My last two blogs, “Expiration Time on Emotions” and “Stand on Our Own,” talk about our responsibility as human beings and, in relation to this, I just read Napoleon Hill’s book called Outwitting The Devil. He wrote how the Devil controls 98 percent of people, and how this makes them irresponsible. He calls those controlled people “Drifters.”
Drifters believe they are powerless and become those who are:
- addicted to self punishment,
- easily controlled by others,
- enslaved to their emotions,
- fearful toward everything,
- consumed by suppressed emotion and physical ailments, and
- stuck in a victim identity.
There are six kinds of fear that the Devil uses to control people, they are fear of:
- poverty,
- criticism,
- ill health,
- loss of love,
- old age, and
- death.
And the Devil uses the first and last of these six — fear of poverty and fear of death — the most.
In addition to fear, the Devil uses ignorance and doubt to gain control of people. The Devil enters the thoughts of people through superstition, avarice, greed, lust, revenge, anger, vanity, and laziness.
And this is done in very sneaky ways. The Devil uses parents, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, newspapers, TV, radio, etc. — anything that makes people not think for themselves and that gets them to follow others, making them “Drifters.”
One of the stories in the book that surprised me was about the way the Devil uses our system of marriage as a way to control us as well. The Devil says:
“I cause men and women to drift into marriage without a plan or purpose designed to convert the relationship into harmony. Here is one of my most effective methods of converting people into the habit of drifting. I cause married people to bicker and nag one another over money matters. I cause them to quarrel over the bringing up of their children. I engage them in unpleasant controversies over their intimate relationships and in disagreements over friends and social activities. I keep them so busy finding fault with one another that they never have time to do anything else long enough to break the habit of drifting.”
As a result of this behaviour, parents don’t have enough time to listen to their children. When a child is speaking, parents cut in and summarize the story. These actions lower the child’s sense of self-importance. The child loses self confidence and easily becomes a Drifter.
Also, the Devil makes us believe that we have only one life. This makes people decide to live only for pleasure, only in the moment, and live for material satisfaction.
Hell is not an afterlife; the Devil says that he is not a demon:
“You know that I exist only in the minds of people who have fears. You know that I control only the drifters who neglect to use their own minds. You know that my hell is here on earth and not in the world that comes after death. … You know that I am a principle or form of energy which expresses the negative side of matter and energy, and that I am not a person with a forked tongue and a spiked tail.”
Napoleon Hill also wrote that “Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.”
So, how can you be a Non-Drifter?
Keep thinking, be a thinker; don’t postpone action; be definite in your actions, words, and thinking, when you stop thinking, that’s when you start shifting to becoming a Drifter.
In Tao Sangha the way to not become a Drifter is to feel God (or Buddha or the Great Universal Spirit) within you; it is to feel the peace, wisdom, happiness, and joy spring out from within you; and it is to feel those as body sensations and share them with others, making them smile.
Keep creating a bright future with determination, responsibility, humour, and joy.
If you find yourself making excuses instead of progress, maybe it’s a good idea to read “Outwitting the Devil” or attend Tao Sangha workshops.
