Evolutionary psychology provides an interesting perspective on the extreme attitudes around covid and vaccination. In my hometown of Glastonbury, the refuge of many hippies and escapees from mainstream culture, there has been uncomfortable tension in the High Street.
When old friends meet there is a pause as they tentatively wait to hear where the other stands. Almost without exception if one friend supports vaccination and the reality of covid, and the other does not, there will be unpleasant conflict. Tight-lipped passive aggressive or openly hostile. Personally I have been nervous sometimes to share that I have been vaccinated. I lose friends.
This conflict between two opposing worldviews is personal and political. It is a clash between trust and suspicion.
From a political and democratic perspective anti-vaxxers must be heard. It is always appropriate to be reminded of dangerous government and commercial manipulation. There has been so much of this in the past. (When I wrote the piece I did not know that ‘anti-vaxxer’ was considered a term of abuse. I meant and mean it completely neutrally and with respect.)
From the perspective of friendship they also must be heard. Anti-vaxxers have strong and authentic emotions. Whether what they assert is factual or opinion, their words clearly articulate strong feelings.
It is respectful to acknowledge what they say and, even if we think their rationales are inaccurate, seek to understand.
Perhaps the perspective of anti-vaxxers is based in a legitimate instinct, a presentiment about the world and its state.
Remember the wise elephants and other animals who can feel the coming of an earthquake or tsunami and move to higher ground. We are all creatures and capable of instincts and intuitions that ensure survival.
Evolutionary and archetypal psychology suggest that the way we think, feel and behave is often guided by the history of our species. This is clear in how we act in relation to food, territory, status and connection with others.
More than that, there are evolutionary templates that guide our social behaviours and how we interpret life around us. These are archetypal patterns of action, thought and emotion. They can be recognised in their repetition and how often they are played out. They are activated for example when people fall in love. They exist archetypically between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, fans and charismatic leaders, and when people move in clans and crowds, in music festivals and marching to war.
There are also archetypal patterns related to the existential realities of survival.
From the earliest days of humanity we were never far away from the harsh realities of competition and conflict for food, shelter and partners. We were also never far away from herd mentality and cruel, bullying sociopathic behaviour. Charismatic leaders and clans often wielded brutal power. The totalitarian cruelties, pogroms and genocides of the last one hundred years bear testimony to the ongoing reality of these group pathologies.
No wonder then that many of us react archetypically to the covid pandemic and the vaccine programme. It is archetypically logical to perceive covid and its medical solutions as a horrific totalitarian plot to manipulate and enslave us. This is an understandable response. We can see awful parallels in genocides and Nazi experiments.
But not all of us have this suspicious response. Many of us have a more philosophical, patient and trusting reaction.
I want to understand why folk separate into these two camps — those who fear totalitarian oppression and those who trust all will be well.
My intuition is that anti-vaxxers are influenced by an evolutionary and psychological inheritance of trauma and suffering. They understandably and reasonably perceive government and vaccine programmes as symbols of terror and oppression. I do not know why they carry this history. Perhaps it is genetically embedded. Perhaps it is inherited trauma. Or from a more Eastern perspective, past life trauma.
And then there are those of us who accept the reality of covid, welcome vaccination and trust the systems at work here. Perhaps we are naïve. Certainly we would have seemed that way if we had had the same attitude to the holocaust or pogroms. But we assess this situation and feel and think differently to the anti-vaxxers.
My intuition here is that vaxxers are influenced by a more benevolent evolutionary history and carry less inherited trauma. Their feelings and thoughts are influenced by how families, clans and tribes care for each other, and how government and healthcare can work for the good of all.
This is a simple binary model. On one side, understandable fear about the abuse of power. On the other side, trust in humanity’s ability to organise for the public benefit. And of course there are many positions in between.
Maybe this model is way too simple. Nevertheless I hope that it provides a framework for exploratory conversations, so that people involved in this conflict of worldviews may be able to step back and look more dispassionately and compassionately at their differences.
NOW CLOSED FOR COMMENTS.
Thank you for the very thought-provocative text, William, and equally to the homeopathic and other natural health feedback. You mention benevolence vs terror, but the vaccine has come from a point of terror – terror of Covid. There are many ‘benevolent’ non-vaccine takers fo various reasons other than suspicion of government or large profit-making pharmacist organisations. I trust we can all stay friends !!!
Hello William I have attended many of your workshops and always feel informed and reassured by your articles. I agree that we need to trust and respecte NHS and what is recommended to keep us safe by the government and scientists. However I personally don’t vaccinate – I believed that my children would be healthier in the long term if I opted out of the MMR programme, for instance.
In my family there are difference of opinions and again my boys are adults now and can make their own decisions.
I am still trying to understand what I struggle with and it might well be linked to distrust and childhood or even previous life trauma of some kind.
All I can say is that since I have had COVID I am feeling clearer in my mind and I am noticing positive things in myself almost like a bigger awareness. I don’t really understand yet so I am keeping an open mind. Best wishes, Liz
No Caroline the vaccines have not been developed from a point of terror, but from need, the requirement to immunise the population to save lives, and so that life can return to what passes as normal.
