lightworker probably explained

***check bottom of the post for updates and clarifications, most specifically why I think Morford got the Lightworker concept from this person, also, pictures now exist for the confused, which should make this less confusing***

Most of us just dismissed Mark Morford's gushing prose about Barack Obama as ridiculous swooning.  Most notably this ridiculous "Lightworker" line,

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment.

As it turns out, he did get this from "spiritually advanced" people, or maybe one person.  Mrs. Peel found a guy, possibly the guy who talks about this Lightworker thing, and is certainly a believer in it.  * Peel notes in her post this guru guy didn't create the term Lightworker, or the basic concept. I still argue that his concept of the Lightworker originates, or at least borrows heavily from where I argue that he does in the rest of this post.   I saw this linked in Ace's comments, and most likely (creepy cult-y site warning) here is where Morford's guru guy got the basic Lightworker idea, and added his own spin to it.  Both these people and the guru guy are based in Vegas and do appearances in the West.  I maintain that Morford got this idea from the same guy I think he did because of the guru guy's web savvy, and that he is regularly featured on sites like Lifehacker, however, these fruit loops may make up the plural of Morford's "spiritually advanced" persons.  I'm guessing that Morford started with the self help guru, then went on to the weapons grade crazy with these freaky deaky people.

When you read the guy's site, you learn there are Darkworkers too.  As I read this guy's explanation of Lightworkers and Darkworkers, I realized, I've seen all this before!  And in fact, video games may well have a role in this nonsense.  I recognized this basic framework of this philosophy from a video game released for the X-BOX in 2005, called Jade Empire.  I later came to the conclusion that he borrowed from a game called Star Wars:  Knights of the Old Republic(KOTOR) which was made by the same development team before Jade Empire.  Jade Empire was based heavily on KOTORs engine and gameplay.  I don't feel that I need to explain the whole Jedi/Sith thing, because everyone knows what it is already, so I'm focusing on Jade Empire.

In Jade Empire, you could either follow the philosophy of the Open Palm or the Closed Fist.  Open Palm is a philosophy that argues one should always give aid to someone, be in tune with nature, and to know and accept one's place in this world.  Closed Fist is a philosophy that teaches self-reliance, to control one's surroundings, and to try and be ambitious.  Lightworker and Darkworker operate on similar principles.  From Morford's article,

The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics.

Let me repeat Jade Empire's Open Palm philosophy:   Open Palm is a philosophy that argues one should always give aid to someone, be in tune with nature, and to know and accept one's place in this world.  

The reason you don't see an Open Palm or Lightworker on the national stage is because philosophically speaking, they aren't supposed to be ambitious.  This is why Morford is so excited.

Let that sink in, and keep it in mind, because things are gonna get better.

In Jade Empire, philosophically speaking (though not functionally speaking, which was a criticism I had of the game) Open Palm is not necessarily benevolent, and Closed Fist not necessarily malevolent.  Open Palm can be malevolent in that it can weaken others, instead of making someone fend for themselves, an Open Palm may give them that aid, which makes the person less self reliant.  Someone of a Closed Fist may look at someone in need, and will help them knowing that in the future they may be able to use that person to advance themselves later or use them in a time of need.

In theory, Lightworkers and Darkworkers operate on similar principles, but our guru deviates and argues that true Lightworkers have no malevolent side, and Darkworkers are by their nature destructive, which as we learn is more like the concept of Jedi vs. Sith.  Lightworkers work for the common good and to "raise consciousness".  Basically typical liberal hippie Marxist crap.  Darkworkers are malevolent, in our guru's world, and indeed Morford's world, capitalist pigs, the Bushitler and Enron.  He argues that both can get to the same place in terms of power, but that the Darkworker by his very nature leaves a trail of chaos and destruction in his wake, not unlike the Sith or Closed Fist.

Guru:

Do you really think scandals like Enron, the manufactured War in Iraq, or the sub-prime collapse are just the result of a few people exercising poor judgment? Hardly. Such occurrences are the modus operandi of darkworkers. To a darkworker the greatest good is to seek power at any cost.

Morford:

And perhaps, as Bush laid waste to the land and embarrassed the country and pummeled our national spirit into disenchanted pulp and yet ironically, in so doing has helped set the stage for an even larger and more fascinating evolutionary burp, we are finally truly ready for another Lightworker to step up.

Moar Morford!

There's a vast amount of positive energy swirling about that's been held back by the armies of BushCo darkness, and this energy has now found a conduit, a lightning rod, is now effortlessly self-organizing around Obama's candidacy.

Darkworker=Sith=Closed Fist, you dig?

Let's look at Morford's "Lightworker" statement again,

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment.

