The entirety of human misery is built on a bed of twelve lies. These lies are disseminated so subtly that often they aren't even stated outright. Nevertheless, they so permeate our culture that they are almost universally believed by people who have never even given them a second thought.

And yet, these twelve lies have taken away from you the power your Creator intended you to have, to the benefit of a handful of obscenely rich men and to the detriment of the remainder of the human race.

Today I want to expose each of these lies, and show how, by simply seeing through them to the underlying Truths, you can instantly and pretty painlessly transform your life into one that is happy, uplifting, and well on the road to Enlightenment.

Lie #1: "You are a physical being made of solid matter, living in a material world."

Every physicist in the world knows this is a lie, but it seems to take about a century for the findings of physicists to filter down to the person-in-the-street and become part of his or her worldview. This lie is so pervasive that it is seldom articulated. Instead, it mostly comes to us as part of the package we call "life on Earth."

Here's the reality: Your body (and every other "physical" thing in the Universe) is composed of atoms. Forget the image of atoms you were shown in high school chemistry (part of the lie); physicists know that atoms are a speck of a nucleus surrounded at an enormous distance, relatively speaking, by a fuzzy cloud of electrons, which are even smaller specks. If a proton were the size of an apple, the electrons would be 10,000 miles from it. So the real lie is that there is even any such thing as "solid" matter.

That's right: your body and mine, and the chair you're sitting in, and the glass of Diet Pepsi you're drinking, and your computer monitor, and everything else, consists of 99.9999999999999% empty space—nothingness.

What's more, the components of atoms (electrons, protons and neutrons) are themselves made of something even more ephemeral: They are called quantum particles and they don't even exist all the time! Instead, they flicker into and out of existence so that a single electron cannot be said to be made of particular quantum particles. Instead they come and go like people in a rush-hour crowd at a subway platform: The people come and go while the crowd remains constant.

Now, here's something even more surprising: Quantum particles also flick into and out of existence in "empty" space! That means that, at the quantum level, there is no difference between protons, electrons, and the space between them!

But if that's so (and it is), how can there be anything, even the illusion of anything, at this "non-macro" level of "reality"?

The answer is this: Somehow, a pattern has been imposed on that apparently random flickering. Patterns are completely subjective perceptions that we (perceiving beings) impose on that randomness. Therefore, for there to be a physical universe, there must be perceptual beings to perceive it! In other words, the Universe is not made up of "things"; it is made only of thought or spirit.

Read that previous paragraph again, for it contains the first great Truth:

Truth #1: "We are beings of intangible spirit living in a Universe of ideas."

There is a wealth of implications to this Truth: including that both health and illness are illusions; that there is no death; that nothing exists independently of thought. It's worth noting also that, since there is no death or injury, there is no basis for any fear whatsoever! You may prefer not to die today, but there's no need to fear the possibility.

Another corollary is that you are your soul. A soul isn't something attached to you like a wart. You cannot "lose" it and no one and nothing can "take" it from you. The closest you can come to "losing" your soul is to give yourself (and therefore your soul) over to a person or organization that uses you for its own purposes without your further consent.

Lie #2: "The material goods you amass show your worth as a person, and the more you spend, the worthier you are."

We need look no farther than the nearest indigenous tribe to see that humans in their natural state do not need things to make them happy. Yet the multi-trillion-dollar advertising industry is in a constant frenzy, bombarding each of us with unending messages of our unworthiness, and how this new car or that new deodorant will bring us love and acceptability. All advertising, and a lot of the so-called content, in the mass media is designed to reinforce our fear that we are unworthy in some way—a problem which, itself, is a lie—and that owning what the advertiser is selling will remove that feeling of unworthiness.

This scam didn't originate with Madison Avenue, either. For centuries, churches have gotten their congregations to harmonize to hymns such as, "Oh Lord, I Am Not Worthy" and "Amazing Grace That Saved A Wretch Like Me". Although Jesus never said a word about us being unworthy wretches, that didn't stop the churches from selling their product—"salvation", something you don't need because you aren't in danger of anything (see Lie #1), the price of which is (in most churches) a 10% tax on everything you own.

And if that's not enough—why, just donate extra to your church, or to a charity (many of which pay more money to their board members than goes to the supposed cause they claim to support).

Truth #2: "As a creation of God, I am infinitely valued for my unique set of experiences. No one is quite like me, so no one exceeds me in worth."

