Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Neville Goddard (1905-1972) offered a compelling explanation of the human condition and an intriguing and empowering path of self-discovery. Join your host Ed to explore from the ground up this most essential mystery: the human imagination.
[Update: The paragraph mentioning 'fractional reserve lending' has been deleted, as this practice is now superceded by 'capital adequacy requirements'. Money creation is still an extraordinary privilege granted to private firms. ~15 Nov 2022]
1. Revisiting: political awakening in relation to spiritual awakening.
As I was thinking about today’s topic, I remembered that I had come to a conclusion in an earlier episode that we don't want to spend too much time dwelling on the evil aspects of society. At the same time, we don’t want to be in a state of self-imposed ignorance.
Scratching the surface a little, we discover that we have been lied to. Is this not the constant refrain of investigators? I mean, the investigators who are independent -- the historical revisionists and alternative researchers. Anyone with a critical frame of mind is frequently appalled by the manner and extent to which he has been lied to, by the media, by education, by any number of institutional forces. At its origin, the deception is found to be quite deliberate; whereas later it becomes a self-perpetuating system of values; rewards and punishments; and norms of behaviour and permissible thought. For example, you could pay for a degree program at a university and put in the effort, and then afterwards read certain sources that the “experts” you had studied under ignore, which sources expose the entire program of study as a fabrication. And so the prospect of overturning these deceptions does indeed motivate you.
2. “Essence” has a legitimate and heartfelt desire for truth, even in the world of Caesar.
Now, in the Fourth Way, they explain that the genuine part of a person is called “Essence” (as opposed to the false personality). To stay alive psychologically is to keep Essence alive. Well, the advice that they give is that Essence requires truth for its growth, for its sustenance. It wants to know the truth of the matter -- of any matter. And if the higher orders of truth are not within our grasp at a given moment, then we will seek out another level of truth. And I think that is a compelling reason, a deeper reason, why we want to understand this or that aspect of history, or of society.
So, as I prepared today’s episode, in the back of my mind I was thinking that, from the standpoint of striving for a truly transcendental understanding of the conflicts and injustices in the world of Caesar, they should simply dissolve and not have first rank or first priority in our use of time and attention. But I decided that I will go ahead with my intended topic, and go outside our usual format, on the premise that it's necessary to pursue truth in whatever form. Then, at the end, I will conclude by trying to resolve this seeming contradiction, and remain true to the spirit of this podcast series by interpreting the whole matter with Neville’s worldview in mind.
3. Truth in the world of economics and finance: Stephen Mitford Goodson (d.2018)
Stephen Mitford Goodson was an economist and an investment analyst. He managed investment funds and worked, I think, also in the insurance industry, in Rhodesia . It was at this time that he began to read critical literature that investigated the origins and nature of world finance.
He was later active in South Africa as a director in the South African Reserve Bank, which is one central bank in the global system of central banks, a privately held cartel.
During his time serving within the bank, he had put forward, most notably, a resolution to convert the central bank into what is termed a state bank -- in other words, a public bank that would issue the currency, but not require interest on that currency to be paid into the hands of private shareholders. This resolution was not well received, either because the senior directors did not understand it, or perhaps because they understood it only too well.
Besides being a banker and an historian, he launched into politics, not, as he said, for the sake of being in politics, but to use it as a platform to promulgate his information about the central banking system and the possible alternatives that might benefit the citizenry, rather than private interests.
Goodson wrote a book about his experience called Inside the South African Reserve Bank: Its Origins and Secrets Exposed, which was in the nature of a whistleblower's report; consequently he became a target.
Now, the reason that I'm bringing Stephen Mitford Goodson and his works to your attention is, first, because of the universal relevance of the subject matter -- it applies to everyone -- and second, the magnitude of the deception that he discusses. I believe you will be hard pressed to find among any -- even conservative -- sources... taxpayer associations, think tanks... any discussion of the nature and origins of the monetary system.
Neville had said that ideas that are revelatory need repetition, re-iteration and re-statement. That’s true in the present case, too, because anyone like myself who has looked into this question of finance, the monetary system, and looked beyond the mainstream, has likely seen, for example the video The Money Masters by Bill Still, or read The Web of Debt, by Ellen Brown, which are already several years old. Even so, I find that it's difficult to understand the dimensions of the deception, and to cogently visualize the desirable alternative. In any case, I am including in the show notes the citations for these and for Goodson’s material.
