LOVE: suspension of disbelief... within reason?
I enjoy applying the models of self-organization, emergence, autopoiesis, systems theory, dissipative & replicative structures to social organization. It seems that a sense of humor helps to interpret data at this scale! Perhaps this is for the same reason that I believe that mature societies have a forum for questioning their fundamental characteristics (such as the archetypal trickster figure, like a classic court jester... or a modern analogue, like Jon Stewart & The Daily Show)
There is a great irony in the way that traditionally/historically, most cultures have encouraged ethnocentrism to some degree (one might wonder how much this relates to the human organism's tendency to desire a " local vertical"); and yet, biodiversity is beneficial for us to survive & evolve... in fact, I would venture to say that as a general rule, questioning the orthodoxy makes for a more robust system!
I entered international when the last US Census asked me to state my ethnicity. I wonder what it will take for a majority of people to make a similar cosmopolitan choice?
Please bear with me while I contemplate at great length how such esoteric goals can be synthesized with exoteric processes...
Mitakuye Oyasin, commonly translated as "all my relations" ...is a Lakota reference for "a recognition of the unity innate in the universe. Even more, it is a salutation, a prayer for all creation to commune in the harmony and balance that bridge the diversity of our lives." (A cognate term comes to mind: The Noosphere... The expanding omnidimensional structure of all reality-labyrinths on this planet; sum total of all human thoughts, feelings and apparent sense impressions.)
And yet I do want to maintain the integrity of the signal to noise ratio in the original schema, And I am rather sympathetic to developments among caretakers of the ancient traditions to preserve their sacred ways, such as this:
Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality
--
Please bear these divergent perspectives in mind when you consider how I felt today, when I received a forwarded email of this information...
Star Message: WICAHPI WI
I want to make it clear that I do appreciate the heart & soul of this teaching.
If it ever seems like I am criticizing the messengers of such wisdom, please understand that is not my intention.
Through my skepticism, I am just trying to understand and accept what is being communicated.
Unfortunately, in the realm of spirituality (& politics), I have encountered as many vampires as I have angels.
When I started looking for sources for the email was forwarded to me, this is the first page that I found... it seemed notable that it begins with the warnings about dangerous cults, although it is a page dedicated to exploring the beneficial aspects of information received through UFO contact.
greatdreams.com, the host for this page, is a website which I first discovered twelve years ago, when I first started using the internet! It was one of the original sites that I found which explored the 11:11 phenomenon, which I first experienced about twenty years ago! I have to admit that from this first contact, I regarded it with a mixture of fascination & skepticism.
Perhaps I should reveal my own personal experience & opinion of the UFO phenomenon, which I strangely revealed to lj readers in the context of my attendance @ the initial "Last Sunday" gathering.
There is something which often registers as particularly spurious to me when I encounter propaganda from New Religious Movements ( if not especially so, many of the uneducated & uninformed varieties of 'Fluffy-Bunny' Neo-Pagans). But I believe that I have finally figured out a context in which to communicate with people who follow such paths! One friend of mine (who is a medical doctor) provided a clue to me a couple of years ago: when this person was observing alternative healing practices, a certain degree of suspension of disbelief was necessary, but overall it was recognized that there is an emotional content to many of these methods which is comforting to people (perhaps the beneficial action is in development of a therapeutic relationship and not in the treatments themselves, sometimes?)... and whatever the reason, it is a good thing that people receive unconditional love, listening, and guidance from their healing practitioners. My comment at the time was, "i am a skeptic, but i will joyously celebrate the power of love!"
--
To further put this skepticism in a loving context, I will reference one of the fundamental teachings from the same source for the email that was forwarded to me:
MAKA WICAHPI WICOHAN
Spiritual Protection of Family (Law 08 of 11)
"If something does not feel right to you, within you, in the very core of your being, simply do not accept, bless it, thank it for coming to you and then be about your business.
So do not forget that within your discernment, you must also honor that which is not your path. For there is no right or wrong.
When you hear from many groups that their way is the only way, bless them, and leave them to their belief, for there are many different directions and paths on your way home to the Creator."
