When people think about The Boogeyman they think of some mysterious bad figure that is out to get them, when I think of The Boogeyman I think of a fictional character that people use to manipulate others into all sorts of situations, usually resulting in some sort of a profitable exchange. It is important to note that the story behind each boogeyman may be different and the setup may be different but there is always something or someone super bad that can happen or will do something that requires you do xyz or pay abc amount.
Before we get into the meat and bones of The Boogeyman, we have to understand that there are three main categories of spiritualists: The Services and Goods Provider, The Uninformed Guru and The Secluded Practitioner. While many may call themselves The Secluded Practitioner, the truth is most spiritualists of todays time are The Services and Goods Provider. This category is always out to sell you something and has no intention of ever breaking your dependence upon them to provide you their services or goods. The goal is to have as many people coming and buying more to the point where they can build a comfortable and possibly lavish life. The next most common is The Uninformed Guru, which can sometimes seem hard to distinguish from the first one but the definitive difference is that this one is not selling you anything, they are simply “teaching” what they know, which to the naked eye seems to be a lot, but to practitioners who have been around for several decades, its nothing. They teach the same nonsense modern spirituality that never works and always seems to cause mental health issues. From growing delusions to paranoia to psychosis, modern spirituality has been a constant source of people hurting themselves in the mind and The Uninformed Guru does just this. They believe this nonsense and in their delusion believe that they have the qualifications to teach spirituality to others, which they do and cause more harm than good. The Secluded Practitioner is a truly rare spiritualist. Most would practice some form of an African Traditional Religion or any other form of traditional spirituality, would not be teaching unless they are specifically qualified to do it and feel they have an obligation towards their student and would definitely not prioritize selling services and goods over their practice.
For the rest of this publication, we will be focusing on the first two but mainly The Services and Goods provider. This is not to say that there is nothing to discuss with The Secluded Practitioner, we are just focusing on The Services and Goods Provider and their usage of The Boogeyman. Since the beginning of mankind there has always been conditions that are optimal to manipulate others and profit, to the extent that it became the way the world works and even a named study; Marketing or Sales. In Sales, they teach the psychology of how a sale works and how to manipulate circumstances to make more money, but they also teach that there are many ways to achieve a sale and one can strategize to optimize as much as possible. Sales strategies are a huge part of what The Services and Goods Providers actually practice. They build trust by speaking with confidence, create a reputation by sharing only positive feedback, create a platform by networking with each other and set urgency for their services and goods by setting limited availability either by limiting time you have to acquire or by limiting quantity. But there is a sales strategy that has been employed for a long time and is considered a more high-stress method: The Boogeyman.
For most spiritualists to thrive and sell their services and products, they build the boogeyman that requires some sort of combination of what it is they have to offer. A parent can be manipulated by making a boogeyman out to get their children, a wife can be manipulated by making a boogeyman coming to take their husband and the list goes on. But we are talking about spirituality here so we need to build a spiritual boogeyman. There is always the trusted “witchcraft” that has been put on you, the “evil practitioner” that has for some reason decided that their life purpose is to get you, maybe even a whole tradition or spiritual system can be evil to supply a constant supply of different boogeymen to pick and choose from. The boogeyman doesnt even have to be a person, it can be something else completely. For example, you now have “witchcraft” on you from an unknown source that needs to be defeated or maybe you are a “sponge” that absorbs negative energy constantly so you need to constantly have expensive cleanses done on you. This is a high-stress sales strategy that has been used in many forms in other industries to high levels of success and it only makes sense that the category of spiritualist that is mainly focused on sales also use this sales strategy.
Being on the other end of this sales strategy is very damning and damaging. I can speak on this as someone who has spent the majority of his life on this side of the sales strategy because a lot of people have made the whole of the African Traditional Religion of Palo Mayombe their boogeyman but also because people have been removed from my Temple and their ego does not let them see their own faults so they build me to be their boogeyman so that others can buy in to their delusions and validate them and their positions. When you inevitably become someone else’s boogeyman you have to understand that being their boogeyman does not really make you the bad person, it makes you the bad person in their story and that story is as narrated by them. The first thing to note is that when people turn others into the boogeyman to be right or to sell something, the masses will not see through this strategy. They will be oblivious to the manipulation being pushed into their minds. The next thing to note is that a boogeyman is an antagonist made to lend their protagonist importance and validity. It really is not about who is the boogeyman, it is all about who the boogeyman is going against and how they are the good one in this equation, sometimes even requiring help from the masses. The final note is that the creation of a boogeyman is specifically done by way of deception; lie, misinform, do whatever it takes to make the boogeyman credible so that your thing is good and pure.
With all this in mind, what are some examples of a boogeyman being built? When you get a reading with a spiritualist and everything is generally fine in your life with a few issues, nothing major but they are adamant that someone is hexing you and encouraging you to buy their cleanse. Or when a person starts saying this or that person is bad because this or that but never says it loudly, they are whispers to friends. Another is when a mother is told that her child is in danger from hexes and needs to do several expensive rituals to protect them. Another that is actually real and extremely common is the one where people are forbidden from associating with practitioners of Palo Mayombe because the “Paleros” are bad people that solely exist to do evil and place curses on everything and everyone.
In short, I am The Boogeyman. I have been here this whole time. I have watched as people have made up stories about my African Traditional Religion and how bad it is. I have watched as people have been asked to leave from my home and have gone and made up stories about how they were mistreated. I have watched as others have sold their services and products based on the threat that I am (even mentioning me by name) out to “get them”. I have been here this whole time. You can use me as your boogeyman and make your sales or have your friends validate your delusions and lies without knowing they are all lies.
Just remember that time will tell all truths and when the truth arrives the lie runs and cowers in terror.