You are not too fat or too thin; you are not "born a sinner" and you are not an "ascended master". No car, deodorant, snack food, HD TV, Wii or designer purse will bring you happiness or even more than a few minutes' satisfaction; because the same liars who told you they would, will advertise a new-and-improved model tomorrow.

Now, none of this means that possessing material goods is inherently bad. However, in our present culture, most of the things we are encouraged to buy are made in third world countries by what amounts to slave labor; and buying those products allows such an inhumane system to exist (see Lie #3). Whether you choose to let that knowledge impact your buying habits, however, still cannot change the fact that you (and I) are perfect, priceless, children of the Creator Universe.

—And so is everyone else. So any energy you might spend trying to improve other people is misdirected. People who do so find no happiness in it, just a smug (and mistaken) sense of satisfaction that while they play the harp in Heaven, those they were unable to bully into accepting their advice will burn forever in Hell (neither of which exists). The only person you can ever bring to enlightenment is yourself (although there is value in serving as a quiet example of that to others who can benefit by knowing what that looks like).

Or, as Aunt Eller sings in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, "I ain't sayin' that I'm better than anybody else, but I'll be danged if I ain't just as good!"

Lie #3: "You have been given dominion over the plants and animals of the world."

In Genesis the "Lord God" (Adonai Elohim, more properly translated as "the lord of the gods") supposedly gives Adam "dominion" over all the other species of the earth. This assignment has been used for centuries to justify driving species to the edge of extinction and beyond; to justify genetic manipulation of plants so that they require the use of certain expensive fertilizers (won't grow without them); to spewing poisons into our atmosphere to the point that it has affected not only our lungs but the very climate of our planet that makes it habitable. It's even been used to justify slavery, by the simple expedient of labeling certain groups of people as "animals" and then using them to do the work of oxen or horses.

Since the Industrial Revolution, we've been shown endless examples of interchangeable parts. When one breaks, replace it! This works with toasters and television sets (or did until the manufacturers found they could make more money by selling you a new appliance than by fixing your old one).

Our bodies, our world and our societies were not manufactured. Yet doctors, scientists and politicians seem to think they were. In the West especially, we have doctors with specialties so precise that the podiatrist who examines your foot cannot examine your throat. What's more, that seems reasonable to most Americans! If you found yourself thinking, "Well, I wouldn't want a foot doctor looking at my throat, anyway!" you have bought into this concept, called reducibility, that you are simply the sum of your parts.

Consider: Your doctor informs you (on the basis of blood tests) that you have diabetes. He prescribes Metformin, an oral medicine, to control your blood sugar level. Months later, you are discovered to have high blood pressure and a vitamin B-12 deficiency. Both are the result of taking Metformin, but instead of discontinuing that, he prescribes vitamin B-12 shots and Propranolol and Hydrochlorothiazide for the high blood pressure. Months after that, he discovers your potassium levels are dangerously low (a side effect of the Hydrochlorothiazide). Does he discontinue that? No, he prescribes potassium supplements. And on and on.

At no time is the question ever asked, "Why is the blood sugar level high?" (The answer might well be a diet high in processed grains and sugars, which causes both diabetes and high blood pressure.) Because all parts of your body are inextricably connected to each other and to the world around you, any attempt to fix one part—which isn't broken after all, but merely trying to find a balance in an imbalanced system—simply shifts the problem around, often affecting two or three organs.

At the planetary level, this lie is being exposed as we realize that global warming is not due to a single out-of-control industry, but rather is a result of the post-Industrial Revolution age. If we try and "fix" the problem one invention at a time—greener cars, better insulated buildings—we are apt to discover that we merely shift the symptoms. In the end, it may well turn out that Earth cannot support a world-girdling species that insists on enslaving that vast majority of its members by enticing them with Gameboys and Guess Jeans into giving away their lives in order to enrich the few who own the factories.

Truth #3: "Everything in the Universe is connected, interrelated, and inextricably linked together."

The ramification is that nothing can be "fixed" because nothing is "broken." However, things as a whole can be out of balance, and that is not a happy state. If we can devote our efforts to keeping things in balance—and we can only do this, obviously, as far as we are concerned—we, and everything else, will be a lot happier.

Lie #4: "As a flower blooms where it's planted, you should know your place and keep to it."

This lie has been used for millennia to keep enslaved peoples from attempting to live lives for themselves. And it doesn't matter whether the slave is considered "property" or told he or she is "free" but forced to work for a substandard wage to avoid starving to death.

