走火入魔 (Zou Huo Ru Mo)

走火入魔 (Zou Huo Ru Mo, explained to be Kundalini Syndrome or Psychosis in Wikipedia)

I loved to read Chinese sword-fighting stories (武侠小说) when young. Jin-Yong was my favorite author. His stories could run into tens of volumes. Exam or no exam, his were the must-finish books that I would spend hours and hours on.

It was in this books that I learned this "zou-huo-ru-mo" term. Many overzealous seekers of the ultimate "stroke" in the school of kung-fu one pursued found themselves entering the threshold of no return - after they had foolhardily ventured into the realm of extremes. Heroes become zeroes, so to say! Everything is back to scratch.

My mother used to scold me for neglecting my school work; she said I had also gone zou-huo-ru-mo. Quite true really, except that nothing was lost in my case.

This is just my personal opinion: Religious zealots who burn and kill are all suffering from this psychosis, so were monsters like Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Kim Jong Un. I doubt the former know much about their holy books. They took the passages in their holy books at face value and followed their preachers’ sermons blindly. Most are ignorant of the persona behind the men who founded these religions in the first place; to them prophets and gods become one. The latter, on the other hand, are likely a consequence of their court-jesters' non-stop ingratiation or fear of loss of influence or gravies, which we are witnessing one in our country right now. 

But there is also a group whom I call delusionists. (I understand there is no such word; I am using it to describe persons who are delusional about certain beliefs.)

I used to have a colleague who was pretty timid by nature. He would give a silly smile each time our boss scolded him. But when he related such encounters to friends, it would always be "I told so-and-so off..." Surely this is a form of delusion, minor it might be. I also remember when I was with MIDA, there was this ex-varsity mate who used to hang out in our office to try to “tackle” a lady colleague of ours. He gave the impression that he was from a well-to-do family. I had no reason to doubt his "credentials" since he said his home was at Pantai Hill – until one day he invited me and my wife to visit him.

At the appointed time, he was outside the gate of his "condo", but only to tell us that his parents were entertaining another party. Ours obviously had to be another time. Well, too bad, let's do it another time. So we agreed.

I ran into another varsity mate some months later and somehow this Pantai Hill chap's name cropped up. "Bull-shit! He is renting a place at XXX!"

Another case of delusion, albeit by itself not quite hurtful or harmful to others. 

I suppose many of us do indulge in some form of self-aggrandizement from time to time (of which I am often guilty too). But we can always console ourselves that we are not delusional per se, otherwise we are suffering from bipolar disorders. Maybe monsters like Hitler, Kim Jong Un et al had bipolar disorders which were not diagnosed and treated in the first place?

A dear friend recently wrote to share an alert from his well-placed banker friend that American Dollar's day of reckoning was approaching. He talked about an imminent global currency reset, and behind this dawn - in the interest of humanity - was the Chinese Elders who were the custodians of the “Global Collateral Accounts". They now have a mission to set things RIGHT for the world! 

I have vaguely come across such rubbish talks before. Doesn't it sound like one of Dan Brown's Vatican conspiracies? Out of curiosity, I surfed the net to try to see more. 

One name kept popping up: Neil Keenan. I see that he can unabashedly tell the world that he is close to "Asian/Chinese Elders" or the "Red Dragons" who are said to control all the gold behind these "Global Collateral Accounts" that are backing the financial system of the world today. Various hordes were mentioned: those of the Chinese nobles/royals since the 1600s, or that of Yamashita's, or Sukarno's, or Marcos's, some even mentioned Kuomintang’s (read Chiang Kai-shek), all very convincing. There are also many side-kicks who are there in the net to vouch for the authenticity of these outlandish claims. (Some could cite historical figures and events - like Bretton Wood's - to support them.) But only if one cares to be a little discerning, he or she will see that there is not a single article on this from the World Bank, or the IMF, or the Federal Reserve, or any book about it from Amazon! 

I believe Keenan is a delusionist and his believers have become so 走火入魔. They would be thoroughly offended if you told them that all this is just rubbish! So much for the power of delusion and the degree of naiveté that even the most educated can slipped into.

Delusionists are to me also compulsive liars. Some time ago, I wrote about reading a book recommended to me by my son Shen-yang. It seeks to explain why people lie. The irony is the fact that many are even prepared to willingly help liars lie! Of course, we also have a situation in our country that many are happy to let big liars screw them. To me, this is the real irony!