--
Honestly, I believe that this is excellent advice! I often refer to similar concepts from Frank Herbert's Dune, which is generally conceived of as "Science Fiction."
Thou shalt not disfigure the soul!
"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only revelation."
And although I may appreciate many of the philosophical perspectives used by such a work of "fiction" (I am also reminded of similar phenomenae related to Star Trek and Star Wars) ...I wonder what makes a writing any more significant to humans when it claims to be channeled from extraterrestrial entities? There is an oddly similar paradox concerning H.P. Lovecraft's writing: readers often question why Lovecraft came up with fictionalized names for the Great Old Ones & Elder Gods... why didn't he just use the names of the deities from ancient real-world cultures which obviously inspired (at least in part) the creation of these entities? If I may paraphrase his answer (q.v. his essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature"): he essentially said that if he used a fictional setting, then his readers engaged their suspension of disbelief, and it thus was easier to create the sense of the "weird" otherworld that he wanted to evoke... which was much more difficult to elicit through a historical, or anthropological context. Obviously, as Lovecraft was a staunch materialist (or cosmic indifferentist, if you prefer), he wouldn't have otherwise even considered a spiritual or religious context to be worthy of his time & effort. However, many contemporary chaos magickians & the like have now repurposed his works exactly in such way... engaging in rituals & ceremonies based on Lovecraftian lore, combined with other forms of Neophilic Irreligion.
I may sometimes have scoffed at why people insist on phrasing things in spiritual or extraterrestrial terms, instead of speaking of them in pure philosophical context; but this is my challenge: to accept that sometimes, people will prefer to use such language for whatever reasons that they do. And honestly, I just want to know what motivates people to prefer one metaphor over another! I would rather not project my own personal preference, but would like people to find their own path... and I can only hope that it will be one that is harmonious with the greater good... mutually benefiting us all without exception.
However, in my experience, an unfortunately large number of the supposedly spiritual paths I have encountered are actually just trying to make money off of people's gullibility (q.v. Sarlo's Guru Rating Service... taking advantage of people's fear, ignorance, dreams, fantasies, night terrors, quasi-schizophrenic states, and general need for attention & human contact.
I have recently been contemplating the issues addressed in the Zeitgeist Adendum. So, I will relate these words about the core of Jiddu Krishnamurti's teaching... which he said was contained in the statement he made in 1929, and which he reaffirmed in 1980: "'Truth is a pathless land.' Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security - religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind."
As I received my rites of passage through RPGs, I was often challenged with the question of whether or not I could tell the difference between "reality" and fantasy" ...people were afraid that I was going to think I could fly & jump off a building, or try and sacrifice my parents to the devil, or engage in some other of the many ridiculous perversions in which people have indulged themselves, and then blamed RPGs (or rock music, or whatever other scapegoat) for their motivation.
I often criticize religious and political leaders of using Pathos as a motivational tool to brainwash the masses. So, I often try to wake people up from this state of mass hypnosis. But, as Plato pointed out so long ago in the allegory of the cave... people generally resent this sort of rude awakening! After all, the only real hypnosis is self-hypnosis. And if people have chosen their own comfortable delusions, who am I to attempt to force them to "face reality?" Whose reality would I have them face if not one of their own choosing? Well, honestly... this is one of my most difficult stumbling blocks. I am really just regurgitating the same reality/fantasy skepticism that I was subjected to growing up. And rather than calling people on perceived bullshit, we would all be better off if we learned how to differentiate fantasy and reality from one another all by ourselves (without someone else pointing it out to us)... similar to that teaching someone how to fish parable (instead of giving them a fish). And honestly, I think that fantasy is a perfectly healthy thing to engage in, as long as we know that's what it is, at some basic level (self-preservation? preservation of the species?). Sure, engage in suspension of disbelief inside the safety of your church, temple, magick circle, movie theater, hospital, or the pages of a book... but I trust that you will recognize that the world outside may not always agree with your own subjective experience? I have certainly had my share of victories & failures... and in doing so, I have noticed some similar successes & errors in the behaviours of those around me.