It is said that there is no jailer as effective as another prisoner; and whether you are working your way up a social or financial ladder, or a spiritual one, you'll find there is no shortage of people who will "encourage" you to stay put. They'll point out the risks in what you're doing, how you could easily lose everything!!!! if you don't remember your place.

Truth #4: "I am on a path to Enlightenment, and like every one else I can take a step forward at my own pace."

A true friend will always provide real encouragement and support as you attempt to rise out of an unfavorable situation. In fact, there may be no better way to find out who your true friends are.

Lie #5: "The world conspires to keep you in your place."

Obviously this lie is related to Lie #4, which gives you an idea how much importance those in power place on keeping a reliable workforce from getting out of hand. But the level of control in today's world, as those in power try desperately to cling to the old ways, is truly astonishing. Where once it was enough to threaten a starving man with hanging if he hunted his feudal lord's rabbits to feed his family, now we literally have "traffic control" cameras at every intersection and length of highway, connected to computers that can recognize faces as well as license plates. We're told this is for "our safety" but a recent study in England found that local municipalities were using the technology for such trivial purposes as making sure people put out their trash at the prescribed times. And in California, the big news last November was the passing of Proposition 8, which actually dares to tell people who they can (and cannot) marry!

Truth #5: "I am free to do what I must to achieve Enlightenment."

Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader, proved that a nation of people can achieve independence from their masters by simply refusing to obey the masters' dictates. The Indian people, who already understood that life and death are twin illusions, willingly allowed themselves to lie, by the thousands, in front of bulldozers and tanks, many being crushed and killed, until the British finally understood the message that these people would no longer allow the British to rule them. It was the first time in Earth's history that this happened, and serves as an example to us all of what can be accomplished when we are ready for that step.

Meanwhile, in my own small way, when I wanted to marry someone the law said I couldn't—I did anyway. My marriage is not recognized by the government but I don't care because I don't recognize the government as an authority over me (our Constitution clearly makes the government our servant, not the other way 'round).

Lie #6: "You require a master or intermediary to save you from your sins."

This lie is another bedrock of the entire counter-productive Religion Industry. It's part of the trilogy of lies #1, 6 and 12: You are a flawed, physical being with a loosely-attached "soul" that can be "lost" without the mediation of a priest, minister, imam or rabbi and teachings you receive in exchange for one-tenth of your earnings. Every part of that statement is a lie, has always been a lie, yet has served to maintain the least productive and most damaging organization in the history of the world.

This is not to say that no one has ever been assisted on their path by a spiritual guide, or that churches serve no useful purpose at all. They can provide a sense of community for those who need one. They can provide a sensual experience for people who really like incense. I do believe that most ministers and the like really have faith that they are helping guide their flocks, and many sheep in those flocks have convinced themselves they benefit from that guidance. I personally know at least one minister who knows his religion is a sham, but continues to do his job for the real service he can provide his beloved congregation.

Truth #6: "As God is within me, so is God's Truth. God guides me directly along my path."

Let's get serious. If God wants you to find enlightenment, would He really require that you be lucky enough to stumble upon, not just any preacher, but the one whose version of God's Truth is the correct one? (They all argue amongst themselves, you know.) No, of course not. God would design you so that you could communicate with Him directly. It's not like he would be too busy!—And that's exactly what He did.

It's only your own sense of worthlessness, encouraged by the same religions, that causes you to doubt what you feel in your own heart and gut.

Now, it is true that our biases—and we all have them—can sometimes shout loudly enough to drown out that quiet Voice. It's also very hard for us to recognize our own biases. Fortunately, our friends can usually spot them pretty quickly and will eagerly let us know if we ask.

Lie #7: "It's your responsibility to inform others of God's will."

Another tool used by organized religion is to get its congregations to try and convert non-believers. Evangelical missionaries have caused all kinds of harm to the world, from spreading fatal diseases that decimated native populations to making a laughingstock of the only sexual position that doesn't result in pulled muscles.

Truth #7: "It's my responsibility only to learn and follow my own path, to share what I've learned only when asked, and to serve as a shining example of what is possible."

It's easy to recognize a person on the road to Enlightenment: he or she doesn't try to convince you he or she is on the road to Enlightenment and doesn't try to convince you that you must be on the same road.

