some pathological factor from the outset, the goal is unreach-
able. If it is attainable, our asymptomatic approximation will
place us in a position wherein the definitive elimination of the
effects of the surmounted illness requires an objective view of
its essence and history. Otherwise it is impossible to eliminate
the leftover pathological deformations which would survive as
a factor opening the door to renewed contamination.
Some religious groups may have been started by persons
who were carriers of certain psychological anomalies. Particu-
lar attention should be focused upon largely paranoidal charac-
teropathies and their above-discussed role in instigating new
phases of ponerogenesis. For such people, the world of normal
human experience (including religious experience) succumbs
to deformation; spellbinding of self and others easily follows,
imposed upon other people by means of pathological egotism.
We can observe marginal Christian sects today whose begin-
nings were doubtless of this nature.
If a religion which later fell apart into numerous doctrinal
variations had such a beginning, the above-mentioned regen-
erative processes effected by healthy common sense will bring
about a point of advancement that the said religion’s ministers
perceive to be a threat to the religion’s existence. Protecting
their own faith and social position will then cause them to em-
ploy violent means against anyone daring to criticize or bring
about liberalization. The pathological process begins anew.
Such is the state of affairs we may be actually witnessing to-
day.
However, the mere fact that some religious association has
succumbed to the ponerization process does not constitute
proof that the original gnosis or vision was contaminated from
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273
the outset by errors which opened the door to invasion by
pathological factors, or that it was an effect of their influence.
In order for the doors to be opened to infection by pathological
factors and furthering progressive degeneration, it suffices for
such a religious movement to succumb to contamination some-
time later in its history, e.g. as a result of excessive influence
on the part of initially foreign archetypes of secular civiliza-
tion, or of compromises with the goals of the country’s rulers.
This succinct summary repeats my above adduced causes
and laws of the course of the ponerological process, this time
with regard to religious groups. Important differences should
be underscored, however. Religious associations are among the
most enduring and long-lived social structures, historically
speaking. The ponerological process in such a group runs its
course in a much larger time frame. In effect, man needs relig-
ion so much that every such group, provided it is numerous
enough, will contain a large number of normal people (gener-
ally the majority) who do not become discouraged and form a
permanent wing inhibiting the process of ponerization. The
equilibrium of the dissimulative phase is thus also to the advan-
tage of those people whose human and religious feelings are
normal. Nonetheless, isolated generations may thus have the
impression that the observed state represents its permanent and
essential characteristics, including the errors they cannot ac-
cept.
We must therefore pose the following question: Can the
most constant and sensible action based on the natural world
view and theological and moral reflections ever completely
eliminate the effects of a ponerological process which has long
been surmounted?
Based on experience gleaned from individual patients, a
psychotherapist would doubt such a possibility. The conse-
quences of the influence of pathological factors can only be
definitely liquidated if a person becomes aware that he was the
object of their activity. Such a method of careful correction of
detail may sound reminiscent of the work done by an art re-
storer who decided against removing all later paint-overs and
revealing the master’s original work in toto, but rather retained
and conserved a few failed corrections for posterity.
274
PATHOCRACY AND RELIGION
Even against the conditional backdrop of time furthering the
healing process, such efforts at step-by-step untying of knots
based on the natural world view only leads toward a moralizing
interpretation of the effects of uncomprehended pathological
factors, with the consequence of panic and the tendency to
retreat to an apparently safer side. The organism of the relig-
ious group thus will retain some dormant foci of the disease
which may become active under certain permitting conditions.
We should therefore realize that following the path of natu-
ralistic apperception of the process of the genesis of evil, at-
tributing the proportionate “fault” to the influence of various
pathological factors, can ease our minds of the burden repre-
sented by the disturbing results of a moralizing interpretation of
their role in ponerogenesis. This also permits more detailed
identification of the results of their operation, as well as defini-
tive elimination thereof. Objective language proves to be not
only more accurate and economical to work with, but also
much safer as a tool of action when dealing with difficult situa-
tions and delicate matters.
Such a more precise and consistent solution for the prob-
lems inherited from centuries of ponerological nescience is
possible whenever a given religion represents a current of
gnosis and faith which was originally authentic enough. A
courageous approach to remedying conditions caused by pres-
ently perceptible poneric processes, or by chronic perseverance
of survivals from such states far in the past, thus demands both
acceptance of this new science and a clear conviction of origi-
nal truth and basic science. Doubts will otherwise block any
such intent by means of insufficiently objectified fear, even if
they have been repressed deep into the subconscious. We must
be convinced that the Truth can endure such a washing in
modern detergent; not only will it not lose its eternal values,
but it will actually regain its original freshness and noble col-
ors.
With regard to the second above-mentioned situation, when
the ponerogenic process leading to pathocracy has affected
some secular and political movement, the situation of religion
in such a country will be completely different. Polarization of
attitudes with regard to religion then becomes inevitable. The
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275
social religious organization cannot help but assume a critical
attitude, becoming a support for opposition on the part of the