Saturday night at the local Chuck E Cheese where I often enjoyed myself in the past, and even once thrown a birthday party.
Why?
I saw everything through Reiki eyes.
From the workers walking away from the counter as we came up to order, to the child cutting in line ahead of us once we got there, and my son forking out twenty-five bucks on tokens with a buy one hundred get fifty free coupon, it felt surreal.
The pizza, the 'new crispy pizza' was a scientific wonder of dough. The edges were thin and the middle thick. Although the tomato sauce was 'spicier', there was at least fifty percent less cheese on the pizza. It was spread out thinner, and instead of two types of cheese as before, there was one, mozzerella.
Having worked for not one but two consumer products companies in my Chemical Engineering past, I knew 'new improved' always omitted the word 'cheaper' because that is the whole motivating factor behind a 'new and improved' in the first place: to make money. My son argued with me that the middle was doughier. He thought it had MORE cheese. But when I peeled it off and removed that layer, he saw it had less. My mom said on the phone that night, that 'they can't raise the prices any more at places because then people will not come' and due to the economy, newer cheaper products are cropping up everywhere.
This pizza took an hour. No one had delivered it. When I had to ask, at forty-five minutes, I was told 'the kitchen was really busy' and given a stack of seven tokens. We had just washed our hands, so we chose to wait. It takes seven minutes to bake a pizza. I know, I have been to Domino's take out.
Almost every machine was broken. That was a good thing. I put two and two together.
I had seen a clip on YouTube about subliminal programming in advertising and the media. I saw S-E-X hidden all drippy style in red letters. I saw close ups of anal sex going on in the background of a beach scene ad for like, coke or something like it to drink. A friend mentioned that all the Nazi propaganda experts came after the war to Madison Avenue.
And consumerism was born.
I have a problem with that when it comes to my son. Just as in medical school we used to jokingly refer to the smoking section at the hospital as the 'cancer induction ward', the play area at Chuck E Cheese is clearly the 'gambling induction ward'. As my mom said, lovingly, 'it is like Las Vegas for kids'.
That is disturbing. The majority of the games are going away from games of skill such as pinball, skee ball, basketball to games of adrenaline (boat crashing speedboat race) and games of luck (how to get more tickets). There was a roulette type of game, the ones where the little hoe things push the tokens just like the one at Vegas that pushes the quarters, and a giant slot machine for tickets.
On top of that, I felt the energy. It was not happy. This place was a distraction from Source. Children were hypnotized, parents were worrying about money. I frankly like to watch the behavior of the moms once their kids are away. Do they play? Do they talk? Do they just sit? It is fascinating. Most adults alone are playing with their smart phones.
Now I understand why Spirit advises us to 'stay close to nature'. The man-made entertainment is solely concentrated on the almighty dollar, and how to siphon it off from you. There are games and tricks and annoyances that bring disharmony. To me, it was like watching highly skilled athletes playing in the ball pit and obstacle course at the play area, with all these wondrous beings of Light squandering their spiritual gifts on entertainment, such as Chuck E Cheese.
I told my son about my concerns. I had him lay out his prizes. I asked, "Twenty-five dollars went in to this place. Look at these toys. They are valued at eight dollars. Where did the other thirteen dollars go? Did it help you learn new skills for life? Did it produce thirteen dollars of fun?" I shared, "I spent twenty-three dollars on two dinky cups, a pizza that was not as good as Round Table, that was late. I got thirty-five tokens and seven extra. So many machines were not working, and the ones that did ran out of tickets and had to be fixed while we waited. So Chuck E Cheese did not hold up their end of the bargain for me."
I said, "As long as you know what is going on, fine, go and have a good time. But the trickery of children into becoming people who enjoy going to Vegas is not right with me. Just like people drink or smoke or take drugs, gambling can be something people can get hooked on to as well. I had a cousin who raided his wife's retirement money to take secret trips to Las Vegas during work. Be smart. Be wise. And know the game that they are playing on us first."
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