Ffom Gro Lystad, Norway. Thank you William for this blog. My interest in vaccines started i 1987/88. I had just finished a 5 year homeopathy study in Norway when two men representing a group of 16 came to see me. They were families of grownups and children who wanted to travel the world for about 7 months, however they did not want any vaccinations. They wanted me to make a program of homeopathic remedies to be used both preventive and curative for the various countries they were to visit, Asia and Africa included. They were leaving in half a year and I decided to try. I knew very little and so did my collegues in Norway. I started by ordering 10 kilos of books from India on the subject and looking in old journals of medicine for articles on the subject. The group left with lots of remedies and instructions in their luggage and they returned happily. All had gone well.
One day a book by Shachti Gavain, “Living in the Light” fell from the bookshelf and into my head and opened on a random page. What I read there made me look further into the vaccination subject. I still do it, now for 33 years.
It turns out homeopathy can be used preventive for any epidemic disease as well as being curative if you catch the disease. Covid 19 is no exception. There has been plenty of international Zoom seminars on the subject and which remedies may be suitable. All vaccines are poisenous in one way or another and your constitution decides how well or bad you handle the vaccine. “A shot in the dark”, “Russian Roulette” are terms used in the books written on this subject. Your reaction to any vaccine is individual. Those of you who have seen the movies “Vaxxed” and “Waxxed 2” will know this. They are American and have of course been condemned as illegal, even if they are documentaries – or maybe especially because they are just that. Susanne Humphries, MD (Author of the book “Dissolving Illusions; Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History”) is one of the medical doctors who travelled across America on the black “Waxxed” bus. They collected white signatures on the bus surface of people damaged by vaccines as they travelled from town to town and showed the first “Waxxed” movie. The number 2 movie is about this tour and the people they interwieved. It is a heart breaking movie to say the least and deeply disturbing.
Vaccination is built on the principle that humans are not capable to heal themselves. We have to be vaccinated against many diseases that had more or less disappeared before the first mass vaccinations started in the western world. There is no persuasive evidence that mass vaccination has the honour of eliminating a single child disease. Most of these diseases were around 95% gone by then. Nourishing food, clean water and good sanitary conditions is what is needed. For instance the Salk polio vaccine got the honour of cleaning out the polio disease in th US after the epidemic in 1940-1950’s. However, it started disappearing in Europe as well – even before the vaccine reached mass vaccination . Dr. Jonas Salk said about the polio vaccine, after the Sabin vaccine appeared, that the vaccine itself was responsible for most cases of polio. We know this to be true several places on the earth. Dr. Salk said it could be a repetition of what we saw with the Pox vaccine, that the vaccine itself was the only source to pox 30 years after the disease was gone.
People like me and many others are stamped as conspiracy people – by people who never looked into any of these questions.
I, for one, will absolutely not take any more vaccines in my life. The reason is that my constitution may not be not strong enough to do this without damage. I am very unhappy about this if this will prevent me from travelling in the future. Many of my family members live abroad. Luckily the now diseased Belgian doctor Tinus Smits have developed a method for curing people with vaccine damage. He has written a book about it called “Autism without Despair, CEASE Therapy, Homeopathy has the answers”. His method is being taught world wide. It remains to be seen what happens to the people taking the Covid vaccine. Some die immediately, some get neurological damage, some ME and we shall see the long term problems later. Hopefully homeopathy is able to help many. Hopefully it will be ok for a lot of people.
I read something the other day channeled down from “The Solar Holon -by the Hathos” by Tom Kenyon (ShiftFrequency) about the time we are in right now. This is channeled from a higher perspective he calls Aethos, where there is no conflict and all polarity are resolved in the infinite expanse of equanimity. On earth right now we are in the midst of Chaotic Nodes affecting our politics, our climate,our social disorder etc., but that we shall not be dishearted by this avalanche of change for it is truly an opportunity to evolve at an accelerated rate.
So – I think – we have to respect each others opinions – help each other regardless of opinion – take around 80 micrograms vitamin D3 every day to help our immune system through this, minimum 1000 mg vitamin C daily unless we use blood thinning medicaments and Zinc to prevent the virus to adhere to the cell surface. Use Zeolitt (clay) to clean the body for heavy metals and other things you know about that is good for you. And of course holistic methods alongside the western medicine, like homeopathy, acupuncture, reflexology etc., get some exersise and fresh air, get enough sleep when you can etc. Forget fear. Enjoy life!!!!
Dear William thank you for giving people a chance to air their varied opinions,
one very important piece of information that I think you will be glad to share,but almost everywhere else will be overlooked and dismissed,(inevitably)is the fact that Cuba and India have been treating people with the virus very sucessfully with Homeopathy
The statistics as of May 2020
USA reported 3,668 per million cases per million of the population with a total of 211 deaths per million of the population,
Canada 1,610 cases per million of the population with a total of 102 deaths per million of the population
Cuba reported 147 cases per million of the population with a total of 6 deaths…
India (which used Homeopathy as a widespread prevention method) still impresses with 35 cases per million of the population with a total of 1 death per million of the population.
Well, what this says to me if the likes of the WHO and other multinational corporations and governments are as serious as they claim to be about eradicating the virus and saving us all from death, then when will they be administering Homeopathic treatments.