God's creation, the Universe (which is God, as are all its parts in a holographic sense) is a far richer creation than most people imagine. Or, rather, it's such a rich creation because of what people imagine (much of it awful). All those horrible Hells Dante wrote about await the people who believe in them. Dead Muslims who expect 72 virgins will find them. Atheists who expect nothingness will be startled to experience that. Fortunately, there are Lightworkers who gently work in the afterlife to open the minds of the deluded souls as to what is really out there. (The movie What Dreams May Come is a pretty accurate depiction, with the idea that suicides "can't" be saved added in for dramatic effect.)

On Earth, none of us have the job of "fixing" others. We are here to work on ourselves. We can always provide information when asked, but we are not to evangelize. The reason is that there are too many valid paths up the mountain, and we cannot know another's path—only our own. The paths can differ greatly, but no one path is superior to the others; and the view from the top is the same.

Lie #8: "We're from the government, and we're here to help you."

This lie has been told so often that it's become a joke; yet people keep falling for it. "Traffic" cameras are installed "for our safety"; police raid gay bars to "protect public health". Substitute the name of any organization, religion or corporation for "government" and it's the same lie. A corollary lie is anything the government tells you is "what really happened". You should be very suspicious of "independent councils" that aren't and "investigative reporters" who don't. The mass media is really intended to obfuscate, not to inform; religions are designed to control, not to enlighten.

I'm not saying that everything you read in the papers or hear on the nightly news is false, of course. Local news tends to be fairly accurate, at least in smaller towns. But on global stories, such as wars, attacks, diseases and dangers, the media lies by omission more than anything else: They either don't tell you about the event at all, or leave out key information to spin the story so that those in power, get to stay in power.

When you make an effort to see through this lie—and it takes an effort, because you have to look up the supporting evidence for yourself—be prepared to be shocked and horrified in turns. (If you already realize that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, you have a head start.)

Truth #8: "By ignoring all the opposing governments, competing corporations, mass media and squabbling religions, I can find Enlightenment on my own."

The whole tangled mess that has become Western culture—and the distinct, but equally tangled mess of Eastern culture—have taken millennia to coagulate into the seemingly consistent bed of lies they are. The truth is out there, but the closer you get to it, the louder will be the shouting that you are completely off base.

The reality is—none of it matters. These are overgrown juveniles playing a game that is of no interest to those seeking enlightenment. Like "thermonuclear war" in the movie WarGames, "The only way to win is not to play."

Lie #9: "Mysticism is a waste of time."

People in general are quite threatened when their world-view is challenged, because changing a world-view takes a huge amount of effort. Everything you've ever considered true and everything you've ever discarded as false must be reexamined. This is probably why many of your family and acquaintances (but not your true friends) will try to discourage you from following a path to Enlightenment, a path that, when intentionally followed, often includes doses of mysticism.

Another form this lie takes is a very clever one. It presents the mystic as a superman, a mysterious hero like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Gandalf whose arcane knowledge saves the day. By doing so, these books and movies present an impossible character—someone for whom the usual laws of physics do not apply—and claim for him the role of mystic, thus creating in the minds of many the idea that learning about the metaphysics of the Universe must necessarily result in superpowers. Since we don't know anyone with superpowers, that makes the goal seem even more distant. And since the reality is more subtle (why part the Red Sea when a little more planning and less effort can result in a drought?) the student of mysticism may not even recognize when he or she has succeeded!

Truth #9: "Metaphysics is for everyone, including me."

Anyone can summon a specific elevator from a bank of them, or create a handy parking space or dissolve a headache. There are techniques to be learned, but they are so easily learned a child can perform them. (In fact, without pre-conceived notions, children can generally do them more easily than most adults!)

Now, don't be surprised if, once you've mastered the parking space trick (you visualize it being there before you arrive, then put it out of your mind), it stops working. The purpose of these tricks isn't to shorten the walk from your car, but to demonstrate to you that there are more things that are possible than our culture generally acknowledges. As Learner and Lowe in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever put it, "There is more to you than surgeons can remove." There is also more to the universe, and discovering that is the first exciting step on many people's paths.

Lie #10: "Send money today and you can feed the children⁄save the whales⁄put a stop to drugs⁄etc."

Hasn't it ever struck you as odd that God, the Creator and shaper of the Universe, needs your money to do His work? But that doesn't stop groups such as Feed The Children or the Christian Children's Fund, which plasters a tearful Sally Struthers onto your TV screen begging for cash to feed the miserable third-world children among whom she's photographed. Feed the Children sends a mere 18% of the money it receives to actually feed children, and the former president of the Christian Children's Fund paid himself $274,276 in compensation in 2006. In fact, if Sally Struthers simply went on a diet, she could use her leftovers to feed Ethiopia.