4. How Goodson touched the third rail: the extraordinary fraud of household and government debt.
What is the core problem that I’m referring to? How is it that he, so to speak, touched the third rail, with respect to economics and finance? There's an extraordinary fraud that has been perpetrated on vast populations, ever since the establishment of the Bank of England, back in 1694. The model of the Bank of England is the one that has been seized upon to be replicated the world over, in a rather tumultuous history.
In each case, the central bank somehow (often using bribery and coercion) establishes itself in legislation, or through royal decree, and, having legitimized its position, then proceeds to operate as the authority which charters the commercial banks with whom we, the public, must deal. Crucially, the central bank permits the commercial banks to create money out of thin air.
So I'll explain this, and here I am paraphrasing Stephen Goodson’s explanation; you have to go to his material for the authoritative account. Let's say an individual goes to the commercial bank in order to get a mortgage loan to buy a house. We normally think that the bank accords to this person a sum of money that it has withdrawn from a depositor's account, and that the bank, charging a certain rate of interest on the mortgage (let's say 5%), and having to pay a certain rate of interest on the deposits to the depositors (let's say 3%), will then benefit from a profit of 2% on the mortgage loan.
That's the common notion that we are all told. It's not limited to just the average non-expert to have this point of view. It's actually the point of view of, as Goodson points out, long standing, high ranking academic experts. And yet the whole thing is false.
What actually happens is this: The borrower goes into the commercial bank. Once he qualifies, the bank creates in his account the sum required for the mortgage loan. Where do they get that money? It is simply created on the keyboard as an entry, an accounting entry, and that's it. It is little more than a counterfeiting operation, with an air of legality and legitimacy.
This originated back with the practice of money lenders, who, at first, issued receipts in exchange for taking in and securely storing the depositors’ physical gold. In time, the warehouse custodians noticed that the receipts they had issued were actually circulating out in the world of commerce as money. Since, as they reasoned, the depositors rarely returned to the warehouse to collect their holdings, and since they would not, en masse, demand their physical gold holdings all at one time, it was possible to lend out freshly created certificates, at interest, not only backed by other people’s gold (i.e., the depositors’ property), but in amounts far in excess of the physical gold stored in the warehouse.
So let's just go through that one more time briefly. The central bank permits the commercial banks themselves to make these fraudulent keyboard entries, creating the mortgage loan out of nothing, out of thin air, as an accounting entry to credit the account of the borrower. Over the term of the loan, the borrower will be obliged to repay the entire principal, and, crucially, the interest that attaches thereto.
To give a rough sketch of the larger picture for this country (and these figures, from a report by the Fraser Institute are already seven years old, but will give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem): household debt, of which mortgage debt constitutes two thirds, is over $2 trillion; government debt is $2.5 trillion. Now, in all the discussion of debt in the media, I challenge you to find some examination of the institutional structure; some investigation into how this debt is created, and who benefits.
This whole fraud has been perpetrated over years, over a tumultuous history, as I say. Stephen Mitford Goodson has done us a service in doing the research, and tracing through the various developments to reveal the fact that many historical events, in particular war, have this problem that we're discussing at their root.
So at this point, you might ask, well, what is the alternative? What is the right thing to do? There are several examples in history, and even currently, where a banking operation that is operated as a public institution, and so not beholden to private interests, does not need to charge interest. It can simply subsist on nominal fees. The result of that is that the economic indicators improve tremendously. The servicing of crushing debt is eliminated; the swings of the co-called business cycle disappear; and stable prices, low levels of unemployment and low inflation, are all the order of the day.
Goodson contends that this is the chief reason behind the wars that were perpetrated, notably, in the modern era, World War I and World War II, as well as the destruction of Libya : he explains how it is indeed the countries who had state banks, working for the benefit of the population and not for the private cartel, who were wiped out, so that a central bank could be established.