Our gurus most simplified explanation of the first objective of a Lightworker,

First, it’s important to understand that the ultimate goal of a lightworker is basically the expansion and elevation of consciousness. Darkworkers have essentially the same primary aim, but lightworkers pursue a very different path to get there.

Lightworker=Jedi=Open Palm.  See what I mean?

Okay, silly, whatever, typical leftist blather with a spiritual bent and an odd coincidental similarity to Bioware RPGs.   I thought it was a coincidence until I saw this.  What is it I see?  Look,

In your life story, you can choose to be the hero, the villain, or an NPC (i.e. non-player character, someone passive who watches the story unfold from the sidelines). Most people live like NPCs, but the hero and the villain have far more power to direct how the story unfolds. There are lots of heroes and lots of villains in this story, but there are orders of magnitude more NPCs.

All bold mine.  For those that don't know, NPC is a term that is very common in role playing games (RPG), both of the tabletop and video game variety.  If you're not a gamer or D&Der, you've probably never heard these terms before.  Upon seeing it, I think our guru based this stuff on KOTOR and Jade Empire!  He's selling dopey leftists like Morford a bunch of warmed over RPG themes!  Talk about Darkworking!

Further, from this guy's website,

If you polarize as a lightworker, you are dedicating your life to serving the greater good.

If you polarize as a darkworker, you are dedicating your life to serving yourself.

When he says "Polarize", what he means is that you live your life as a devotee of one philosophy or the other.  This guy compares it to being a Jedi or Sith in Star Wars, which is a central part of KOTORs gameplay.  If you've ever played KOTOR, you may remember that as you play, different actions you take push you toward the light side or dark side of the force, to where you could become fully of the light side, or fully of the dark side.  Jade Empire works on the same principle, and one can become move toward and become fully aligned with the way of the Open Palm or Closed Fist.  These are central functions of KOTOR and Jade Empire, and the primary moving forces in their stories.  Sounds a hell of a lot like Polarizing, doesn't it?   The good news is I finally found a screenshot, which should clear up any confusion immensely,


Why didn't I come up with this?  I could have quit shaving, taken up drugs, bought some hippie clothes, moved to San Fransisco and became a guru!  The only thing that would have sucked is the not bathing and pretending that I'm that willfully ignorant all the time, but I coulda milked it for what it was worth and bailed afterword.  That would have been awesome, talk about Darkwork!  Taking stupid progressive douchebags' money, BSing them with philosophical claptrap from some video games...*sigh*, I've been bested.

Update:  Peel notes, our guru actually used to develop shareware games!  Dude knows the game industry. Also in his wiki, he retired from making shareware games and started his self help site in 2006, after KOTOR(the first one) and Jade Empire were released!  Jade Empire was released in 2005, and KOTOR was released in 2003!

I also still believe that Morford got the Lightworker concept from this guy.  I argue that based on this guru guy's traffic, and that our guru guy is based in the West.  When you punch his site into Alexa, he's competitive in terms of traffic with sites like Michelle Malkin's and Hotair, just a notch down from them for the most part, but is currently ahead of both.  When you do a search for our guru's name, you see he gets around online, not to mention the personal appearances, it wouldn't be hard for Morford to find this guy.

Moar!  JSchuler in comments notes another dynamic from KOTOR and Jade Empire, that of the influence you wield on others as a Lightworker/Jedi/Open Palm or a Darkworker/Sith/Closed Fist.  In fact, our self help guru covers a very similar dynamic,

On lightworking,

If you work for a company or organization run by lightworkers, you can expect it to be a consciousness-raising experience. Going to work is like entering a cloud of light. You look forward to it and almost hate to leave. You know you’re performing a valuable service that helps others. At the end of the day you feel great about your job and the people you work with. You may even want to extend the work into your personal time. Going to work gives you feelings of peace, joy, love, contribution, compassion, and connection. Working feels like breathing love — an energizing experience.

Darkworkers,

You can often detect the presence of a darkworker by the effect they have on your consciousness. For example, if you work for a company run by darkworkers, you may perceive that going to work at your job actually lowers your consciousness compared to if you just stayed home. Going to work is like entering an awareness-lowering cloud, inviting you to resonate with lower states of consciousness such as fear, greed, apathy, depression, and worry. When you leave work, you feel like you’re coming out of that dark cloud; it’s like you can finally breathe and be yourself again. If you recognize that you’re in such a situation and continue to allow yourself to be vamped because you feel too powerless to do otherwise, then you have first-hand knowledge of how effective darkworking can be. The weaker your independent will becomes, the more you empower the darkworker that’s using you. Think of this as energetic slavery.

You can experience this in both KOTOR and Jade Empire, but it's even more prevalent in KOTOR II, released in 2004!

Kishnevi offers some insight into the origins of the New Age movements, which is what this Lightworking nonsense came from.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:14 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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