Love and light to all
Thank you William for enabling an open and broad discussion. What has been written shows a great need for people to express themselves and hear other views.
As always William presents a thought provoking and balanced exploration. Thank you so much for offering this so that disparate views have a chance of being met with reflection and not judgement and knee jerk reactions.
Thank you for your article. It is good to debate and enquire into seemingly polarised views. I always start my converstation with a ‘let’s put down the guns’ comment of…….. ‘I am not against vaccinations” as ‘anit-vaxxer’ seems a term to lable people, usually negatively and I am careful not to recieve that projection for my own well being and to foster genuine debate. So I am not an ‘anit-vaxxer’ ….guns down please – lets talk…..but I am a person who feels conerned about the vaccine and it being rushed through ( understanably byw!) and what may be driven through the ‘opportunity’ of herd vaccinations passports – predujice etc. Education about the immune stystem – genuine health care – community support – investments in learing and educating about the immune system – even down to free Vit C – Vit D -zinc …and free support for exericise programs – cooking initiates – bringing people out into the fresh air ….I’m not saying this is a ‘fast track’ way out of Covid but there is little to no evidence of an awakening governmentally about how to support people in boosing their immune system and helping themselves stay well. There will be other booster vaccines as there will be other covid strains, like the flu jab. I’m not sayng that is wrong but I am saying the vaccine is not the ultimate answer by alongn shot… excuse the pun. PS I also have a “have philosophical, patient and trusting reaction” but my fundamental trust is in nature, there are many ‘antiu-vaxxers’ that are also very “philosophical, patient and trusting in their reaction too’ …..
since you trust in nature Vatherine, it’s worth pointing out to you that vaccination is not like antibiotics that bypass the body’s own defences to attack the bacteria, vaccinations harnesses nature to teach your immune system to have an immune response to the virus. You can doing some research to find out how come they’ve developed the vaccines so quickly. It’s because the vaccine development has been showered with huge sums of money, and inundated with volunteers! So instead of going through one phase and then waiting for more investment and the required number of volunteers for the next phase, they’ve been able to race through the phases, and then because there have been such high levels of covid infections, they’ve been able to see how effective their vaccines are in protecting the recipients.
I am shocked and stunned by your ,yes I think naive and strange idea of ‘Evolutionary Psychology’…Do you really not believe their is a very Powerful, behind the scenes ‘world Government’ that are engineering a ‘Global reset’ on many levels.
This isnt secret or a conspiracy theory its available if people can be bothered to look.
It involves the WEF ,WHO,Bill Gates, etc etc. + the Pharmaceutical Dictatorship that has been allowed to take over.
It’s hard to know where to start…do you know that in some States in the USA by the time a child is three they will have had 30 vaccines!!!!! and by the age of 18 SEVENTY vaccines!!! is this normal??? ask yourself.cos this is where we are heading.
and these companies making all that money (Trillions) are untouchable they cannot be prosecuted no matter what happens.
The statistics on vaccines that went wrong are never available, but in the last while I know of 3 young girls vaccinated against Cervical cancer (really you can get vaccinated against a cancer???)2 were paralysed from the waist down,recovered but all 3 have terrible hormone problems..
The USA vaccine contains stuff from aborted foetus’s and the POPE (YES THE POPE) has said it is morally fine for Roman Catholics to take this vaccine..!!!!
(morally fine? I say it is satanic)
Do you not listen to the news and realise how heavily censored it is..with absolutely no one with an alternate view allowed a say.
I have studied illness in connection to nutrition and healthy lifestyle, I have tried to put my knowledge on the radio ie. ‘since when have vaccines become the only medicine, what bout educating people to build up their immune system with nutrition, herbal, Ayurvedic, homeopathic supplements…Linda Bold an ‘ expert at Edinburgh University said ‘lets stick to the science as none of these methods have been proven or tried and tested’!!!
well Homeopathy that so many like to scoff at works incredibly well including on animals…they cannot respond to a placebo..
And this is how the highly educated doctors and medical proffesionals are treating the virus in Cuba and having incredible results..
you wont hear that in our media.
the statistics are blatant lies, the amount of older sickly people dying every day under normal circumstances is not that much different..
Having had the vaccine you are still not protected it seems and can still spread the virus, so what use is it, except to work as a placebo? as plenty like yourself think its so great..
What surprise me most is that someone like yourself does not seem to be aware there are incredibly powerful dark forces at work in the world..and using this virus to do their work, it is a battle for our souls and spirit… in cutting us off from spiritual practice (including Easter, Christmas, Diwali, Muslim festivals etc etc.) separating, isolating, filling people with fear and resentment to others.
Now this will seem over the top to some but all I can say is take your head out of the sand, The wars and constant killing of populations,famines, never ending production of weapons of mass destruction, are not done by forces of light …
how can you trust the ‘people in charge’ are you aware of the thousands of children that go missing all the time? why is that not a global concern, ??
Why should we trust ‘these scientists’ when there are hundreds with a more open mind set that have much more relevant studies of virus’s and vaccines and their value.
Not every ‘anti vaxxer’ is anti all vaccines but most definately this one
If anyone really wants to know what is going on they should get hold of any copy of The New View magazine, and or a book by Judith Von Halle ‘The corona pandemic’..
