I find the concept of the Big Bang theory tiresome. It is an argument for the birth of the universe that is, at best, as flawed in its simplicity as the statement, "God said " let there be light".
These are both models of the universe that are based on the conceptualization that at some abstract point in the past, everything sprang into existence from a single miracle. Even at this late date, even the proponents of so called scientific endeavors insist that the big bang is a fact of the universe, while the more scientific still know it as a good theory. It just doesn't hold water, as both ideas have been shown to have holes.
As modern scientific process has shown time and again that there are holes in the beliefs of religions, magic has shown the holes in the beliefs of science. Assuming, of course, that one can wrest themselves from the paradigm of what i call "blind science" which is also called "scientific materialist reductionism", and come to a state of un-belief. Un-belief is the belief if nothing as being true, also known as nihilism, except that when you believe in nothing at all you become free to believe whatever you wish. Something science missed. The current magic current is gathering steam, and their occult practitioners are attempting to unravel the greatest mysteries of humankind. Yours truly not withstanding. It is my goal to research the occult magics of the past, and make them available to all. The hidden must be made known, the private, public. Otherwise, we risk becoming that which we rebel against. A small cabal of secret hoarders. Not unlike our so called leaders. Eventually religion will rise again to expose the holes of magic and the cycle shall begin again. In a cyclical universe, it must be an accepted truth. The only difference is that magical paradigms have more peace and cooperation on their side.
I will not claim to have absolute knowledge in regard to the origins of the universe, but I can spot a dogma when I see one. This is not to say I have no theories as to the nature of the universe, but I am at least capable of discerning fact from conjecture and theory. I have a model that works for myself in the here and now, and someday it may have to be altered, upgraded, or declared obsolete. Such is the path of belief cycles over time. It seems to me now that if the universe is infinite, that we should attempt to grapple with the repercussions of such a concept. If it is a ripple of space-time, then we should be looking toward what will allow us to move forward. It is here where we deal with that which is fated to occur, and that which is free will. What's the difference?
That being said, it becomes apparent to me that everything is in a state of flux. Everything changes over time, and nothing remains a stagnant pond, lest mosquitoes and other blood sucking parasites gain a foothold. Even the meaning of change changes. Supposed facts of the laws of nature have been altered and editted, introduced to fudge factors so they keep working, and never declared obsolete until it becomes obvious to anyone but the dullest mind on the planet.
It was Stephen Hawking that admitted that the reason that entropy increases over time is because of our need to measure time in terms of entropy. If the eventual destruction and decay of systems is an inherent fact of the universe, why do we hold to institutions that are no longer relevant in the same way that they were at their inception? We hold onto relics of the past as if we are somehow safer with them than we are in exposing ourselves to that which is new. It takes bold people with bold ideas before existence in the new and undiscovered country can bear fruit.
In the past, the Americas were built out of defiance of the old. In spite if the oligarchy, a new nation was born, in the new world. Likewise we, the bold, must be prepared to strike out a new life for ourselves in spite of the old world tyrannies.
When our government is too oppressive, where do we escape to? Every landmass is claimed. Excepting the Internet. The world web. This is where the next battle is fought.
Many think that the third world ear is fought in the middle east. Or perhaps Africa, or Europe, or even the united states. It is fought in the minds of every person connected to the Internet.
The Butterfly Effect shows us that all events and objects are connected in some way, and that any action has a causality of some sort on the future events that follow it. In this way I can extrapolate that I am the person I am because of the fact that I was kicked out of an apartment complex when I was in the 7th grade. It's an infinitum argument, in which you can argue that you are the person that you are because of who your mother was, and her mother before her, right down to which cells diverged from each other many millions of years ago when we were all made up of protoplasm and proteins.
In Noetic Science, we discover the idea that our thoughts are made up of energy, which therefore have mass. Mass can have effects on the material world in the general sense, according to Newtonian physics, which was years behind the specific implications of such a broad statement. Noetics at a very basic level implies that the words we speak and the thoughts we think have an effect on the surrounding material world around us.
In Quantum Psychology, one can see that the words we speak have a profound impact upon our perceptions of the world. In essence, that which we speak becomes our reality for ourselves personally. If you state your negativity, those around you will perceive you as a negative person. Their perceptions and reactions can very well cause you to be the negative person you thought you were not. Your mind is merely translating any visual information it receives, organizing it into something that makes sense based on your previous experiences. In this manner, we metaphorically and literally see the world different than anyone else on the planet ever would or could.
Chaos Magick shows how powerful belief systems can become for the individual, depending on their perspective in how useful it is in their lives. If it is not useful for your life goals, let it go until it is relevant again. It is never assumed that anything is of complete uselessness, otherwise it would never have existed in the first place.
So what does it all mean? Is this just a huddled mass of theories in which we all extrapolate our own meaning out of the universe?
Well, yes and no.
While it seems to be the case that we are merely pawns in a grand chessboard, it doesn't change the fact that even the pawns in this chessboard can break rules if they so choose to. Or if they are aware that the rules are arbitrary, and need not exist at all.
I aim to break the rules, in an effort to fully realize what kind of being I can be without the limitations of conventional trivialities of so-called "reality".
Sigilization is the condenced and concentrated visual form of a will or intent. For the artsticly inclined, it is the easiest and most effective means of learning magic. It is easy to learn, and depending on you chosen method of charging it with energy, the sigils effects can range from fairly benign synchronicity to grand dreams coming true.
It's rooted in ancient mystism, alchemical symbolism, as well as astrological schools of thought. It was studied by Christian Gnostics, Jewish mystics, and gypsy witches. More recently it has emerged in golden dawn magic, chaos theory and magic, and has many paralels in quantum entanglement theory.
I'll not go into sigil manufacture and maintenance here, as there are several texts and books on the subject already. The Spare method is the method which has provided the best results for me, so it can be assumed for the remainder of this explanation that is what I am referring to when I speak of sigils.
