yea just felt like doing a mini book review on this book i just read by Sherry Ashworth.. Blinded by the Light.. pretty short but well says a lot. It's about this guy who initially finds himself leading a meaningless life.. yea he's waiting to get to the uni next year but he's basically bumming around and getting himself drunk every night since he has nothing better to do. Till he meets this couple on the train and he's overwhelmed by how contented they seem.. it's like they have this fixed purpose in life tt they are totally committed to.. he's drawn to them somehow and they invite him to this party they're holding.
So he turns up at the party and he finds out tt they're living in some sort of communal house.. and to quote the book 'at first glance they looked dead ordinary. a few blockes, a girl in a white dress, faces you might see anywhere. but on closer examination they did look different. and then it dawned on me. everyone seemed remarkably happy'. so he figures that they belong to some sort of religion of their own. and they dont push him at all, they just invite him back whenever he wants to come. And he finds himself unable to stay away from the place. He goes back again and again as an observer and sees how they conduct evening services and morning services. he sees how warmly everyone welcomes him, how much they seem to belong to a big family. everything is pure and good there and everyone believes in the Light. they abstain from sex drugs alcohol and anything addictive and basically immerse themselves in physical and mental work. he seems to fit in so well here tt he moves away from his family and into the communal house, despite all protests from his parents and accusations tt he's joining a cult.
so he gets into the hang of things and is initiated way earlier than expected, becoming a worshipper of the Light. His mentor Fletcher treats him real well and trains him properly in his journey to attain Perfection. This involves ASD - alternate sense deprivation, in which one or more of your senses are dulled so tt yu can hone the rest.. things like being blindfolded for the whole day, fasting, wearing earplugs etc. He gets totally involved in it and feels his life becoming more enriched, as if he was never properly living in the past. he detaches himself from teh rest of the world, refusing to go to the u anymore but instead wanting to focus on more impt things like helping others reach the Light too. he believes fully in matter and antimatter, antimatter being pure evil and is out to destroy all matter. Antimatter can come in the form of doubt or suspicion, or it could come in physical forms too, such as in alcohol or drugs. Everytime he has any doubt in what he is doing, he accounts it as the antimatter talking and dismisses it.
on an occasion he goes out on an Attraction mission to spread the Light to others. He is far away from the communal house and the attractions of the outside world start tempting him again. He starts doubting all that he thought he believed in, and a random thought occurs to him tt maybe all the people in the communal house were deluding themselves, believing in something tt does not exist, resulting in the creation of their own rules, their own reality. But all these doubts are cast away when he returns to the communal house, and Fletcher tells him he might be Perfection reincarnated. He knows that he isn't, but is nonetheless flattered when Fletcher considers him as a possible candidate. they send him to another state where their Leader lives, a guy who wrote the Book that they live according to, the leader of their religion.
Here he is struck by how much charisma the leader has. The way he delivers his speeches, with utter conviction and total confidence, makes it hard for him to doubt what he says. However, when he actually meets the Leader, he is appalled to find out that the Leader drinks alcohol, claiming that it has no effect on him, like 'eunuchs with women'. He realises that the Leader wants someone to take over him, be his successor, and that's why he's looking for someone whom they believe is Perfection reincarnated. Suddenly everything starts falling in place. The entire religion is an elaborate scam tt is so convincing that even the Leader has completely believed in what he says. So the protaganist is told tt in order to decide whether he is indeed Perfection, he has to go through complete sensory deprivation which involves him wrapped up entirely in white cloth, blindfolded, unable to hear see touch taste smell. The previous candidates were apparently not successful, they said, one having a heart attack and another choking to death on his own vomit.
he knows that there is no way of escape, but makes a deal with the second-in-charge of the place. he is willing to provide him with a route out as he himself wants the position as Leader. while he is trying to get away, he meets Fletcher and finds out to his extreme horror that Fletcher is actually some obsessed gay shit tt murdered his bf claiming tt he got to the Light. Fletcher tries to drown the protagonist, claiming tt he'll see tt he is indeed Perfection since he will come to life again. But in the end there's a happy ending and he gets away and gets back together with his family and all.
whoa i didn't mean for this entry to be so long it was supposed to be a short review but oh well. haha. it's scary how man's imagination can create reality. like in silas marner? lol myth to reality just by imagination. and worse is how much the pple believed in it. even the protagonist was conned for an entire 9 months without realising it. what hit me hardest was when this guy in the communal house was suffering from some sort of illness. and they refused to let him take medication bcoz they believed that the Light will heal him. so they put him under complete sensory deprivation and wrapped him up. and bcoz he couldn't breathe he died. and bcoz he soiled himself they claimed tt it was the antimatter escaping. it's so.. to quote eching - chilling to see how oblivious these pple are. When the facts are glaring at them in the face they're so absorbed in their belief that they refuse to accept it. worse still is that they dont realise they're doing anything wrong and treat everything with such deathly calm.. the human mind is a powerful thing and it's scary, to say the least, to see what can happen when it's used in an inappropriate way.
shit i'm not even doing this book for gp hmwk. haha. got a bit carried away there.. books make me want to talk a lot lol.. ya so yall can go borrow the book if yu're interested.. has a bit of silas marner themes? lol.. ok i'll stop advertising already ya..