911: The Alarm Clock of Human Consciousness

By Irwin Ozborne

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

“Make no mistake about it – Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or becoming happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It is seeing through the façade of pretense. It is the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” ~ Adyashanti

It has been repeatedly demonstrated by quantum physics that the world we live in is an illusion, or a dream. So, if the reality that we perceive to be ‘real’ is actually an illusion and the entire world is actually dreaming, how can they be woken up? The same way most of us wake from our sleep every morning… by the sound of the alarm clock.

September 11, 2001

It was my junior year of college; I remember being stuck in some psychology class watching a boring video, which gives me a chance to sleep off my hangover from the night before. The kid in front of me has tuned out and is listening to the radio through some headphones, and nodding in-and-out of wakefulness. Then suddenly he pops his head up and says out loud, “A plane just hit the World Trade Center.”

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“What is the World Trade Center?” is my first thought, which I keep to myself. I’ve heard of it, but I have no clue what or where it is. The teacher tells everyone to calm down and stay focused on the video for class.

“Another plane just hit the other Twin Tower,” the kid says out loud again which creates some commotion. “It is like Pearl Harbor out there.”

“Nothing will ever be like Pearl Harbor,” the teacher ensures the class. But it is a little too late, there is something truly bizarre happening today. I feel everything in my body trembling as I could not even fathom that the “good guys” were under attack. All the “freedom” propaganda I had absorbed was being threatened, and for the first time in my life I thought that the “greatest country on earth” might not be so.

The university was closed and the students were sent home immediately after it was reported that a plane had struck the Pentagon. The overwhelming consensus in the media was that hijacked planes were going to strike landmarks across America throughout the day, and people had to take cover. Every media outlet on the globe has live coverage of this, history’s greatest attack on American soil. We watch innocent people lose their lives. We watch people covered in blood, running for their life, trapped in the rubble, and terrified of what might come next.

Then, I’ll never forget, the news channels show images of young Palestinian children dancing in the street and celebrating the attack while burning an American flag. “Why do they hate us?” is all I could think. I felt confused, sad, and then of course, intense anger and rage. Like so many others, I thought, “How could they do this to us? We are the good guys!”

That was the wake up call; the alarm clock of human consciousness.

The western world had been asleep to the way the rest of the world was living, and asleep to the atrocities carried out (both internationally and domestically) by the United States Government — and in a moment, the alarm bell sounded. The truth was exposed. Americans questioned for the first time just how the U.S. is perceived, and how that perception relates to its government’s foreign policies. Of course, I would never condone or support the systematic killing of another human being — but the reality is, this is the moment that the world woke up. It took a dramatic, diabolical event to help the people of the west understand the east, and seriously examine their own governments’ actions and agendas.

“Where is Palestine? I’ve never heard of it,” I asked my friends. Later they shifted blame to a guy named Osama Bin Laden who was stationed in Afghanistan. Where is Afghanistan? Why are they messing with us? It absolutely blindsided most American people as to why would this part of the world be so happy to watch us suffer. After a few weeks went by, my anger subsided but the confusion still existed. Why do they hate us? That is all I could ask. There needs to be some explanation. It was nice to know that I wasn’t alone.

I started to research Palestine and see their side to the story. Soon, I began to understand that their homeland had been invaded and they were being pushed aside which had been supported by the west. I had no idea about any of this. Where was this in the history books? But still, why do they hate us? What do they mean by “the Americans are the real terrorists?” Where are they coming up with these false claims?

A few years later, documentaries like Loose Change surfaced and the 911-Truthers started investigating everything about the event. I became obsessed with these conspiracy theories and they all seemed to be more believable than the official reports. I showed them to everyone, only to get mocked and ridiculed. “I thought you were smarter than that”, I was told. This prevented me from digging any further, which just left me in a state of confusion: What is the truth?

And again, as it turns out, I was not alone.

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The eradication of everything we imagined to be true

In order for global enlightenment to take place, it requires the destruction of everything we have been told to be true. And as terrible as the loss of lives was, 911 was also the moment the world started to question everything. Despite our cultural and social conditioning to accept not challenge the status quo, we started questioning governments, laws, policies, religions, the media, teachers, doctors, and everything written in history books.

Today, 15 years on, less than half the people in America believe the findings of the official 911 Commission to be true, while a global poll of 16,000 random citizens of 17 different countries found that a majority of people in only 9 of the 17 countries attribute the attacks to Al Qaeda.

Moreover, there is still no official answer to why WTC Building 7 collapsed, and the government refuses to address this issue. It is similar to the Kennedy Assassination in 1963. Immediately, everyone was angry and went along with the official “lone nut” narrative, even though the “magic bullet” theory of 1963 proposes that Lee Harvey Oswald fired only three bullets that caused seven wounds, including one bullet that caused five wounds in two different people and then came out completely unmarked. It is just as ludicrous as the WTC Building 7 theory of 2001, which proposes that the building collapsed at free-fall speed without ever having been hit by a plane.

This discrepancy has not only led to the creation of expert-led research and advocacy groups like Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth within the U.S., it has also led the people of other nations questioning what their governments tell them. In 2011, the people of Iceland and Egypt revolted and overthrew their governments. In 2012, the Arab Spring saw many governments topple due to the demand of their people refusing to be ruled by oppressive dictators. And this year, the people of the UK voted overwhelmingly to exit the EU, a power center that voters decided was undermining their national sovereignty.

Taking the Mask Off

And this wake up call extends beyond just political awareness; more people in the west are turning to ancient forms of spirituality which center around oneness, individuality, interconnection, respect, love, and peace. It is a spiritual revolution reminiscent of the counterculture of the 1960s in which the students hit the streets and demanded peace, protesting against the Vietnam War on every campus across the nation. The younger generation rebelled as they understood that freedom comes from within, it is not just a slogan that your government tells you to be true.

One of the queens of the 1960s, Janis Joplin told us, “Freedom is just another word for ‘nothing left to lose’.” And it is true; the only way to be free is to lose everything you know to be true, and to awaken the inner child, free of preconceptions and open to all possibilities. We come into this world with a clean slate, free, loving everyone and everything, with wonder and awe for everything around us. As each day goes by, this freedom is taken from us. We are told what to wear, how to talk, how to behave, where to be, and when to be there. And we create a sense of separation; children walk down the street and wave to strangers, ask questions, sing, dance, and play with other children, and ask them to be their friend, without self-consciousness, embarrassment, guilt, or remorse. When an adult does the same, our conditioned reaction is “what is wrong with this person?”

We have been domesticated, trained to think a certain way, told what to believe, and convinced it is all true. We are born pure, then we put on a mask for protection from the world we have been trained into. We then cling to the mask, believe the mask is to be true — and it becomes harder and harder to remove it. But while the mask may make us feel safe, it is destroying us as individuals and as a society. We will never be truly free, never be able to truly love, connect, and live in harmony, until we realize the mask is an illusion and we are finally ready to take the mask off, and face the difficult truth.

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About the author:

A writer and avid historian, Irwin Ozborne (a pen-name) is a survivor of childhood abuse and torture over a period of 13 years, and a recovered alcoholic. As a mental health practitioner, today Irwin practices holistic care and incorporates eastern philosophy into his work with clients. Irwin is also a contributing writer for Taking The Mask Off, a website dedicated to shining a light on the mental health industry, as well as other areas of our society that are shrouded in deceit and misinformation.

Irwin is available for speaking engagements as well, and can be contacted via email: [email protected]

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