Seeing as how sigils are generally charged with an associative element, passion and love sigils are red=fire element, how would a digital sigil be charged? Digitally, of course. But to understand the digital realm, one must break down what it means in element based terms. Information. Ether.
Digital form of Gnosis.
Gnosis is generally achieved at the mental state of no thought. When the mind goes blank and a person is on auto pilot, the unconscious mind becomes susceptible to outside influences.
But what of a digital sigil? Surely a collection of ones and zeroes cannot be released into the Internet without a method of destruction, can it?
A digital sigil can act as a defensive measure should your website be taken offline. Such as the burying in earth, or the burning in fire methods of more conventional sigil castings, the returning of the power to the source in which you borrowed it. In the case of the Internet, the representation of power would disperse around the net to cause the desired effects. Considering how vast and information dense the Internet is, and that people interact with information quickly and at every moment of the daily, it seems safe to say that results may be more powerful and faster acting.
To say nothing of the increased odds that the butterfly effect might turn to your favor.
Dicordian Butterfly Bitch Slap
Saturday, January 8, 2011
at
12:39 AM
Discordian Bitch-Slap
or, "That one time when Eris checked to see if I was paying attention to her sister."
Three Wyrd Sisters of Chaos
The Goddess Eris looked across the mortal plains. She was pleased to see so many new adepts to her cause who were not aware of their significance, and a great deal who worshipped her sister Pareidolia without knowing it. But there were very few who acknowledged her other sister Apophenia. This was most disconcerting to Eris, a feeling she usually enjoyed in others. But not on this night.
Apophenia qustioned her sisters frustration.
"What is it that causes your discord this evening, Eris?"
"Though it is my will that mortals do as they please, so that I might alter their perceptions accordingly, I would appreciate that they acknowledge your presence." Eris began, "For myself and Pareidolia play out our roles in human affairs daily, and very rarely do they allow you into their souls." As she spoke, Eris caused a book in the mortal plain to fall from a shelf. The book was about scientific reductionism, and in about 2 minutes a priest would inspect its contents after tripping over it.
Pareidolia laughed as she caused the image of a dragon appear in the clouds above the mortal plane. Twenty three people around a city would all notice the clouds shape, and remark upon the beautiful dragon, all assuming they were the only person to see the formation.
"Dear sister Eris, is it not true that you and I have enjoyed a great deal of our time amongst them? Is it not right that we continue? Monotonous as it may be, I gain my enjoyment of mortal perceptions of the Christ on a piece of toast and Mary on a burrito."
Apophonia spoke over them both, with the grace of wisdom that was her gifted property.
"Sisters, what you do not realize is that the mortals must seek me out on their own terms. They cannot be coerced or convinced to stray from your influences from outside forces. It is only between the two of you that they make any progress toward me at all. They must decide to do so on their own. If they would bow down to the idol of their worship in the form of a deified taco, then that is what they should do with your help Pareidolia. For only then can they appreciate the dissolution of their old perceptions at the hands of Eris."
Pareidolia, The Maker of mountains from mole hills, contemplated before she spoke. " I feel the point made by Eris is still valid, you are the youngest and oldest of us Apophinia, and I think you will be needed by the mortals very soon. Even by mortal reconning Eris and I have had influence for far too much for far too long. It quickly is the time when you shall have to rise to an occasion, and bear equal parts of work with Eris and I."
Eris, The Sower of Discord and Confusion, spoke next.
"There are those among the mortals who would place me as an almighty status, their ignorance betraying other aspects of the chaos, such as you my two sisters."
Apophenia, the Bringer of Mystic Wisdom and Revelation, smiled.
"My time and influence is a subtle one, and I shall make myself known to the lives of mortals once again quite soon. But it is the work of you two together that will herald my return, through your own workings and influence."
Eris huffed impatiently.
"Fine, I'll take a few things into my own hands then, to better prepare the world for you. If there would be those mortals who would worship me as an absolute form of chaos, then I shall confuse their mission so that they will be capable of considering their own ignorance of your mystic wisdom."
Pareidolia giggled, "Why do you not start with that one mortal who was lost to my influence for a few years? He's currently under your power, and is certainly a good representative of those who lean toward your methodology."
Looking down upon the young man, Eris considered. "Well he is certainly leaning toward the Discordian religion that was founded in my honor, and is well studied in its implications for and against his life. He has also been very strongly affected by the Curse of the Greyface in his life, but not so much that he cannot pull away from its hold over him."
Apophenia smiled upon her sister. "He has also been seeking me out every so often, before retreating to the safety of what he has experience with. Perhaps he would be a good one to influence, he just might get it."
Eris laughed with a sudden realization, "He has an appreciation for subtleties, as well. I can push the butterfly only slightly, and he will eventually get it. I think I have found a potential convert to your cause Apophenia."
"To all of our causes, Eris." Apophenia corrected. "For to understand me, is to understand that we work together, as sisters."
"Here's hoping he's smart enough to get it, " Pareidolia snickered, " but if not, I'd love for him to see things my way again."
"He doesn't want that anymore, at least not in the same amounts. " Eris spoke. "And I'll give him a nudge toward loving us all in our own ways. Something he'll recognize for what it is, an interference in his thought process, by myself. Perhaps the best form of "Divine intervention" he'll ever have."
"Not if he seeks me out, because of it. " Apophenia grinned, knowingly, as she took a seat to watch Eris set her chaotic events into motion.
"Oh well, " Pareidolia sighed, "I'll just give away all my number 23's to the other mortals who WILL blow them out of proportion."
The Butterfly Affected Nudge
It had a been a long time coming, in retrospect, as most things are. It had been awhile since I had a great shift in the priorities of my thinking, and I was coming into my first Saturn Return. My thought process seemed to be making up for all the slacking I had done in my youth, as I felt I was not learning enough, fast enough. What I fail to realize most of the time, is that I always feel this way, there was just a greater sense of urgency at this point. It was during this time I had been researching ancient occult schools of magic, re-analyizing the bible and other holy texts, and exposing myself to new technologies and conceptualizations of the universe around me.