One quote i will leave you with
‘The enormous changes to our society engendered by what is happening is nothing less than psychological warfare on a global scale,the tool being used is the mighty propagation of Fear that freezes our soul and renders it impotent’
Wake up people are you will wander unknowingly into the Abyss..
Thank you for such a balanced and thoughtful piece. I have been feeling alienated from my anti-vax friends, this gives me a place of understanding to stand in dialogue with them.
Thank you William, for this well balanced, respectful and thoughtful article, which analized the matter like I’ve seen it in my own heart.
Maybe it is not a question whether we, as humanity should take the vaccine or not, whether it is dangerous or not. This weekend I received a very useful tip how to relate personally to the COVID vaccines, so you can take a more -spiritually- informed decision on top of all the information we receive online.
Go into your meditative state and invite the ‘vaccine’ to reveal it self. How is your system of body, sould and mind related to the essence of the vaccin.? Is it good, neutral or bad for you to take it? I did this exercise and it gave me new information for my decision whether to take it or not.
Rudolf Steiner, a spiritual teacher at the beginning of the 20th century was considering whether it was actually good to give children the vaccines against the minor children’s illnesses, as he saw that children going through these illnesses unvaccinated, emerged from it with an extra boost to their physical, mental and soul development. He argued that to miss out on those developments would be a pity. I thought that was something to really think about. And from there I have become careful not to just randomly be vaccinated.
COVID19 is not a traditional children’s developmental illness just like many other new illnesses, and is perhaps useless for my futher spiritual development. I will keep my own council in this and not try to persuade others. It is everybody’s personal responsibility to make a considered choice. And not tell other persons they are wrong if they don’t make the same choice.
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2021/02/i-doubt-you-will-want-a-jab-after-reading-that-uk-government-shocking-report-on-covid-19-vaccine-side-effects/
There are quite some long winded views here hey William!
I am glad I read your view on this subject as it brought out a calmness in me, and I simply found myself with the thought
“Lets agree to disagree!”
I really try not to get het up anymore about anything, so often its hard to change anyones’ point of view, so I leave it alone.
If anyone is ready to listen to me, then they will ask, even if its in a roundabout way.
I do Love what you stand for William.
I am disappointed with you, this appears to me to bean abuse of your popularity, I am not against vaccination but I am against being blackmailed to allow an untested vaccine to be put into my body, I am old enough to remember thalydamide, if this is suitable for use on humans why have they made big pharma immune from prosecution? Be a lab rat if you wish but don’t use a spiritual platform to influence others.
If you were to look into the development of these anti covid vaccines, you would see that they’ve been very thoroughly tested! And not all have made it, as the testing has weeded out the unsuccessful ones.
really appreciating this open debate, let the insights come forth!
Dear William.
I am so glad you are opening up a talk/discussion about this difficult vaccine question. I am a Norwegian 74 year old woman , were my best spritual friends have, as I feel , stumbeled in to the conspiratory-ditch. So I feel left on my own, which is maybe the best.(Please forgive my bad or wrong english writing). But I must admit I’m unsure about taking the vaccine. I might concider to take the Johnsen&Johnsen vaccine, which is more an ordinary kind and not the nRNA-type. Anyway – I will use my inner ‘voice’ until I am given the possibility to take it or not.
I felt though very good about Willams thougts about trusting the good will in most people and the government. There is no doubt about that the vaccine is developed too quick after normal way of developing vaccines. And that the nRNA is a complete new way of process inside the body. I think I might end up in someting in the middle – use my ability to inform myself and my inner trust. All the best to you all.
My worries about vaccine scepticism include that it is often associated with far right attitudes of narcissistic hyperindividualism (“don’t tell me what to do!”) and zero respect for public health initiatives where protecting the group, the ‘herd’ if you will, is the aim. Virus denial can also be part of a parcel of ideas which soften up critical thinking and therefore lead to embracing conspiracy theories. *They* are lying to us! *We* know the truth! Don’t be a sheeple! Some of the fellow travellers of virus denial and vaccine scepticism are QAnon, Trump, and far right politicians and pundits. Know a movement by whom it keeps company with. Furthermore the panacea of a strong immune system can be seen as a form of elitism. Are cancer / lupus / RA sufferers to be penalised for their illness? Will they have to shelter for the rest of their lives so the rest of us can go to the pub? Sometimes achieving this all protective strong immune system is through purchasing private health care services and products. Sometimes these same people who are trashing vaccination and Big Pharma are selling their own ‘alternative’ products and services, profiting directly from their stance. In the west we have grown up in relatively safe times healthwise. People were not dying all around us of smallpox, diphtheria and influenza. Those affected by polio are in their 70s and upwards now. We presume good health is our birthright and a result of our own efforts (to some extent it is) rather than a lucky hand of cards and massive developments in public health, including vaccines. Some people here have spoken personally, so I will too. For decades I took no allopathic medicine, not even a paracetamol. I did not vaccinate my children on the advice of my homoeopath who told me there were effective remedies if they did get ill but that they probably would not as other children were vaccinated. Both got measles, chicken pox, whooping cough etc. They were both extremely ill. There were no homoeopathic remedies for them when the time came. I am no longer an anti-vaxxer although I once was. This is an imperfect world and nature does not prioritise the human experience. Saying all this I am worried that we are breaking into sub-groups and hating each other for our relative stances on this. I am less concerned about the archetypal or other reasons for this fracturing and more concerned about we are going as humans. Do collectivist cultures where people think of the group and pull together ultimately do better than those founded on individualism? Seems so.
