps we need to remind ourselves regularly that our perceptions (especially those shaped & influenced by others’ regurgitated assertions of “truth”) are not usually an accurate reflection of the totality of reality. That there are always more sides to any story, angles from which to view that contain information we’ve not yet seen, and data points available that’d likely negate our biased conclusions were we truly open to them.
Perhaps that’s why this God program has billions of souls reincarnating over hundreds of thousands of years, seeing & experiencing from every possible angle. Why we wax & wane back & forth between the pits of hells & heights of heavens. Why the ceaseless dance between yin & yang, from light dark and back again… cycling each day, spiraling up in consciousness as extracting & integrating wisdom gained through each loop as escaping the biases that’d lock us in (to set frequency-realities) otherwise.
Or some shit.
Red pill, black pill, pink, purple, yellow, orange… maybe they all have their purpose, time & place. After all, how could we fully appreciate the light if never taking the occasional descent into dark? (So long as pulling ourselves out before drowning… and potentially casting the life raft of a black pill transmuted into white back in, planting seeds as a lighthouse, to support others who might need it later on…)
🤷♂️☯️🙏