I was so saturated with new information and concepts, that I was beginning to believe that nothing was true at all, save a few natural elastic tendencies of the universe. There was a part of me that started seeing the entire world as if it were a dream. That "truth" was a purely subjective relationship between the Self and what they have experienced, and that no absolute truth remained so from person to person. This began to come across in my everyday conversations with people, which led to a few conflicts with those who adhered to absolute conceptualizations of dogma. Be they religious or scientific, the dogma prevented any conflicting data or opinions from holding any weight or having any value. In other words, self-inflicted ignorance of any other perspective.
All of this was quite stressful over the winter season of 2009-2010, as the world began to increase again its knowledge of itself, and no single opinion held much validation. I had escaped the Swine Flu with the help of a few spells, though people all around me kept coming down with it. My writing and drawing experienced a burst of creativity, as my research subjects influenced my art. I began to include properties of physics and mathematics into my art and magic practice, spawning a resurgent interest in Alchemy from the 14th century.
This resulted in a massive migraine, complete with nausea, and calling out from work for the first time in over a year. The pressure I was putting on myself to learn had never taken such a toll on my physical body since three years prior. I was working graveyard shift at that point, and the mindless tasks left a lot of time for learning whatever I wished. This was also the time I was learning so much that I began to ostracize myself from everyone around me. If the human mind is a biological computer, then these learning bursts of mine are over-clocking my processors and causing me to run out of RAM. But I feel an upgrade is on its way for me.
After the migraine, I decided that I needed to take things easier for awhile, and maybe enjoy simpler things in life. I began to take friends and co-workers up on their after-shift invitations, rather than rushing home to write or research. It became rather relaxing, in its own style of monotony, of engaging in small talk that would not go over anyone's head. Interacting with people on their terms. Not having to pause to define a 5-syllable word for the uninitiated, or give the back history of context in a given subject that came up. Toward the end of the week, however, was when Eris decided to fiddle with me.
It was a Friday evening that I met with Glasses in a somewhat impromptu manner. He was going to be in my neighborhood around the time I would get home from work, so we agreed to meet up for a few beers and chatting. Glasses had been educating himself in the mystery schools of occult wisdom, as well as the effects of political witchcraft in the world, so we had a great deal of equivalent exchanges on the nature of the universe and other ideas that chaotically float around in our heads. It was pleasant to say the least, and it drew out into the night, until the bar was nearly ready to close.
It should be noted at this point, that it was 2:15 AM. No longer Friday, it was now Saturday.
We continued the talking over to a convenience store to purchase additional beer for taking back to my home. Feeling a bit hungry, I decided upon the purchase of a greasy hot dog to munch on for the walk. Talking resumed and I unabashedly talked while chewing so that the conversation would not be lacking in discourse.
A mere 20 feet away from my home was when I started choking. The last piece of the hot dog became lodged in my throat, blocking a majority of my airway, but not completely. I could still breathe, barely, but was increasingly uncomfortable. With Glasses keeping tabs on me, and Meg emerging from the house, I began losing track of times passing. Minutes seemed like hours, and I could feel my thinking decreasing into more primitive states. Very irritatingly stupid thoughts crossed my mind, as less air was reaching my brain. At some point, an ambulance arrived in case I needed transport to the hospital, which I was stubbornly defiant of. I refused to choose a hospital, because the instant I did, I would be charged $500 for the 14 block ride. Since the ambulance was owned by a private company and not the hospital, I knew my insurance would not cover the bill. A rather idiotic decision, but I was not thinking straight, and I was feeling very defiant of the very concept of death anyways. After all, the ambulance attendants were both very attractive young women, and my girlfriend Meg was there, leading me to believe I was being watched by 3 angels of some sort. This irrationally caused me to relax, when I should be attempting to fight for my life.
I again refused to state a location to be transported to, confident more than ever in my ability to cough this thing up. After all, I had 3 gorgeous angels and my best friend Glasses nearby, why should I worry? That relaxation, more or less, caused the hot dog to come up. I realized after it did that it was not the hotdog itself that was causing the blockage, but rather the bun that was wrapped around it, expanding the diameter. I knew that was significant when I saw it, but was in recovery mode, so I let it slide for later analysis.
It was nearly 18 hours later before I realized all of the connections, that Eris undoubtedly knew I would. 1+8 = 9 = The number of changes. A simple coincidence, of many, that I caught.
In the Discordian "religion" ( Of which, I might add, I am a card-carrying member as well as a Pope ), one of the 5 major commandments, refers exclusively to the eating of a hot dog bun on any day other than Friday. The time of the choking hazard was early Saturday morning at about 2:35 AM, so technically, I committed one of the magic 5 taboos. The 5 commandments are known in the Discordian religion as the "Pentabarf", which brings further hilarity to mind, as I had to "barf" up the hot dog bun.
"What are the odds of that coincidence?" I had to ask myself, before I realized the stupidity of myself asking such a question. I make an effort to stack the cosmic odds in my favor whenever I can, every few days a concentrated effort. This time however, I had taken a break for socialization. It seems Eris had other ideas. Even so, afterwards I realized it was in fact a 6/7 chance, given my behavior that week. That is to say, extremely likely, if one takes into account the very bare basics of chance.
Three angelic women looking after me, three wyrd sisters of chaos likewise. The funny part of this connection is that is that this falls into all of the Chaos Goddess perspectives. It could fall under the influence of Pareidolia, in which I am making a big deal out of a minor coincidence. Alternately, it could also be Eris influenced, as it destroyed my previous conceptualizations and perspectives as they were, and forced me to take another look at my life.