But seriously, folks... you should definitely vote your conscience; but when I see reports like this:
John McCain Gets "Alien Endorsment" in Roswell
...I can't help but be reminded of the lyrics which have been reverberating in my head, all morning long: from Tool's "Rosetta Stoned," which include allusions to psychedelic deleusions of grandeur associated with extraterrestrial contact
Yet, I would imagine that any aliens that would back the Republicans would have to be of a much more sinister ilk... perhaps more like the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft's works?
As I wrote right around this time, about a year ago... "My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible." - from _Return of the Weird_ by Zack Stentz
And just how does our relationship with others relate to our own well-being? Perhaps through states such as heroism, love, trust & ritual ...we are enabled to cope with the unconscious/a-rational forces of " shadow" which lurk beneath & beyond our ordinary human comprehension?
--
There is an ancient parable about how people can achieve enlightenment all by themselves; but they can probably get there quicker (and possibly go even further) if they heed the wisdom of those who have traveled the path before them!
As I am often wont to say: if you truly believe that you can fly... please just start trying to fly from the ground first, before you go and jump off of a building (or into an abyss), ok?!!!
--
If you would like to learn to fly together with me... I would like to find a mutually convenient time & place that we can collaborate in the creation of worlds by taking turns with storytelling!
In fact, if you would like to assist in the creation of an Alternate Reality Game along these lines, I am extremely excited about using Austin Time Exchange to reciprocate for programming hours... time banking seems to me like an excellent step towards creating what Jacque Fresco refers to as a resource-based economy!
And in the meantime, if you &/or anyone you know has $550K that you're not sure what to do with, I would highly recommend investment in the purchase of this research center (where I would happily work as the property manager ;-), which was the incubation site for The Venus Project (which will now be moving to Ecuador to establish a "Museum of the Future"):
21+ acre park-like paradise, lush landscaping consisting of many ponds, lakes, hundreds of palm trees, various fruit and flowering trees, many large old, oak trees, two bridges and a large deck cantilevered over a lake.
Ten buildings; hurricane resistant, fire resistant, termite resistant, concrete and steel buildings, 5 are domes, 3 homes, 1 office, 2 equipped shops, very large spa, 4 wells, 3 septic tanks.
--
ADDENDUM 2010-07-22 @ 17:17:
here is my long-overdue critical analysis of the Zeitgeist Movement
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/209216.html?thread=1065536#t1065536
There is a great irony in the way that traditionally/historically, most cultures have encouraged ethnocentrism to some degree (one might wonder how much this relates to the human organism's tendency to desire a " local vertical"); and yet, biodiversity is beneficial for us to survive & evolve... in fact, I would venture to say that as a general rule, questioning the orthodoxy makes for a more robust system!
I entered international when the last US Census asked me to state my ethnicity. I wonder what it will take for a majority of people to make a similar cosmopolitan choice?
Please bear with me while I contemplate at great length how such esoteric goals can be synthesized with exoteric processes...
Mitakuye Oyasin, commonly translated as "all my relations" ...is a Lakota reference for "a recognition of the unity innate in the universe. Even more, it is a salutation, a prayer for all creation to commune in the harmony and balance that bridge the diversity of our lives." (A cognate term comes to mind: The Noosphere... The expanding omnidimensional structure of all reality-labyrinths on this planet; sum total of all human thoughts, feelings and apparent sense impressions.)
And yet I do want to maintain the integrity of the signal to noise ratio in the original schema, And I am rather sympathetic to developments among caretakers of the ancient traditions to preserve their sacred ways, such as this:
Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality
--
Please bear these divergent perspectives in mind when you consider how I felt today, when I received a forwarded email of this information...
Star Message: WICAHPI WI
I want to make it clear that I do appreciate the heart & soul of this teaching.
If it ever seems like I am criticizing the messengers of such wisdom, please understand that is not my intention.
Through my skepticism, I am just trying to understand and accept what is being communicated.
Unfortunately, in the realm of spirituality (& politics), I have encountered as many vampires as I have angels.