I was not in favor of vaccines for years, due to the accurately published content of some of them, but in November 2020 I marched myself into our local pharmacy with the words: I have never had the flu vaccine and never had the flu (in 18 years) but I am wondering now…. So I got myself the flu vaccine and am very deeply grateful for my Covid vaccination which I accepted 3 weeks ago.
My change of heart? Because now it is not only me that will be affected by my decision. It’s not personal anymore! It is a global pandemic like smallpox used to be, typhoid, yellow fever, malaria and on and on. And I thank those who responded in days gone by who have helped to keep me safe.
I hope that everyone who has had the vaccine realises that the only thing that will properly keep you safe at this time is to continue with social distancing, hand (and face) washing and wearing a mask if having to go into confined spaces for shopping etc. These actions will also keep others safe because the vaccine does not stop you from getting Covid-19, it simply reduces the symptoms. It also does not stop you from giving it to someone else so if you have vulnerable loved ones be careful still. This link is from an NHS release confirming that you can still spread the virus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZabGwxlncJo&feature=youtu.be
I’m totally shocked at this blog and your views on the vaccine and your view on Antivaxers – I truly believed that most people on the spiritual community understood the whole concept of choice when it came to our bodies. I’m not so much an anti faxed as a serious pro truther and clear that critical thinking is the most important factor to be included in this scenario. You seem to be out on a totally different limb. For this I am seriously disturbed and surprised.
I am not sure that all who accept the vaccine actually ‘trust’ more. I see a huge amount of fear (and anger) on any of those two sides, as you describe them, William.
How do we understand these emotions, and overcome the tendency to judgement they bring up in all of us? How can we learn to see the world through the eyes of one another, trusting that we are not going to be forced to lose our point of view, and that we don’t need to change another person’s opinion to survive?
Just to add, I really hope that friends of yours don’t judge you William.
Be kind to all-that’s what I say
Hi William. Anti-vaxxers versus vaxxers. I personally don’t fit either label but I want a choice to do what I feel is right or healthy for myself. I’m happy if others want it or if they don’t.
It’s not my intention to judge, it’s a matter of choice and not to control others which way they want to go. I have asthma and I’m offered the flu jab yearly but I don’t take it.
What will be, will be. 😁
Thank you William for addressing this divisiveness, which is sometimes the “elephant in the room” when I speak/listen to some friends. I prefer my own silence in this opinionated world — a world of opinions so many of the comments reflect. Future is uncertain and we each need to decide for ourselves, our families and communities.
The term “anti vaxxer” is provocative — I prefer vaccine hesitation. I experience future hesitation as I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or the next day or the day after that….
In the words of the Health Officer of BC Canada, Bonnie Henry: Be kind, be calm, be safe,
When I wrote the piece I did not know that ‘anti-vaxxer’ was considered a term of abuse. I meant it completely neutrally and with respect.
Disappointed William, especially referring to people who chose to look after their own health in the way that feels authentic to them as Anti Vaxxers. I find it difficult to believe that you are unaware of the way the term is used, usually accompanied by words such as selfish. Vaccine hesitant might have been a more neutral term. Thank you for provoking the conversation though. It has been closed down on so many platforms, that should tell you something.
I respect your opinion, have always admired your work, but did find this patronising, to those who have a different opinion to you. With love to all on both sides of the discussion
When I wrote the piece I did not know that ‘anti-vaxxer’ was considered a term of abuse. I meant it completely neutrally and with respect.
I studied pandemics and viruses in my course at Cambridge and then epidemiology and the work of Professor Sir Richard Doll at post grad level. As you know I found I had a heart arrhythmia after the death of my husband and went on to study naturopathic nutrition to manage my condition. Since then I have found that I have also inherited a condition where a missing enzyme alpha tryptisin means I don’t produce elastin and so have COPD and annual bronchitis bouts. We studied a great deal about the immune system and vaccines on my course. I come to this not with suspicion from ignorance from probably greater knowledge than most medical people I know. I am against these vaccinations because they fail to acknowledge a changed view of the human immune system that misses out it’s ability to learn and that everyone has differences. I see vaccination as old paradigm – as seeing the ‘disease’ as something that has to be killed. It stems from ‘germ’ theory when the new paradigm, is ‘terrain’ theory. If you investigate the data there have been manipulations and misleading reporting from the beginning. Remember my profession is organisation psychology – I have worked in the smoke and mirrors world of behaviour change all my career and this is what we have seen – the pharmaceutical industry driving people towards their gravy train. Louis Pasteur plagiarised his work from Béchamp and falsified his results to make it look as though pathogens were the cause. On his death bed he is said to have admitted this. The embryonic pharmaceutical however seized upon these results to build their industry. when people say ‘but it was the vaccination the eliminated the diseases of diphtheria, measles and more’ this is simply not true. The mortalities from these diseases were falling years before these were introduced and are most likely to be linked to improvements in sanitation, better food and other environmental factors. It is likely that the reduction in the use of DDT caused the decrease in polio. I can send you copies of these graphs. I think we are seeing a highly manipulative industry holding onto its money tree. I could talk more about the isolation of the ‘virus’ or not and what vaccines contain to trick the body into accepting the bypassing of the other first lines of defence.