Apophonia also, as mystic wisdom is generally what follows after the other two sisters are exhausted, and I certainly began to rearrange my priorities mentally after the experience. Who is to say with any absolute answer? Chaos doesn't deal in absolutes, which is part of its beauty for myself.
Of course, there is always the possibility that I'm making up all the connections in my own imagination, based on my own unconscious knowledge picked up along the way. I'm sure there are more people who would assume this to be the case, rather than to accept a deified explanation of three Goddesses that many have never heard of. I have a pantheon that works with my own psychology, and I readily accept that it could all be in my head. It's possible.
The main point, I feel, is that I have found a piece of reasoning that works for myself based on my experiences in life. This is really the only type of reasoning that there is for anyone, even those who agree with each other about an absolutism en masse. It has to work for them personally before they "go with the flow" of any popular idea or standpoint on a subject.
What I find interesting is that in recognizing that I have found an answer, not "THE" answer, I still find myself falling under the influence of Apophonia. In recognizing that my personal answer is not an absolute standpoint, and that there are always other explanations from other perspectives, I still fall under her influence.
The paradox. Apophonia assists me in recognizing that she may not exist, because she helps me to see the chaotic perspectives in others, and that others "know" she doesn't exist.
I have a sneaking suspicion that paradoxes will lead to a greater understanding of the human mind, as we begin to understand that things in the universe can simultaneously "exist" and "not exist". A kind of Schrodinger's cat of what is "real".
Questions such as, "Do unicorns exist, yes or no, and why?" separate the person who answers into two main categories.
"No, they do not exist, they are a product of the imagination and have no basis in reality."
Alternately,
"Yes, they do exist, ever since the moment they were created as a product of the imagination they have had a foothold in what we commonly refer to as "reality". "
Both answers are correct, and both answers are incorrect, depending entirely on your perspective. I maintain that unicorns exist simply because if they did not exist, we would not have a word for them. I have never seen one in "three or four-dimensional reality", but I have seen unicorns in "2D" and even "5D" realities. "5D" being the reality of the imagination and dreams, information from my perspective. Information exists and doesn't exist, as information makes up fiction and non-fiction. Again, perspective is everything in how we define anything we experience, whether it is a concrete substance or more etheric.
Knowing this allows me to state that the 3 Wyrd Sisters of Chaos influenced me, and also that I unconsciously influenced myself into certain thought patterns. What's the difference, when it could be both? Can either perspective be "proven" when a "proof" is based on which series of rules a person applies to an occurrence, as well as the variables inherent in personality and life experience? I don't believe that anything can be proven either way in this instance. Even scientific proofs require repeatability to a certain extent to prove something, and I am currently unable to go back in time to that exact moment and to those exact variables, so it remains speculative. Even if I could go back in time to attempt the repeat of circumstance, small differences in my mentality would re-arrange the outcome, causing a different result. Alternate timeline, if you will.
But in theory, if I could recreate the exact circumstances in time and space and all variables included, then the situation would replay exactly as it had before. This "proves" an aspect of what, by definition, cannot be "proven".
Another paradox. This makes me want to explore this further, and also, to never give it a second thought. It's a comforting feeling.
This is the thought pattern that follows the relatively mundane act of choking on a hot dog bun, imagine is something more significant happened. I care a great deal about thinking this way, and yet, I could also care less.
Laugh it off.
or, "That one time when Eris checked to see if I was paying attention to her sister."
Three Wyrd Sisters of Chaos
The Goddess Eris looked across the mortal plains. She was pleased to see so many new adepts to her cause who were not aware of their significance, and a great deal who worshipped her sister Pareidolia without knowing it. But there were very few who acknowledged her other sister Apophenia. This was most disconcerting to Eris, a feeling she usually enjoyed in others. But not on this night.
Apophenia qustioned her sisters frustration.
"What is it that causes your discord this evening, Eris?"
"Though it is my will that mortals do as they please, so that I might alter their perceptions accordingly, I would appreciate that they acknowledge your presence." Eris began, "For myself and Pareidolia play out our roles in human affairs daily, and very rarely do they allow you into their souls." As she spoke, Eris caused a book in the mortal plain to fall from a shelf. The book was about scientific reductionism, and in about 2 minutes a priest would inspect its contents after tripping over it.
Pareidolia laughed as she caused the image of a dragon appear in the clouds above the mortal plane. Twenty three people around a city would all notice the clouds shape, and remark upon the beautiful dragon, all assuming they were the only person to see the formation.
"Dear sister Eris, is it not true that you and I have enjoyed a great deal of our time amongst them? Is it not right that we continue? Monotonous as it may be, I gain my enjoyment of mortal perceptions of the Christ on a piece of toast and Mary on a burrito."
Apophonia spoke over them both, with the grace of wisdom that was her gifted property.
"Sisters, what you do not realize is that the mortals must seek me out on their own terms. They cannot be coerced or convinced to stray from your influences from outside forces. It is only between the two of you that they make any progress toward me at all. They must decide to do so on their own. If they would bow down to the idol of their worship in the form of a deified taco, then that is what they should do with your help Pareidolia. For only then can they appreciate the dissolution of their old perceptions at the hands of Eris."
Pareidolia, The Maker of mountains from mole hills, contemplated before she spoke. " I feel the point made by Eris is still valid, you are the youngest and oldest of us Apophinia, and I think you will be needed by the mortals very soon. Even by mortal reconning Eris and I have had influence for far too much for far too long. It quickly is the time when you shall have to rise to an occasion, and bear equal parts of work with Eris and I."
Eris, The Sower of Discord and Confusion, spoke next.
"There are those among the mortals who would place me as an almighty status, their ignorance betraying other aspects of the chaos, such as you my two sisters."
Apophenia, the Bringer of Mystic Wisdom and Revelation, smiled.
"My time and influence is a subtle one, and I shall make myself known to the lives of mortals once again quite soon. But it is the work of you two together that will herald my return, through your own workings and influence."