When I started looking for sources for the email was forwarded to me, this is the first page that I found... it seemed notable that it begins with the warnings about dangerous cults, although it is a page dedicated to exploring the beneficial aspects of information received through UFO contact.
greatdreams.com, the host for this page, is a website which I first discovered twelve years ago, when I first started using the internet! It was one of the original sites that I found which explored the 11:11 phenomenon, which I first experienced about twenty years ago! I have to admit that from this first contact, I regarded it with a mixture of fascination & skepticism.
Perhaps I should reveal my own personal experience & opinion of the UFO phenomenon, which I strangely revealed to lj readers in the context of my attendance @ the initial "Last Sunday" gathering.
There is something which often registers as particularly spurious to me when I encounter propaganda from New Religious Movements ( if not especially so, many of the uneducated & uninformed varieties of 'Fluffy-Bunny' Neo-Pagans). But I believe that I have finally figured out a context in which to communicate with people who follow such paths! One friend of mine (who is a medical doctor) provided a clue to me a couple of years ago: when this person was observing alternative healing practices, a certain degree of suspension of disbelief was necessary, but overall it was recognized that there is an emotional content to many of these methods which is comforting to people (perhaps the beneficial action is in development of a therapeutic relationship and not in the treatments themselves, sometimes?)... and whatever the reason, it is a good thing that people receive unconditional love, listening, and guidance from their healing practitioners. My comment at the time was, "i am a skeptic, but i will joyously celebrate the power of love!"
--
To further put this skepticism in a loving context, I will reference one of the fundamental teachings from the same source for the email that was forwarded to me:
MAKA WICAHPI WICOHAN
Spiritual Protection of Family (Law 08 of 11)
"If something does not feel right to you, within you, in the very core of your being, simply do not accept, bless it, thank it for coming to you and then be about your business.
So do not forget that within your discernment, you must also honor that which is not your path. For there is no right or wrong.
When you hear from many groups that their way is the only way, bless them, and leave them to their belief, for there are many different directions and paths on your way home to the Creator."
--
Honestly, I believe that this is excellent advice! I often refer to similar concepts from Frank Herbert's Dune, which is generally conceived of as "Science Fiction."
Thou shalt not disfigure the soul!
"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions. That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only revelation."
And although I may appreciate many of the philosophical perspectives used by such a work of "fiction" (I am also reminded of similar phenomenae related to Star Trek and Star Wars) ...I wonder what makes a writing any more significant to humans when it claims to be channeled from extraterrestrial entities? There is an oddly similar paradox concerning H.P. Lovecraft's writing: readers often question why Lovecraft came up with fictionalized names for the Great Old Ones & Elder Gods... why didn't he just use the names of the deities from ancient real-world cultures which obviously inspired (at least in part) the creation of these entities? If I may paraphrase his answer (q.v. his essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature"): he essentially said that if he used a fictional setting, then his readers engaged their suspension of disbelief, and it thus was easier to create the sense of the "weird" otherworld that he wanted to evoke... which was much more difficult to elicit through a historical, or anthropological context. Obviously, as Lovecraft was a staunch materialist (or cosmic indifferentist, if you prefer), he wouldn't have otherwise even considered a spiritual or religious context to be worthy of his time & effort. However, many contemporary chaos magickians & the like have now repurposed his works exactly in such way... engaging in rituals & ceremonies based on Lovecraftian lore, combined with other forms of Neophilic Irreligion.
I may sometimes have scoffed at why people insist on phrasing things in spiritual or extraterrestrial terms, instead of speaking of them in pure philosophical context; but this is my challenge: to accept that sometimes, people will prefer to use such language for whatever reasons that they do. And honestly, I just want to know what motivates people to prefer one metaphor over another! I would rather not project my own personal preference, but would like people to find their own path... and I can only hope that it will be one that is harmonious with the greater good... mutually benefiting us all without exception.
However, in my experience, an unfortunately large number of the supposedly spiritual paths I have encountered are actually just trying to make money off of people's gullibility (q.v. Sarlo's Guru Rating Service... taking advantage of people's fear, ignorance, dreams, fantasies, night terrors, quasi-schizophrenic states, and general need for attention & human contact.
I have recently been contemplating the issues addressed in the Zeitgeist Adendum. So, I will relate these words about the core of Jiddu Krishnamurti's teaching... which he said was contained in the statement he made in 1929, and which he reaffirmed in 1980: "'Truth is a pathless land.' Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security - religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind."