The fact is, just as people tend to try to fix the personality problems of others instead of their own, they tend to send money to foreign "missions" as a way to ignore the people who are starving just around the corner.

Truth #10: "I am here to make the best of my world, not the world on the TV."

"Think globally, act locally" is exactly the way to solve world problems. When's the last time you handed a bottle of water to the homeless guy panhandling at the intersection? (A better solution than money, which might be used for alcohol or drugs.) If you are really worried that local indigents will misuse your donations, why not make them directly to a local homeless or battered women's shelter? You might have to look them up, because they can't afford to pay Sally Struthers to cry for them. But I promise they will put all the money you give to good use.

Are there starving kids in Africa? I'm sure there are. But by the time your dollar reaches Africa, only pennies remain, the bulk of it having disappeared into the pockets of fundraisers here and corrupt politicians there. Allow the Africans the dignity of fixing their own society and direct your effort to fixing your own.

Lie #11: "People who try to teach Truth to the masses become martyrs."

Every now and then, a person will come to earth with a sense of the Reality of what's going on (and who sees through these twelve lies), a person who will not be silenced. Sometimes, indeed, such a person will be assassinated but not as often as you think, because the puppet masters profit by allowing a religion to grow around that person's teachings, which they can then corrupt when he or she is gone.

But then they usually add to the story. It's amazing how a little "crucifixion" can discourage other people who sense the truth but aren't quite so motivated to spread it.

Truth #11: "I am here to provide service in the form of my Truth, only to those who ask."

The solution to both issues is: Don't start a religion! We have plenty of those and none have ever accomplished one whit of real good, despite their insistence to the contrary. They have, on the other hand, given us such boons as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and centuries of the suppression of women and support of slavery.

Some people are ready for Truth; and some, as Jack Nicholson noted in A Few Good Men, can't handle the truth. That's perfectly okay and appropriate for them. They are on a path different from yours and there's nothing wrong with that. But you will find yourself encountering people who are on a path similar to yours; some will be ready for information you possess, and some will possess information that you are ready to receive. So make yourself available to one or two such local groups (usually called metaphysical groups). An evening a week in the company of such like-minded people will do wonders for the spiritual advancement of everyone who attends; it will help raise your quantum frequency and help keep it up.

It will also help keep you humble, in that no one person in the group will have all the answers. As long as you leave a meeting feeling you have learned as well as taught, there will be no danger of your accidentally starting a religion with your teachings.

Lie #12: "Our Father, who art in heaven."

This is the last and biggest lie of them all. All the other lies are built upon this one; thus, seeing through this one lie will eventually allow you to see through all the others.

We have been told, repeatedly, that God resides in "heaven". No one knows where this is, but it is clearly farther away than Brooklyn. By convincing us of this "distance" religions justify the need for an intermediary. After all, you can't really "feel" God out there, can you, the way you can "feel" the presence of Aunt Ruth in Peoria, Illinois? You take the word of the intermediary that he or she is in contact with God, and accept his or her interpretation of what God wants you to do—despite the millions of conflicting interpretations presented by other intermediaries.

Truth #12: "God is the essence of every atom in the Universe; there is no place where God is not, no being that is not a manifestation of God."

If you listen to a sound played by speakers arrayed all around you, or through headphones in which the sound comes equally from both sides, the sound seems to come from inside your head. Similarly, since God is, literally, everywhere the only proper place to search for God is within. Many of us find, when looking, that we feel God most strongly at a point inside our chests, just beneath our hearts.

When a New Ager says that "God is within", what is meant is that everything, every atom, every quantum particle making up every atom, even the quantum particles that make up the vacuum in the spaces between atoms, every one of these, is a distinct manifestation of God; and, like a real hologram, every such flickering particle is not just a "part" of God, but the whole thing! So you are God, and I am God, and so are your dog, George W. Bush, and Britney Spears.

This Truth brings you in touch with your power, the power you abdicated when you first bought into the idea that God is "out there". It also circles right back to Truth #1, that physicality is an illusion (which we create!) and that death is part of that illusion because, as God, we are timeless.

It also suggests that we should honor each and every other "thing" we encounter because none is less God than we. The only difference between us is that some may not be aware of this fact. Those, especially, we must treat gently and respectfully and allow them the path they've chosen as we demand respect for our own paths.

But for those who are ready, those who ask—these are special opportunities, because now more than ever, it is time for the twelve big lies to be dismissed and the Truth told at last!