Eris huffed impatiently.
"Fine, I'll take a few things into my own hands then, to better prepare the world for you. If there would be those mortals who would worship me as an absolute form of chaos, then I shall confuse their mission so that they will be capable of considering their own ignorance of your mystic wisdom."
Pareidolia giggled, "Why do you not start with that one mortal who was lost to my influence for a few years? He's currently under your power, and is certainly a good representative of those who lean toward your methodology."
Looking down upon the young man, Eris considered. "Well he is certainly leaning toward the Discordian religion that was founded in my honor, and is well studied in its implications for and against his life. He has also been very strongly affected by the Curse of the Greyface in his life, but not so much that he cannot pull away from its hold over him."
Apophenia smiled upon her sister. "He has also been seeking me out every so often, before retreating to the safety of what he has experience with. Perhaps he would be a good one to influence, he just might get it."
Eris laughed with a sudden realization, "He has an appreciation for subtleties, as well. I can push the butterfly only slightly, and he will eventually get it. I think I have found a potential convert to your cause Apophenia."
"To all of our causes, Eris." Apophenia corrected. "For to understand me, is to understand that we work together, as sisters."
"Here's hoping he's smart enough to get it, " Pareidolia snickered, " but if not, I'd love for him to see things my way again."
"He doesn't want that anymore, at least not in the same amounts. " Eris spoke. "And I'll give him a nudge toward loving us all in our own ways. Something he'll recognize for what it is, an interference in his thought process, by myself. Perhaps the best form of "Divine intervention" he'll ever have."
"Not if he seeks me out, because of it. " Apophenia grinned, knowingly, as she took a seat to watch Eris set her chaotic events into motion.
"Oh well, " Pareidolia sighed, "I'll just give away all my number 23's to the other mortals who WILL blow them out of proportion."
The Butterfly Affected Nudge
It had a been a long time coming, in retrospect, as most things are. It had been awhile since I had a great shift in the priorities of my thinking, and I was coming into my first Saturn Return. My thought process seemed to be making up for all the slacking I had done in my youth, as I felt I was not learning enough, fast enough. What I fail to realize most of the time, is that I always feel this way, there was just a greater sense of urgency at this point. It was during this time I had been researching ancient occult schools of magic, re-analyizing the bible and other holy texts, and exposing myself to new technologies and conceptualizations of the universe around me.
I was so saturated with new information and concepts, that I was beginning to believe that nothing was true at all, save a few natural elastic tendencies of the universe. There was a part of me that started seeing the entire world as if it were a dream. That "truth" was a purely subjective relationship between the Self and what they have experienced, and that no absolute truth remained so from person to person. This began to come across in my everyday conversations with people, which led to a few conflicts with those who adhered to absolute conceptualizations of dogma. Be they religious or scientific, the dogma prevented any conflicting data or opinions from holding any weight or having any value. In other words, self-inflicted ignorance of any other perspective.
All of this was quite stressful over the winter season of 2009-2010, as the world began to increase again its knowledge of itself, and no single opinion held much validation. I had escaped the Swine Flu with the help of a few spells, though people all around me kept coming down with it. My writing and drawing experienced a burst of creativity, as my research subjects influenced my art. I began to include properties of physics and mathematics into my art and magic practice, spawning a resurgent interest in Alchemy from the 14th century.
This resulted in a massive migraine, complete with nausea, and calling out from work for the first time in over a year. The pressure I was putting on myself to learn had never taken such a toll on my physical body since three years prior. I was working graveyard shift at that point, and the mindless tasks left a lot of time for learning whatever I wished. This was also the time I was learning so much that I began to ostracize myself from everyone around me. If the human mind is a biological computer, then these learning bursts of mine are over-clocking my processors and causing me to run out of RAM. But I feel an upgrade is on its way for me.
After the migraine, I decided that I needed to take things easier for awhile, and maybe enjoy simpler things in life. I began to take friends and co-workers up on their after-shift invitations, rather than rushing home to write or research. It became rather relaxing, in its own style of monotony, of engaging in small talk that would not go over anyone's head. Interacting with people on their terms. Not having to pause to define a 5-syllable word for the uninitiated, or give the back history of context in a given subject that came up. Toward the end of the week, however, was when Eris decided to fiddle with me.
It was a Friday evening that I met with Glasses in a somewhat impromptu manner. He was going to be in my neighborhood around the time I would get home from work, so we agreed to meet up for a few beers and chatting. Glasses had been educating himself in the mystery schools of occult wisdom, as well as the effects of political witchcraft in the world, so we had a great deal of equivalent exchanges on the nature of the universe and other ideas that chaotically float around in our heads. It was pleasant to say the least, and it drew out into the night, until the bar was nearly ready to close.
It should be noted at this point, that it was 2:15 AM. No longer Friday, it was now Saturday.
We continued the talking over to a convenience store to purchase additional beer for taking back to my home. Feeling a bit hungry, I decided upon the purchase of a greasy hot dog to munch on for the walk. Talking resumed and I unabashedly talked while chewing so that the conversation would not be lacking in discourse.
A mere 20 feet away from my home was when I started choking. The last piece of the hot dog became lodged in my throat, blocking a majority of my airway, but not completely. I could still breathe, barely, but was increasingly uncomfortable. With Glasses keeping tabs on me, and Meg emerging from the house, I began losing track of times passing. Minutes seemed like hours, and I could feel my thinking decreasing into more primitive states. Very irritatingly stupid thoughts crossed my mind, as less air was reaching my brain. At some point, an ambulance arrived in case I needed transport to the hospital, which I was stubbornly defiant of. I refused to choose a hospital, because the instant I did, I would be charged $500 for the 14 block ride. Since the ambulance was owned by a private company and not the hospital, I knew my insurance would not cover the bill. A rather idiotic decision, but I was not thinking straight, and I was feeling very defiant of the very concept of death anyways. After all, the ambulance attendants were both very attractive young women, and my girlfriend Meg was there, leading me to believe I was being watched by 3 angels of some sort. This irrationally caused me to relax, when I should be attempting to fight for my life.