As I received my rites of passage through RPGs, I was often challenged with the question of whether or not I could tell the difference between "reality" and fantasy" ...people were afraid that I was going to think I could fly & jump off a building, or try and sacrifice my parents to the devil, or engage in some other of the many ridiculous perversions in which people have indulged themselves, and then blamed RPGs (or rock music, or whatever other scapegoat) for their motivation.
I often criticize religious and political leaders of using Pathos as a motivational tool to brainwash the masses. So, I often try to wake people up from this state of mass hypnosis. But, as Plato pointed out so long ago in the allegory of the cave... people generally resent this sort of rude awakening! After all, the only real hypnosis is self-hypnosis. And if people have chosen their own comfortable delusions, who am I to attempt to force them to "face reality?" Whose reality would I have them face if not one of their own choosing? Well, honestly... this is one of my most difficult stumbling blocks. I am really just regurgitating the same reality/fantasy skepticism that I was subjected to growing up. And rather than calling people on perceived bullshit, we would all be better off if we learned how to differentiate fantasy and reality from one another all by ourselves (without someone else pointing it out to us)... similar to that teaching someone how to fish parable (instead of giving them a fish). And honestly, I think that fantasy is a perfectly healthy thing to engage in, as long as we know that's what it is, at some basic level (self-preservation? preservation of the species?). Sure, engage in suspension of disbelief inside the safety of your church, temple, magick circle, movie theater, hospital, or the pages of a book... but I trust that you will recognize that the world outside may not always agree with your own subjective experience? I have certainly had my share of victories & failures... and in doing so, I have noticed some similar successes & errors in the behaviours of those around me.
But seriously, folks... you should definitely vote your conscience; but when I see reports like this:
John McCain Gets "Alien Endorsment" in Roswell
...I can't help but be reminded of the lyrics which have been reverberating in my head, all morning long: from Tool's "Rosetta Stoned," which include allusions to psychedelic deleusions of grandeur associated with extraterrestrial contact
Click to viewYet, I would imagine that any aliens that would back the Republicans would have to be of a much more sinister ilk... perhaps more like the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft's works?
As I wrote right around this time, about a year ago... "My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible." - from _Return of the Weird_ by Zack Stentz
And just how does our relationship with others relate to our own well-being? Perhaps through states such as heroism, love, trust & ritual ...we are enabled to cope with the unconscious/a-rational forces of " shadow" which lurk beneath & beyond our ordinary human comprehension?
--
There is an ancient parable about how people can achieve enlightenment all by themselves; but they can probably get there quicker (and possibly go even further) if they heed the wisdom of those who have traveled the path before them!
As I am often wont to say: if you truly believe that you can fly... please just start trying to fly from the ground first, before you go and jump off of a building (or into an abyss), ok?!!!
--
If you would like to learn to fly together with me... I would like to find a mutually convenient time & place that we can collaborate in the creation of worlds by taking turns with storytelling!
In fact, if you would like to assist in the creation of an Alternate Reality Game along these lines, I am extremely excited about using Austin Time Exchange to reciprocate for programming hours... time banking seems to me like an excellent step towards creating what Jacque Fresco refers to as a resource-based economy!
And in the meantime, if you &/or anyone you know has $550K that you're not sure what to do with, I would highly recommend investment in the purchase of this research center (where I would happily work as the property manager ;-), which was the incubation site for The Venus Project (which will now be moving to Ecuador to establish a "Museum of the Future"):
21+ acre park-like paradise, lush landscaping consisting of many ponds, lakes, hundreds of palm trees, various fruit and flowering trees, many large old, oak trees, two bridges and a large deck cantilevered over a lake.
Ten buildings; hurricane resistant, fire resistant, termite resistant, concrete and steel buildings, 5 are domes, 3 homes, 1 office, 2 equipped shops, very large spa, 4 wells, 3 septic tanks.
--
ADDENDUM 2010-07-22 @ 17:17:
here is my long-overdue critical analysis of the Zeitgeist Movement
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/209216.html?thread=1065536#t1065536