5. Alternative voices
What is both interesting and frustrating is to try to make sense of the voices of dissent in this fundamental aspect of society, namely, economics and finance. (To avoid confusion, I will not include links for most of this brief synopsis of alternative voices, but will give enough information to let any interested listener/reader to follow up.)
Michael Hudson is one economist, in some sense alternative, highly qualified, I think with a left leaning point of view, who has assured us that debts that cannot be paid will not be paid, and he is strong in relating historical precedents, going back into antiquity. It seems then, that the “reset” that is often discussed is, in some form or other, inevitable.
Goodson has said (in the talk show interview called Straight Talk) that the solution of the public bank is “the only solution”; and in this he echoes the voice of Ellen Brown (her book is entitled Web of Debt) who lauded the example of the Bank of North Dakota.
Ellen Brown herself was severely criticized in a talk given by an Austrian economist Gary North (posted on the mises.org website).
This is most strange, because Austrian economists offer, otherwise, such a cogent economic system in defiance of the mainstream Keynesianism, notably in the person of Murray Rothbard, who in fact explained the nature of the banking operation (in a book called The Mystery of Banking) and argued for the currency-issuing authority to be opened to a free market solution.
Then again, the Austrian school itself has been impugned and called 'controlled opposition'. Bill Still mentions in one interview that the pillar of the Austrian school, Ludwig von Mises, was actually funded by the Rockefellers to come to America, while another commentator (on the thread attached to the Gary North post mentioned above) points out that the Austrians never name or criticize directly the banking families.
This, in turn, is in stark contrast to Eustace Mullins and his mentor, Ezra Pound (see episodes 25 and 26). They are scarcely permitted, unlike the critics I’ve mentioned above, a place in the discussion, being among the most vilified and reviled of alternative voices.
Well, before leaving this brief synopsis of alternative voices in the world of finance, take note of Major CH Douglas, the founder of the Social Credit system. He joins Goodson in identifying the very same core problem (as he expressed it in the title of his book The Monopoly of Credit). Douglas produced a most novel analysis, and a solution to redress the chronic deficiency in purchasing power in the typical economy. His policies were taken seriously and implemented, to greater and lesser degrees of success, both in Japan and in the Canadian province of Alberta. In an interview posted at barnesreview.org with the Wallace Klinck, the monetary reform expert in the Alberta Socred movement, we learn that the successors of the social credit experiment in Alberta, while adopting the name, actually betrayed the spirit of the movement and consigned the printed works of CH Douglas, quite literally, to an incinerator.
[Addendum: Note also the (failed) efforts of the COMER monetary reform committee in Canada to force, through court action, the Bank of Canada to resume its state banking functions.]
As promised, I will now turn my attention to a philosophical conclusion.
5. Conclusion: significance of this financial information in the context of Neville’s ideas.
So what is the significance of this foray into the truth in the world of finance, as revealed by Stephen Mitford Goodson?
My reading of Neville is that he would not take the issue of legitimized counterfeiting at face value; he would not be perturbed in the least at the seeming injustice of it. Somewhere he states something to this effect: If, in an instant, the wealth of the world could be redistributed so that each had an equal share, within a few short years the picture of wealth distribution would have reverted to the original pattern. The reason is that the outward wealth of individuals is entirely governed by each person’s conception of himself.
With regard to opposing criminal action in the world of Caesar, I remember him saying two things in particular: 1. by all means, anyone aware of this or that social injustice should avail himself of the power of the imagination to correct it.; 2. remember that physical, outward action that is not inspired by the state of mind of the wish fulfilled will be a futile re-adjustment of surfaces. The state of consciousness held consistently has precedence over appearances.
To take the psychological view, do not allow a split in the psyche; i.e., don't worry about this false contradiction between spiritual and political awakening. Instead, let’s take responsibility for the whole thing, and relate this injustice back to the ignorance and the darkness that is self-imposed, with respect to our own nature and identity.
There is a vast wealth at our fingertips; we have the power to change the aspect of the outer world and all social arrangements. As Neville says, it is the materialists and the worldly people who are dealing in a fictitious world. By contrast, a person dealing in consciousness accesses the creative source. This gives us the courage to face worldly problems, and not be discouraged by them, but to assimilate them, exercise a disciplined denial (see E5), and consciously create the solution.