I again refused to state a location to be transported to, confident more than ever in my ability to cough this thing up. After all, I had 3 gorgeous angels and my best friend Glasses nearby, why should I worry? That relaxation, more or less, caused the hot dog to come up. I realized after it did that it was not the hotdog itself that was causing the blockage, but rather the bun that was wrapped around it, expanding the diameter. I knew that was significant when I saw it, but was in recovery mode, so I let it slide for later analysis.
It was nearly 18 hours later before I realized all of the connections, that Eris undoubtedly knew I would. 1+8 = 9 = The number of changes. A simple coincidence, of many, that I caught.
In the Discordian "religion" ( Of which, I might add, I am a card-carrying member as well as a Pope ), one of the 5 major commandments, refers exclusively to the eating of a hot dog bun on any day other than Friday. The time of the choking hazard was early Saturday morning at about 2:35 AM, so technically, I committed one of the magic 5 taboos. The 5 commandments are known in the Discordian religion as the "Pentabarf", which brings further hilarity to mind, as I had to "barf" up the hot dog bun.
"What are the odds of that coincidence?" I had to ask myself, before I realized the stupidity of myself asking such a question. I make an effort to stack the cosmic odds in my favor whenever I can, every few days a concentrated effort. This time however, I had taken a break for socialization. It seems Eris had other ideas. Even so, afterwards I realized it was in fact a 6/7 chance, given my behavior that week. That is to say, extremely likely, if one takes into account the very bare basics of chance.
Three angelic women looking after me, three wyrd sisters of chaos likewise. The funny part of this connection is that is that this falls into all of the Chaos Goddess perspectives. It could fall under the influence of Pareidolia, in which I am making a big deal out of a minor coincidence. Alternately, it could also be Eris influenced, as it destroyed my previous conceptualizations and perspectives as they were, and forced me to take another look at my life.
Apophonia also, as mystic wisdom is generally what follows after the other two sisters are exhausted, and I certainly began to rearrange my priorities mentally after the experience. Who is to say with any absolute answer? Chaos doesn't deal in absolutes, which is part of its beauty for myself.
Of course, there is always the possibility that I'm making up all the connections in my own imagination, based on my own unconscious knowledge picked up along the way. I'm sure there are more people who would assume this to be the case, rather than to accept a deified explanation of three Goddesses that many have never heard of. I have a pantheon that works with my own psychology, and I readily accept that it could all be in my head. It's possible.
The main point, I feel, is that I have found a piece of reasoning that works for myself based on my experiences in life. This is really the only type of reasoning that there is for anyone, even those who agree with each other about an absolutism en masse. It has to work for them personally before they "go with the flow" of any popular idea or standpoint on a subject.
What I find interesting is that in recognizing that I have found an answer, not "THE" answer, I still find myself falling under the influence of Apophonia. In recognizing that my personal answer is not an absolute standpoint, and that there are always other explanations from other perspectives, I still fall under her influence.
The paradox. Apophonia assists me in recognizing that she may not exist, because she helps me to see the chaotic perspectives in others, and that others "know" she doesn't exist.
I have a sneaking suspicion that paradoxes will lead to a greater understanding of the human mind, as we begin to understand that things in the universe can simultaneously "exist" and "not exist". A kind of Schrodinger's cat of what is "real".
Questions such as, "Do unicorns exist, yes or no, and why?" separate the person who answers into two main categories.
"No, they do not exist, they are a product of the imagination and have no basis in reality."
Alternately,
"Yes, they do exist, ever since the moment they were created as a product of the imagination they have had a foothold in what we commonly refer to as "reality". "
Both answers are correct, and both answers are incorrect, depending entirely on your perspective. I maintain that unicorns exist simply because if they did not exist, we would not have a word for them. I have never seen one in "three or four-dimensional reality", but I have seen unicorns in "2D" and even "5D" realities. "5D" being the reality of the imagination and dreams, information from my perspective. Information exists and doesn't exist, as information makes up fiction and non-fiction. Again, perspective is everything in how we define anything we experience, whether it is a concrete substance or more etheric.
Knowing this allows me to state that the 3 Wyrd Sisters of Chaos influenced me, and also that I unconsciously influenced myself into certain thought patterns. What's the difference, when it could be both? Can either perspective be "proven" when a "proof" is based on which series of rules a person applies to an occurrence, as well as the variables inherent in personality and life experience? I don't believe that anything can be proven either way in this instance. Even scientific proofs require repeatability to a certain extent to prove something, and I am currently unable to go back in time to that exact moment and to those exact variables, so it remains speculative. Even if I could go back in time to attempt the repeat of circumstance, small differences in my mentality would re-arrange the outcome, causing a different result. Alternate timeline, if you will.
But in theory, if I could recreate the exact circumstances in time and space and all variables included, then the situation would replay exactly as it had before. This "proves" an aspect of what, by definition, cannot be "proven".
Another paradox. This makes me want to explore this further, and also, to never give it a second thought. It's a comforting feeling.
This is the thought pattern that follows the relatively mundane act of choking on a hot dog bun, imagine is something more significant happened. I care a great deal about thinking this way, and yet, I could also care less.
Laugh it off.
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Psychonautics
Monday, April 12, 2010
at
8:05 PM
Psychonautics
Or, "Life, before and after and outside the preconceived notions of life."
An Epiphenominalistic Thought-Form Is Born
While it remains to be seen how the human mind processes information over time, I still gain a great deal of pleasure from the occasional epiphany, though I understand next to nothing of how they come to be. I am aware of several different thought processes coursing through my conscious mind, and even a few of my unconscious mind, yet when they begin to arrange themselves into a coherent image, I choose to enjoy the moment of revelation before looking into the "why". An oddity, for my personality, as I look into the "why" of anything and everything. But when it comes to why I choose to enjoy the moment only when it comes to epiphanies, the only answer I can find is "why not?"
