Gamers know all too well how corrupt leaders abuse power. Whether it‘s the fascist King Leoric from Diablo or racist windbag Groose from Zelda, the archetype persists throughout gaming lore. But spiritual teacher Mark Passio argues that in reality, such tyrants use manipulative religious myths, not just brute force armies, to dominate and deceive entire civilizations.
Saving Versus Escapism: The Thin Line Between Gaming and Slaving
As gamers, it‘s easy for us to blast through story campaigns without much conscious thought about the parallels to institutional evils in our world. The Harry Potter lightning scar logo has an eerie resemblance to Zuljin‘s skull banner in WoW. Both rally minions to some "greater cause" on faith rather than proof.
But why do gamers eat up such mystical mumbo-jumbo in our fantasy servings while mocking religions IRL as copium for the sheeple? Passio contends that savvy RPG developers deliberately weave in mythology due to its primal psychological grip for primate minds. Our addiction to escapism means we shell out $60 per fix for our daily dopamine grind.
Gaming rakes in over $200 billion yearly now – far more than Hollywood films and music combined. But how much is genuine recreation versus knee-jerk retreat from the real battles raging all around us? Passio provokes profound reflection for gamers dismissive of brainwashed religious followers. Are we also hiding from truths that require moral courage to confront?
Illusion of Freedom Versus Genuine Liberation
Open world environments trick our primal brains into feeling self-determined, when in reality some developer handcrafted everything we see. Most gamers would laugh hearing Scientologists cite L. Ron Hubbard as an all-knowing prophet. Yet we conveniently ignore that game "deities" fabricate entire worlds based solely on THEIR rules and lore.
But here‘s the key insight – Passio reveals that corrupt institutional powers operate the same way! They concoct bogus religions as interactive systems to stimulate certain behaviors that reinforce dictator designer control. Just as gold farming yields predictable grinding for resources, memorizing Scripture trains neuropathways for submission to religious rulers. Gamers must recognize that reality itself has been procedurally generated to harvest human consciousness for elite benefit.
Speedrunning Toward Freedom Requires Great Determination
Passio‘s Gnostic-style quest reveals eerie parallels between gaming and the consensual hallucination we accept as normal society. Just as main quest bosses require proper attack patterns and defensive cadences learned through repeated failure, defeating the tyrants puppeteering human civilization demands we patiently skill-up beyond gamer mentalities obsessed with KDA ratios, kill-death avoidance and superficial collectibles.
The raid-boss level adversaries controlling this realm have gamed human psychology for centuries toward their own enrichment and amusement. Their operant conditioning Persona charts demonstrate Metatron archetype mastery weaponizing trauma to damage emerging Empress and Emperor challengers. It will take diligent daily practice aligning our decisions and deeds with virtue ethics “natural law” principles to incrementally level up moral wisdom and willpower required for victory.
In many ways, this great work of escaping conditioned falsehoods instilled by religious rulers is even more daunting than defeating Sans in Undertale genocide route. But as Passio reminds us, the non-aggression principles taught by prophets like Jesus or Buddha, stripped of exoteric imperial embellishments, can function as sound “cheat codes” that hack oppressive Matrix control grids and unlock liberation. The choice is ours.