Modern Urban Life as a Spectator Sport
At the height of the Roman Empire, one of the central institutions was the circus. It is hard to describe what it might have been like — a complex, heterogeneous blend of carnival, spectacle, festivity, sexuality, ritual, and gruesome violence. The central premise of the circus was the bloody spectacle — a veritable orgy of violence and bloodsport in the arena. “Bread and circuses,” as described by the Roman poet Juvenal, was how the Roman public was kept pacified and preoccupied in their place.
In his classic autobiographical work, The Confessions, the celebrated Christian theologian St. Augustine of Hippo eloquently describes visiting the Roman circuses and the effect he observed on human psychology. This is one of the most profound descriptions of mob bloodlust infecting the spectators at the gladiatorial games in Rome:
For, directly he saw that blood, he therewith imbibed a sort of savageness; nor did he turn away, but fixed his eye, drinking in madness unconsciously, and was delighted with the guilty contest, and drunken with the bloody pastime. Nor was he now the same he came in, but was one of the throng he came unto, and a true companion of those who had brought him there. Why need I say more? He looked, shouted, was excited, carried away with him the madness which would stimulate him to return, not only with those who first enticed him, but also before them, yea, and to draw in others.
Hippo, Augustine of. The Confessions. translated by J. G. Pilkington, 2012,
Book VI, Chapter 8
Another brilliant depiction of the Roman gladiatorial games appears in science fiction, in an episode of the classic television show Star Trek titled Bread and Circuses. The show depicts the crew of the starship Enterprise trapped on a planet where, apparently, Rome never fell and instead became a modern 20th-century empire. The fascinating aspect of this show’s depiction of the Roman gladiatorial games is its explicit analogy between the games and modern mass media, specifically television. In this Star Trek episode, gladiatorial mortal combat is televised by the Empire TV corporation, complete with a camera crew, director, and a recorded applause track.
The Star Trek episode Bread and Circuses depicts the gladiatorial games as a televised event in a modernized version of the ancient Roman empire
In a brightly colored, carnivalesque, and festive atmosphere, massive crowds would gather at locations such as the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum in ancient Rome, as well as at other venues across the empire. They would then sit as passive spectators to a veritable orgy of violence and horror — everything from mortal combat, to wild animals devouring hapless victims (often Christians), to obscene rituals involving arcane ceremonies and sacrifices, as well as carnal activity of every description — in addition to acrobatics, dance, drama, costumes, and pageantry.
The cumulative effect of the spectacle on the public imagination was, as St. Augustine described, to inspire and fuel a collective mob frenzy and bloodlust. Being constantly bombarded by this bloody, violent extravaganza kept the public in a certain frame of mind — it kept them trapped in what may be described as a “low vibrational” reactive state of consciousness. This state of mind is characterized by being perpetually “on edge” and having a low focus or attention span — being in perpetual “fight-or-flight” mode. It is a state of being that is ultimately draining — physically and psychologically. In the long term, it has been proven to have profound negative effects on one’s health and state of mind.
Essentially, I would suggest that what was happening at the Roman circuses was the ritualized traumatization of the Roman public. An exposure to violent spectacle, such as the one at the circus, induced trauma in the mind of the spectator to varying degrees. This, I would argue, is similar to the trauma experienced by a military combatant, though to a significantly lesser degree. The end result is the same, however — PTSD or “post-traumatic stress disorder.” Arguably, anyone who experiences any form of trauma experiences PTSD as a result. Only the degree differs, which depends on the degree of trauma and the degree of impressionability of the traumatized victim.
I would suggest that PTSD occurs when the stress experienced due to trauma — the raised cortisol and adrenaline levels in the bloodstream and the activation of the body’s sympathetic nervous system in “fight-or-flight” mode — becomes entrapped in the body’s nervous and muscular systems for an extended duration. One replays the traumatic experience in one’s memory and dreams — one is haunted by it — and one continues to experience cortisol and adrenaline spikes in one’s bloodstream along with the unconscious activation of the sympathetic “fight-or-flight” response.
Symptoms [of PTSD] may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in how a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response.
Wikipedia contributors. “Post-traumatic stress disorder.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 8 Aug. 2020. Web. 1 Feb. 2026.
Meditation practices — especially TM (Transcendental Meditation), but also Mindfulness Meditation and other meditative techniques — have been scientifically proven, through clinical studies, to effectively alleviate the symptoms and root causes of PTSD, often making medications unnecessary. Moreover, the simple meditation techniques, once learned and practiced regularly, produce lasting long-term benefits. Sound healing or therapy is another effective method to alleviate chronic stress. This is especially true when using tuning forks, crystalline “singing bowls,” pan drums, wind chimes, harps, and other musical instruments. Tuned to Solfeggio frequencies, they have demonstrable stress-alleviating effects.
The founder of the International School of Transcendental Meditation, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, once gathered a group of his most dedicated students and instructed them to travel to various crime-infested neighborhoods across the world — locations having a great deal of violence and negativity in the atmosphere — and collectively to meditate using the TM techniques for several days on end. The result of their efforts became known as the “Maharishi Effect” or the “Meditation Effect” — namely, the elevation of the “vibration” or “frequency” in a neighborhood’s atmosphere. This produced a measurable reduction in crime and violence rates in the neighborhood during the periods in question, and a corresponding elevation in the population’s mindset.
People apparently became more high-minded as a result — more inclined to education and personal development, less inclined to negative emotions such as rage and hostility, and less prone to physical and verbal violence. This apparently suggests that the practice of Transcendental Meditation — especially in a collective or group setting — not only alleviates stress and even PTSD symptoms in the individual, but also raises the collective vibration experienced by everyone — even non-practitioners — in the surrounding vicinity. It is as if the effect of Transcendental Meditation has a greater influence than simply on the individual practitioner, reaching what psychologist Carl Jung might term the “collective unconscious” and elevating the general atmosphere or “vibe” of a locality well beyond any single practitioner of the technique.
Nowadays, even though we no longer have ritualized orgies of violence and bloodsport, such as at the circuses of the Roman empire, we are, nevertheless, perpetually exposed to violent spectacle in mass media. The modern media thrives on violent spectacle in everything, ranging from newspaper headlines and front pages (in the tradition of “yellow journalism,” popularized by media magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer), television crime shows, horror/crime/gangster/western movies (the most popular movie genres), video games, and social media internet sites. All of these media vehicles are invariably peppered with generous doses of (often gratuitous) sex and violence.
Although the effect of media violence in the 21st Century is nowhere near as traumatizing or mind-numbing as witnessing live mortal combat in the Roman gladiatorial arena, the cumulative trauma, especially over time, is potentially quite severe. This is why the practice of stress-relieving techniques such as meditation, yoga, qigong, breathwork, sound therapy, stretching exercises, long walks, lap swimming, etc., is no less relevant today in relieving PTSD resulting from modern urban life than it was in ancient Rome. They serve to alleviate the symptoms of the ritualized collective traumatization of the masses as a means of crowd control and social organization, similar to the bloodsport of the Roman arena.
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