So for me William from a career of studying statistics, the spread of diseases, the human immune system I do not accept vaccines because there are better ways of dealing with dis-ease but they mean people have to take responsibility for their health (and remember I am one of the so-called vulnerable people who every year for the last 3 years has ended up in casualty on nebulisers and know that being on a respirator is probably the way I will die unless my heart condition or something else takes me first. Our voices are being deleted and censored and there are more eminent immunologists and physicians who are being silenced.
This is why I am against vaccinations – they are a commercial money making machine that are unnecessary – there are very good but cheaper treatments and prophylactics that can be used that don’t literally poison people. I have never been healthier since I took serious steps to detoxify. If I look at my past problems they were always after vaccinations. That is just a sample of one – but vaccinations are not the panacea they are made out to be and the studies of people like Dr Andrew Wakefield on autism are beginning to being acknowledged as right.
Merilyn – thank you so much for your comments. Really interesting and helpful in these days of censure and fear. You speak so clearly and with insight, knowledge and experience. We need to hear more opinions from a variety of sources, which sadly is so difficult in these times. Freedom of speech and thought is definitely at risk now, as is freedom of the press. Thank you William for opening up the discussion.
Saddened that the PR labels have stuck to such an extent that even my erstwhile spiritual mentor is using divisive language and hate speech (i do not consider that too strong a term in this instance). Perhaps it’s out of convenience that you use the term anti-vaxxer; I strongly encourage you to drop it immediately if you want to keep friends. From what i discern, it’s very much ‘we’ and ‘them’ in what’s elaborated above. This is the sine qua non of pogroms Will; i would have thought you knew that. I wonder if it’s pure symbolic speculation but i cannot read the “word” ‘vaxxer’ without seeing the following : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Lorraine albeit sideways-on; just like in Exxon. Maybe it is as Confucius said and “signs and symbols rule the world; not words or laws”. There’s certainly a lot going on that is not in the public ken – i found this post mostly to be glossing over and / or white-washing many salient criticisms whereby genuine human exchange can happen in an atmosphere of mutual kind regard and adherence to truth; the kind of thing that cannot occur, in my judgement, when labels are being bandied around willy nilly.
When I wrote the piece I did not know that ‘anti-vaxxer’ was considered a term of abuse. I meant it completely neutrally and with respect.
With respect, i admit there’s intention & then there’s impact. For myself, an anti-vaxxer is not the same as a human being who stands opposed (for whatever reason on earth) to -for a completely neutral example- Dr. Gates inc. & his little prick or anyone else of pharmaceutical/profiteering/philanthropic leanings or bent for that matter. What ever happened to human beings? A subtle difference and yet of profound import; I was taught somewhere along the way that as soon as you label anyone you dehumanise them (as armed forces in a foreign climb are/were wont to do : e.g. gook, wog, chogi, sand-nigger, wop, frog, yank, mick, ruski, chink, jap) – you can proceed to then do anything you see fit to a group of similar people without much trouble to your conscience (or grief from similarly minded label users). Anti-vaxxer may at this point seem a neutral label to most : i call it out because I smell a very dangerous rat in cuddly -Boris-esque- hamster’s attire.
It’s the other way round. People who accept the vaccine are motivated entirely by fear – fear of death, obviously, but mainly fear of going against the herd.
The herd instinct is absolutely overwhelming for most people, the thought of going against the herd is absolutely terrifying. This is the instinct that led millions of young men to volunteer to be bombed, gassed, and machine gunned to death during WW I. They preferred to die rather than risk the social stigma of refusing to sign up.
On the other hand, people who don’t want to accept the current vaccines have bothered to inform themselves about the risks, the shortcuts that have been taken bringing these vaccines to market in a fraction of the normal time, and the fact that the vaccine manufacturers have been granted complete legal immunity from any side effects.
Supposing you were trying to hire an electrician to install some lighting in your house and he said ‘Sure, I can do that, but first you have to sign this waiver to say I’m not liable if you get electrocuted and die,’ would you hire him?
If you can answer yes to that question, go ahead and get vaccinated.
Thankyou William, such an interesting, wise and thought provoking essay. It honours both camps. It’s a great leveller and conversation opener on a compassionate playing field. One omission I feel is issue of which groups bother to out the work of painstaking researc (lay research) in. I was in rural India without internet up to two days before lockdown last March. I had to resarch! In my experience of my educated friends who have the vax, or eill do, they have been too busy or too unmotivated or too head in the sand to become informed. You may wrll he right, I don’t know only time will tell. On the other hand how many whistle blowers do people need before the potential risks to us all are irreversible? I actually hope you are right, and it’s fine. It may be on the societal level, but I suspect universal forces have other ideas and all of us are going have our minds blown!
Thank you for starting this really interesting conversation, William – and at the moment just having the conversation is the most important thing, it seems to me. Let both sides be heard – I have both sides in me.