On a daily basis, I am asked a certain question. We are all asked this question from time to time by people who know us or know of us. In some cases it's used as a greeting, without a particular care as to what the answer is, unless it catches them off guard. The certain question in question is, "Hi! How are you today?"
For the most part, the expected answer runs a few words, in my observations of others. Simple sentences such as, "Fine, and you?" or "Pretty good" or "Not so well."
None of these answers do justice to the meaning behind the original question, at least linguistically. The intentions of the questioner could be conditioned habit, or a genuine interest, neither of which is my place to assume until I have highly advanced psychic powers of the mind. Which I am working on.
Seeing as how I have no absolute idea what spirit the question was asked in, I have a tendency to be as well-rounded and detail-oriented as possible when answering. In this way, I have not only gotten across the likelihood of a person to wish being in close proximity with me, as well as my current mental state, and what directions my thoughts are traveling at the moment.
So when I am asked the question, "How are you today?" I respond honestly.
"Relatively tolerable at the moment, with an inclination toward a more positive attitude in an hours time, due to a project I am currently working on. How about yourself?"
I sound like a damn weather report, save the finishing move, "Back to you, Jim"
This has caused a majority of those who have close contact with me to ask another question, "Don't you ever get tired of thinking so hard about everything?". And for once, I can answer with a single word.
"No."
Everything is of interest to me in one degree or another. If I were to stop thinking so much about the nature of the world around me, I would become rather depressed and stagnant, and would not be actively participating in my own personal evolution. Some have accepted the way I think and ask questions to better understand it. Others have completely given up trying to understand, and just watch me in awe. Some are merely irritated that I give complex answers when they wanted something concise and simple. And a small minority assume that I know an awful lot of nothing that is of any consequence, and ignore almost everything that comes out of my mouth. All very valid positions, considering the infinite perspectives that can exist between two people in any given conversation.
I was struck recently, with an epiphany so very vastly large in it's implications, that I chose to ignore everything around me and write a synopsis down, so that it would not be lost forever to the ether of unconscious thinking. It meant enough to me in that slight moment of understanding, that I attached a mental string to it, not to be lost. Writing down a few short sentences of description, I solidified it within my conscious mind as a beacon, so that I might let my unconscious mind work on it while I went about my day. As it turned out, I didn't actually get back to actively thinking about it for two days, but on the third day it rose in fulfillment of my expectations and I began to process the implications.
I think I have found a way to prove that there is a life after the physical death of our human bodies. Perhaps even life before the physical birth. Now for a cliffhanger.
Before I get into that, an example of how my thought process works. I must comment on the biases that I observe in myself during such a revelation in my mind, as well as how I go about the research needed to round out my conclusion. I usually think I am "right", at least right enough for my personal consumption. This proves difficult when attempting to explain the validation of ideas to a person outside of myself. That is when the serious writing and thinking begins, as I must not only adjust my vernacular to appeal to a more generalized and vast audience, but I cannot sacrifice the details that make up my point. To sacrifice the details is to create something that more closely resembles a religion or a cult, than a really good idea.
The problem with this is that I must admit I use a more "religious" order of thinking up to a point, in the sense that I start with an idea, and then look for ways to validate my way of thinking. Unlike most religious orders, I work hard to make sure that I am capable of being "wrong", in the event that further research implies that.
For example, the Catholic church has come out and admitted that belief in extraterrestrials and space aliens is sanctioned by the Vatican, as other beings in the universe would have the same "God" with a capital "G" as we do.
What I find interesting in this statement of position is that it elevates Scientology up to the religious level of Catholicism, or lowers Catholic beliefs to Scientology levels, where they worship an alien overlord who presides over multiple alien species. This is not a position, nor a conflict of interest, that I wish to place my ideas into. Ideas "thrown into the ring" between both of these belief systems, is not my aim. Rather to make my ideas most applicable to the larger scheme of things, or a final zenith of all things. This proves difficult, but is required of myself if I am to remain intellectually honest with myself and others.
It is in this way that I do find the "scientific method" to be most useful, in that I see where my research takes me, and let my intellectual honesty allow for the possibility that I'm barking up the wrong tree. "Making mountains out of molehills" is a phrase that comes to mind, as I have been guilty of this type of thinking before, and recognize it as being a possibility as I proceed down any path I can imagine.
Thanks a lot, Pareidolia.
There are some around me that are aware of my fascination with a particular molecule that has baffled molecular biologists and neural chemists around the world in the past. A great deal of progress has been made in the study of this particular molecule over the past few decades, through special government sanctioned permissions, but the information gleaned from this doesn't easily escape into public knowledge because of its very nature. Since the Nixon administration oddly enough, and the birth of the so called "War against Drugs", this molecule has been classified as a Schedule One drug which is considered the most illegal. However, its illegality does not directly translate into it being a dangerous substance, as this molecule exists inside of all living things on the planet. The molecule exists in all plant, all animals, and inside the human brain. It is part of our very nature, and without it we go insane and die. Yet, it is illegal, making everyone on the planet guilty of possessing it. This includes, ironically, any President or Drug Czar that works for them.
The name of this molecule is Dimethyltryptamine, and it resides in the Pineal gland in the very center of the human brain. It activates naturally in three points of a human life. When we are being born, when we are in deep REM sleep, and when our physical bodies are dying. The implications of this are absurdly vast in and of itself, and what we do know about it already is not even a fraction of what has been theorized about the molecule.
It is very strongly hypothesized that Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, is the molecule that allows us to dream each night. At the very least, it is released in the human brain in large quantities while dreaming. It is also strongly hypothesized that it is the cause of so-called "spiritual" experiences.
