"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
�Ephesians 6:12

Recently, on a Saturday afternoon, I tuned in to a very popular local hip hop/R&B radio station in the city of Chicago. This particular station is listened to by a fairly large percentage of Black youth in and around the Chicagoland area. Within the span of about 45 minutes, six songs were played that afternoon and the predominate themes were:

• The activity of reckless driving while under the influence of alcohol.

• A description of a young woman engaged in activity that can be interpreted as leading to the act of masturbation.

• A pornographic description of the sex act between a young man and woman.

• A woman sleeping in a bed with one man while thinking about having sex with another man.

• A group of young people on a rampage of mayhem involving gunplay, assault, battery and murder!

Keep in mind that the various themes of these songs are conveyed in such a way as to glorify the behavior involved in them, not to condemn it. If our youth are constantly bombarded with this type of audio imagery, it becomes easier to understand how, for instance, a young Black man can pump eight bullets into the body of a pregnant woman for money. Or how a young Black man can shoot, stab, strangle and beat to death a young Black girl who is pregnant with his child!

These incidents and many more like them are the results or effects of the mind wars which have been waged against the masses of the people in general, and against Black youth in particular in this society and around the world.

Mental and spiritual alchemy

In his visionary book, "A Torchlight for America," the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan states: "He who gives the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activity." Implicit in the above statement is the science of the transference of certain types of knowledge or data for the purpose of causing a certain kind of activity or behavior.

This science of behavior modification�or mind control�through the manipulation of images (symbols) and sounds (ideas) is an ancient science that has been used by the wickedly wise rulers of this world for centuries, and is based on what has been called by some scholars and historians the hermetic sciences, or what is known as alchemy.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, alchemy is defined as, "A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea; and the preparation of the elixir of longevity." It is also defined in the same dictionary as, "A seemingly magical power or process of transmuting."

In the Encarta Desk Encyclopedia, one of the descriptions of alchemy is, "a practice based on imposture and wizardry." It is the latter two descriptions of alchemy with which, for the purposes of this article, we will concern ourselves.

It has been known for ages amongst those who have risen into the higher degrees of freemasonry and ancient hermetic philosophy, that the classical definition of alchemy, as an art devoted to the transmutation of chemicals, is in reality a metaphor for its true purpose, which is the study of the science of the transmutation or transformation of minds, political systems and spiritual beliefs.

In more recent times, the science of mental alchemy, or mind manipulation, has been employed by major advertising firms through what is called subliminal suggestion, which is the process of planting certain messages into to the subconscious or unconscious mind, to alter behavior patterns and spending habits.

These mind control techniques in advertising were first documented in the book "The Hidden Persuaders," by Vance Packard (1957), and later in 1973 in the book "Subliminal Seduction," by Wilson Bryan Key. The latest form of mind control or mental alchemy, which is being directed towards the brains of Black youth in particular through urban hip hop music programming, is not subliminal in nature, but is in fact a direct frontal assault on the brain�s ability to process information.

The wickedly wise 10 percent who rule this world are able to do so by controlling the minds of the masses of the people. It is their understanding and mastery of two basic scientific principles involved in the techniques of mental and spiritual alchemy, which has allowed them to manipulate the minds of the people.

These two hermetic principles are the law of causality (cause and effect) and the law of vibration. The law of causality asserts that we live in a universe of cause and effect, and that everything that exists is either an effect of a cause, or a cause of an effect, and that every cause is in fact an effect of an even higher cause.

The law of vibration states that everything in the universe is made manifest according to the vibratory rate of its atomic structure, and that there is a hierarchy of vibratory rates that range from solid material objects that vibrate at a low speed, to emotions, thoughts, and other higher spiritual planes, that vibrate at a much higher speed. In other words, thoughts are material things with the only distinguishing factor between them and obvious material objects being their higher rate of vibration!

It is in the realm of thoughts that the mental alchemist has been able to create havoc and manipulate the behavior of the people because certain thoughts vibrate at a higher rate than others, and certain areas of the human brain are constructed to process certain thoughts based upon their vibratory rate.

For instance, the lower part of the brain (the limbic system) is constructed to process those thoughts that resonate at a lower vibratory rate, such as emotions, while the higher brain (the cerebrum) is constructed to process thoughts that vibrate at a higher rate, such as those of reason and contemplation.

This reality has been masterfully illuminated by Minister Farrakhan in a study guide titled "Rising Above Emotion, Into The Thinking of God," where under a section titled "Where Emotion Comes From," he states: "The brain is not only an organ of intellect and logic; it is also the source of emotion. Emotions are brought to life in what is known as the �limbic system.� The limbic system is a collection of parts that constitute approximately 20 percent of the brain�s area. The forces of pride, fear, joy, grief, anger, lust, hatred, envy and jealousy arise from this region of the brain. The limbic system is found surrounding the most primitive part of the brain and is found in almost the same form in all mammals. It is that part of man that is hardly distinguishable from the beast."

And it is that part of the brain in Black people, particularly Black youth, that the mind manipulators�who control both audio and video imagery in this society�have relentlessly bombarded with both sights and sounds that are calibrated at the lowest vibratory rates possible. The attack is calculated to activate the lower brain of emotion (limbic system) and at the same time de-activate the higher brain (cerebrum). The effect being, a people who have been conditioned to respond and act on their lowest desires and most primitive emotional impulses and whose higher brain functions, which are responsible for processing broad or somewhat abstract concepts such as freedom, justice, equality and the thinking of God, have been all but de-activated.

The effects of this mind war waged against our youth has caused so much negative behavior in our communities. If we are to overcome this assault on our minds and change the condition of our people, we must follow the divine blueprint given to us through the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, and transform the thinking of our people by first going to them and giving them a message that vibrates at the highest of all vibratory rates.

What is that message? That message is the good news, which is the knowledge of God and His plan of mental and spiritual resurrection for his people, and His kingdom where the rejected and the despised will be put on the top of civilization.

It is only when we know that the will of God is in line with our natural desire for freedom, justice and equality that we will then have the desire and the will to raise our thoughts to a higher vibratory rate in line with the thinking of God.