I am not an anti-vaxxer in general, but in this case I do not want to be vaccinated. If you look at the statistics, most of contaminated people have little or no symptoms and very few die. Mostly people who were not very healthy. I am convinced that even if I were contaminated that I would not die. I do everything to boost my immune system. I fear that the remedy is worse than the ailment. We know nothing about side-effects at a later stage, the pharmaceutical industries do not accept liability for possible long-term side-effects. That for me is enough to apply the prudence principle and refuse that vaccination. I do not understand why the whole population should be vaccinated. If it works let the believers have their vaccin and they will be protected. No need to brainwash the others then. And if it not working, then there is certainly no need to inject a xenobiotic substance.
Another question : few people are ill, why not concentrate on them and search for efficient medication instead of vaccinating the world population? Probably less profitable than a vaccin and probably to be repeated every year? Follow the money.
I refer of course to Dr Ivory and the other commenter.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree with the above. I understand we cannot go back to business as usual – but given the damage and death caused by lockdown, the obvious lies and propaganda of the mainstream media- I find it hard to fathom that someone as conscious as yourself can hold the opinion you possess. In truth I am surprised and a little disappointed. Unless of course you were simply looking to spark debate.
I am in agreement with Dr Ivory. My research over the past 15 years into vaccine injury means that I will not accept any vaccine. The misconduct of Big Pharma is well documented !! The behaviour of Global Governments is very worrying and in the light of what is happening now in the UK, it looks like I will be restricted from travelling anywhere. I call this dictatorship – there will be no compassion for me. As it stands — there seems to be a witch hunt gathering in the rural community where I live …….and I am the witch that they are hunting. After more than a year of being restricted on all levels, maybe losing their jobs, homes, dreams. Maybe being turned away by the NHS for surgery and cancer treatments. The public are on their knees and have been worn down, so they are willingly accepting this untested vaccine without INFORMED CONSENT. Informed, meaning that they have been warned of the possible adverse effects further down the line to their health. They have not been informed ………….Why not ? Is it not civil , benevolent duty to do so ?
Bernadette, do you mean you would refuse any Covid vaccine, or that you would refuse all vaccines?
Hello, Everyone.
I am grateful to Dr. Ivory for his clear message: for me it makes sense.
Damn it! If ONLY history would not keep repeating itself!
William, you have as usual expressed yourself beautifully, leaving no-one to feel guilty for his or her views, words or actions. Thank you.
The attitude of pro-Vaccination supporters reminds me of the Californian term for eternal optimists…”Bliss Ninny’s”.
As I said at the start, I am in the ‘Mathew Arnold’ camp: don’t expect to find love in the world….but in our own heart’s. Best of luck, everybody!
Why did I decide to trust the vaccination? I am a retired doctor and have seen the benefit of vaccination over the last 80 years or more. Measles kills, polio kills and covid kills. I own my anxiety and have been fortunate to learn a lot about myself while living in Findhorn for the last 33 years, and therefore able in a loving environment to take responsibility for my anxiety and make choices based upon experience without creating a one sided belief system. You might say that I am very privileged. Stiring up emotional uncertainty is the curse of our present culture. Rationality and emotional maturity can go a long sway to make good decisions for ourselves and our culture. And a lot of that is a real privilege. I do not take that for granted. Yes we must listen if the subject comes up and accept the other’s decisions and not demand they change. I choose to trust in this instance, but not in all.
I read your article with interest but take exception to being called an anti-vaxer. I am not totally against all vaccination although I do think we are now going too far. My main objection to this so called vaccine, research shows that from a purely scientific point it cannot be classified as such, is that it has not undergone the rigorous testing that should be involved and that it has been shown to have already caused many deaths and extremely unpleasant side effects which had they been seen in a “complimentary” treatment that treatment would have been summarily withdrawn. We mess with our DNA, as this “vaccine“ does at our peril and in years to come will possibly be seeing irreversible damage to those who have been unfortunate to have been used as human guinea pigs. I certainly will not be going anywhere near it until I am satisfied that it is safe which at the moment I definitely am not.
By this logic, any gravely persecuted group should be, on the whole, very much anti-vax. This theory, although it sounds attractive, does not even hold water with the first group to come to mind, Jews. Just as in the general populace, they are overwhelmingly pro-government control measures and pro vaccination. I hear this message from many rabbis on a Saturday.
If one looks carefully at the statistics, with a critical approach to the research itself, there are so many problems with a complete lack of grounding for measures currently being implemented, coupled with an overwhelming media misrepresentation of said data, that most people fall into the same witless camp as those who were in favor of appeasement leading up to the second World War.
I have a dear friend who was a child in Bonn Germany in the thirties, and she says the degree of denial of an alternative narrative to the one being promulgated by government, despite there being actual data to support this alternate view, as opposed to the dominant narrative which is primarily based on modeling that contradicts most of emerging data, it feels exactly the same as it did during her childhood.
Moreover, to extend a Jungian view of what is going on, one need look no further into history than the first world wars. According to Dr. Jung et alia, both periods were characterized by an initial “naive” response where people denied the possibility that modern humans could behave in such a barbaric, unthinkable manner. Yes, unthinkable.
