Sound & Light
The lies that blind us are the ties that bind us.
Sound & Light
The lies that blind us are the ties that bind us.
Sound and Light. My friends, tonight I ask you to consider the strange marriage of two elements that often go unnoticed when they work and are cursed when they fail: Sound and Light.
We imagine them as physical phenomena - scientific - and whose origins are outside of morality. But I am here to argue otherwise. In fact I am here to suggest that sound and light are the two instruments most often used to seduce a soul into slavery - not in the laboratory - but in the human heart.
Let's begin with the fragment.
The headline of the fragment reads: “Sound & Light”
And the body of the fragment reads as follows: The lies that blind us are the ties that bind us.
Eleven. Eleven words that reveal a full blueprint of social, spiritual, and psychological imprisonment.
This is not metaphor. It is architecture. It is blueprint and cage. If you understand this sentence, you begin to see why people stay where they are not wanted, why they obey when they should rebel, why they smile when they're dying inside, why they thank their jailer - for, the lies that blind are the ties that bind.
We must take it slowly.
One: The architecture of the trap as we begin is, as always, in innocence The newborn arrives into a world of sound and light. A mother's voice. A ceiling fan-turning. The sun through the blinds. The voice is soothing. The light is warm. And so we learn - before reason, before memory - that what surrounds us is good.
This is not survival. We must trust the light. We must follow the voice. But what if the light is too bright What if the voice is deceptive? Now you see the trouble. Because once trust is given, it becomes very hard to withdraw.
We do not merely follow what we see and hear. We bind ourselves to it. The lie then is not simply misinformation. The lie is a bonding agent. It is adhesive. It does not just blind you to what is real. It attaches you to what is false.
Two: Sound: A spell - consider sound. The most ancient power of human manipulation. The voice of the abuser who whispers, ‘this is love.’
The chant of the army that pushes men to be willing to die for glory, for honor, for king. The lullaby that tells a child everything's okay - even when it is not.
Sound hypnotises. And lies inside the sound do not merely mislead, they rewire. They teach the body what to associate. They convince the limbic system, the nervous system, the gut, to bind themselves to the very thing that causes harm.
So when we say the lies that blind, we are not speaking of innocent error. We are speaking of lies that change how light is received, how sound is interpreted, how truth is felt. And then the ties that bind.
Three: Light as prison - We think of light as truth. Enlightenment. Revelation. Yes, yes. But ask any prisoner of a modern cell what it's like to live beneath fluorescent lights that never dim. Ask the animal in a zoo that cannot find shadow. Ask the dissident held in a cell with twenty-four-hour surveillance.
Light too can be weaponized. A false light, a lie parading as illumination creates the illusion of safety, clarity, purity. It is a blinding light. It is the brilliance of the regime, the glare of the screen, the blinding light of national pride that makes people cheer for a war they do not understand, the floodlight of righteousness that blinds a people to their own atrocities.
This is not truth. This is optical control. And when your sight is taken, when the light you trust is not light at all, you become unable to leave the room. You bind yourself to your captor because you believe he is showing you the way. For, to be bound is not merely to be held. It is to be attached to the point where your identity becomes dependent upon another. You no longer know who you are without them. You do not know what is real without them. This is not physical bondage. It is epistemological bondage. You lose the ability to distinguish between reality and illusion, not because you're stupid, but because of the very tools by which you once navigated truth, your eyes and ears, have been compromised.
The lie that binds does not restrain you like a chain. It ties you by way of your own loyalty. And the tragedy? The most binding lies are not ugly. They are beautiful. They appear as love, as duty, as legacy, as religion.
Five: Lies that bind through beauty. A nation binds its children with myths of glory. A church binds its flock with stories of damnation. A family binds its child with the guilt of inheritance. And in each case, the lie is not shouted. It is sung. It is crafted with care.
Your father gave everything for this land. Your grandmother would be so disappointed in you. This is the only true path to salvation. We are not like those other people. Each of these is a lie that blinds. And each carries within it the echo of attachment.
And you will not leave such a lie easily.
Why? Because to leave the lie means to lose the bond. And a bond, however painful, is home.
Six: The fear of being unbound - Let us not judge too quickly. People do not remain bound because they are weak. They remain bound because they fear the alternative. To be unbound is to float, to drift, to question what is real, to lose your compass. This is terrifying. Better perhaps to be bound to a false light than to be cast into total darkness. Better perhaps to be loved by a lie than to be unloved altogether.
And this I tell you is the great tragedy of the soul. We will trade truth for attachment. We will swallow the lie if it means we still belong.
Seven: The lie that feeds as long as the lie goes on. The more it feeds on you, the more you adapt to it. It becomes a rhythm in your chest. You begin to defend the very thing that is undoing you. You say things like, it wasn't that bad. They meant well, I probably deserved it. I'm just being too sensitive.
These are the sounds of internalised lies. The sound of a person not only bound but convinced that their bonds are clothing, that their blindness is vision, that the tie is love.
Eight: Breaking the bond: So, what, then is to be done? Shall we go about tearing every bond? Abandoned every institution? Renounce every loyalty?
No, the answer is not destruction. The answer is to summon. There are ties at binding truth that hold fast in love. That do not blind. The difference lies in whether the bond requires blindness to maintain it. Ask yourself this - does this relationship require me to ignore what I see? Does this community punish me when I speak truth? Do I have to blind myself to stay included?
If the answer is yes, then you are bound by a lie. And a light you trust is no light at all.
Nine: On true light and true sound what is true light? True light does not blind It reveals. It is gentle enough to show flaws. It is strong enough to hold complexity. True light is not a spotlight. It is a sunrise. What is true sound? True sound does not coerce. It invites. It listens. It speaks without spell. It does not seek to conquer you with certainty, but to awaken you through presence.
These are the instruments of truth, not noise, but tone, not glare, but glow.
Ten: A final warning: Beware - the places where light is too strong to see your shadow. Beware the people whose speech never stumbles, who certainly shines too brightly. Beware the causes that require you to demonize the other. Beware the loves that demand silence and return for safety. Beware of anything that tells you - ‘if you speak what you see, you will lose everything.’
That is not truth. That is not love. That is the sound of chain being tightened. That is the light of a burning house. And the smoke has already entered your lungs.
Eleven: The unbinding to be unbound is not to be alone. It is to begin for the first time to see. You may weep at what you find. You may rage at what was hidden. You may grieve the people who are still inside, still singing the lie, still kneeling before the false light.
But you will not go back, because once you have seen you cannot unsee. And the lie can no longer bind you, because you are no longer blind.
Twelve: Final thoughts: The lies that blind is are the ties that bind us.
Do not memorize this line. That is not enough. Feel it. Test it. Turn it toward your own life and ask where am I bound? Who taught me to see? Whose voice do I still follow, even though I know it leads me, and leaves me nowhere? And then ask, can I walk with eyes open, even if I walk alone?
That is the beginning of freedom. That is the beginning of truth.
That is a sacred silence after the lie is broken.
And that, my friends, is where sound and light begin again. Rightly. Gently. Not as weapons. But as guides.