I spent five years researching for my doctorate concerning the motivation for medical whistleblowing, the incidents and severity of criminality in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. So I have seen very clearly the evidence supporting an outright disregard for human life and well-being in this sector. Evidence, not conjecture.
We have an instance of the same now. The misconduct and blatantly murderous effects of the greed of Big Pharma are incontrovertibly documented, also in relation to incredibly strong lobbying efforts to indemnify the industry against massive harm done. Why would the populace willingly put themselves into the hands of such now? We’ll, the options are either through ignorance or unconscious denial.
I think it must be the latter, as too many individuals are yet hanging on to some kind of comforting myth about the benevolence of the powers that be. Speaking archetypologically, people are once again denying this shadow, denying even the possibility of this kind of behavior in others – perhaps because it reflects on their own hidden shadows in such a way as to bring into question whether they, as individuals, could be capable of doing what historically has been shown to be quite possible.
According to Jung, if we do not embrace this dark side, it is pushed underground and erupts uncontrollably in other arenas. That is what I see going on. People simply cannot accept the fact that other human beings are capable of such boundless evil, and therefore they refuse to accept what is in front of their own faces, in the way of data, and history.
So, yes, they are being naive, and yes, due to unrecognized archetypological, unconscious motivations, but not in the direction you seem to want to “see” it, despite data quite to the contrary.
If this appears too difficult to accept, I suggest more investigation, especially into the science of the statistics around this pandemic, the stats not accepted by the dominant voices, although espoused by many, many credible expert practitioners in the field, those without political ties.
Well, for all its shortcomings, big pharma eventually came up with a treatment and prevention for HIV, for which I am eternally grateful. Now here we go again with another epidemic. Vaccines have eliminated smallpox and made other diseases like polio a thing of the past. I am not going to say no when I am finally offered a covid vaccine. Or two.
What a superbly stated rebuttal of the naive, judgemental and disappointingly, slightly condescending comments in William Bloom’s blog. I am respectful of authority and don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories but I do question especially when issues do not sit comfortably with me and are departures from standard practise. I do this even more when the whole world is going something not gone through before within the lifetimes of its current inhabitants. This is a huge learning curve for everyone. Yes, some will have more relevant specialist knowledge but what is their personal agenda that supports their opinions? It’s important to know. The big pharma companies are continuing to produce products that ultimately poison, the planet and its inhabitants: plants, insects and up the ‘food chain’. And they wonder why some people are reluctant to trust them.
Refusing a vaccine which has not been tested for long term effects or effectiveness is not an act of rebellion against the state or the system, it is simply an act of self-reliance on ones own abilities and instincts and the courage, as with those who have had the vaccine, to accept the consequences of that action.
The government has proved repeatedly they are nothing short of a mafia or at the very least completely controlled by big money psychopaths. I dont need evolutionary psychology to stop them injecting me with anything. These initial vaccines may be harmless , maybe not. But the government is more than capable of injecting us with substances that msy change our very thoughts and make up. I do not trust them to inhect me. I will take my chances with a healthy immune system to naturally protect me. From a history of putting Mercury Floride Aluinium and other things in our bodies they do not have a trustworty track record. When i am dead they can experiment on my body but they will not take me alive
I think you’re both seeing different aspects of a fundamental problem for a social creature interacting with others: when to prioritise the survival and wellbeing of ‘me and mine’ by competing with ‘outsiders’, and when to cooperate with outsiders for mutual gain. When the situation is unclear, we try to connect the dots into networks of information and produce a map of the situation. For those who believe that survival demands that we recognise the potential danger of outsiders, the information coalesces into a picture of a nafarious and mysterious coalition of enemies with sinister intent. For those who believe that prosperity demands sacrifice, outsiders are benevolent and we must overcome our fear to move from a Darwinian / Hobbesian state of nature to a social contract. Due to the internet, each of us is now supplied with an overabundance of information to construct these two contrasting worldviews. I imagine that the truth (which we will never know) is more likely to be a combination. Big pharma is indeed ruthless in pursuit of profit. Mainstream medicine is indeed promoting an ideological fairytale in which the benign and rational scientist acts disinterestedly in pursuit of evidence and truth to control senseless nature. Some people with power and money could indeed have strategised to benefit from the covid scenario. On the other hand, viruses exist, some vaccines have worked, there is a tradeoff to be made between risk and reward, many experts are working disinterestedly in pursuit of others’ wellbeing.
This is the same dilemma that we are working through in politics everywhere that nationalist populism faces the Establishment ideology of corporatist internationalism. The populist senses danger from outsiders, values strength, despises appeals to outsiders’ rights as showing naivety, is happy to override moralities, constitutions and traditions which they think have simply allowed the weak to thrive by bamboozling the strong. The internationalist senses the need for us to come together and overcome differences to fight shared problems like global warming, and decries ruthlessness as unkind and immoral.
As we as a species develop solutions to this eternal conundrum, I believe that our society will both fracture into smaller units (as in secession) and at the same time bond together into larger units (as in international fora). I imagine it as a developing fractal black and white pattern which continues down to the level of individual encounters between passersby in Glastonbury.
This is the aweful and awesome process of contraction and expansion spoken of by Shinzen Young, the destruction and creation process of Hinduism, the Yin and Yang of Taoism going on everywhere else in our world.