DMT is categorized as a potent, fast-acting psychedelic, and has made up the basis of many "magical" brews used by ancient shamanic and tribal cultures around the world. At the very least, this shows that DMT is an integral ingredient for where human culture emerged from, and should be studied more vastly. Studied by anthropologists and archeologists, to say nothing of the modern scientific community as a whole. Yet it has been ostracized and shunned from modern thought because it is a psychedelic, rather than in spite of this fact. Ignorance of the fact that psychedelics exist in various forms in the human brain all the time, makes shunning a testable molecule even more ridiculous. To say nothing of outlawing a component of human brain chemistry.
Our drug-phobic culture has been conditioned to demonize the very substances that allow us a potential for a further understanding of ourselves, and only very recently has this psychological "iron curtain " been pulled back a few inches for a peek of what is behind it, only to be shut again before any questions can be answered. A metaphorical slap on the wrist keeps the Pavlovian dog conditioned inside all of us from exploring further.
"One cannot help but ponder the strange dichotomy that the nation based on establishing individual freedom has now outlawed every substance which might aid in the the exploration of that last and most important frontier, the human mind. Alexander Shulgin, world renowned chemist in the field of psychoactive drugs is quoted in a recent periodical: 'Our generation is the first ever to have made the search for self-awareness a crime' "
-Myron Stolaroff
In scientific material reductionist circles, it is commonly assumed that nature is a cold and unfeeling aspect inherent in all things. That the universe cares nothing for us as a species, this material world is all there is, and there is no such thing as an afterlife. To say nothing of a before-life. There is no creator of any kind, or there would be evidence. This leads to the assumption on the part of some atheists, that absolutely nothing happens when we die, that there is just a void and we cease to exist. The idea that we came from nothing, our thoughts are just random chemical reactions that exist only to keep us alive as long as possible, and we return to nothing. This leads some to believe that there is absolutely no point to life, and anything we do is inherently meaningless. A very nihilistic perspective ensues, and they cease to be invited to the really life-validating and affirming parties, unless they can hold back their opinions for a few hours. In this way, it could be that in order to have a good time, these perspectives must take a back seat to the pursuit of belonging to a particular group for the sake of fun. But scientifically, it must be realized that there is no point in having fun, other than to propagate certain endorphins in the brain, which make an individual want to continue living. But there is no other scientific explanation for why this is important, other than to keep an individual alive.
The problem here is that if there is no point in living other than self-propigation, why do we try to have fun at all? What is the point of life, if the conclusion science has reached is that there is no point? Why do we exist at all, if there is no point in existing? These unexplainable questions go around in circles until they are picked up by philosophy, and abandoned by the general scientific "experts". There are many scientists who do pursue these answers, and find very rewarding potentials for answers, but they are not generally recognized by the scientific community as a whole.
The point of interest that I stumbled upon was that of the idea of a "cold and unfeeling universe", which comes close to the phrase of a "dog eat dog world", neither of which do I necessarily believe in. If you want it to be the case, then sure, you can make it that way. It's possible, I must admit a great deal of things are possible, but I find that particular perspective unrealistic in my life experiences thus far. An absence of evidence being the reasoning behind a lack of investigation is the most un-scientific reason to ignore an idea I have ever heard of.
To be fair, there is once again a budding scientific interest in hallucinogens and their potential application in treating certain neurological conditions. The proverbial cat, it seems, is out of the bag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?sudsredirect=true
Psychonautics
In pre-industrial times, a sailor took their life into their own hands they pursued the romanticized exploration of that which they did not know. Traveling to ports and harbors in different countries and nation-states, they grew aware of the differences of other people in other lands, and their old myopic perspectives would change. They could not any more unlearn what they grew to know, than they could mitigate the risks involved in stepping onto a ship in the first place. There is a risk in any type of exploration. Risk of pain, injury, or even death. Yet they continued to take those risks as they came, some for money, perceived freedom, or for the sake of adventure into the unknown.
A "Psychonaut", in Greek, refers to a sailor of the human mind. It entails people who explore the unknown aspects of the human mind, and alter their perspectives in search of higher personal truths, through various means. Some would explore the dream realm, others the mental effects of various types of yoga. There are and were those who would ingest tribal hallucinogens in search of spirits and deities and unconscious beings of the imagination.
It seems quite evident at this point, that these early influences into tribal psychology affected the psychology of human kind over the centuries. So to ignore these methods of mental exploration is to ignore where human kind came from, and without knowing where we came from, how can we steer the ship toward a favorable future?
Or, "Life, before and after and outside the preconceived notions of life."
An Epiphenominalistic Thought-Form Is Born
While it remains to be seen how the human mind processes information over time, I still gain a great deal of pleasure from the occasional epiphany, though I understand next to nothing of how they come to be. I am aware of several different thought processes coursing through my conscious mind, and even a few of my unconscious mind, yet when they begin to arrange themselves into a coherent image, I choose to enjoy the moment of revelation before looking into the "why". An oddity, for my personality, as I look into the "why" of anything and everything. But when it comes to why I choose to enjoy the moment only when it comes to epiphanies, the only answer I can find is "why not?"
On a daily basis, I am asked a certain question. We are all asked this question from time to time by people who know us or know of us. In some cases it's used as a greeting, without a particular care as to what the answer is, unless it catches them off guard. The certain question in question is, "Hi! How are you today?"
For the most part, the expected answer runs a few words, in my observations of others. Simple sentences such as, "Fine, and you?" or "Pretty good" or "Not so well."
None of these answers do justice to the meaning behind the original question, at least linguistically. The intentions of the questioner could be conditioned habit, or a genuine interest, neither of which is my place to assume until I have highly advanced psychic powers of the mind. Which I am working on.
Seeing as how I have no absolute idea what spirit the question was asked in, I have a tendency to be as well-rounded and detail-oriented as possible when answering. In this way, I have not only gotten across the likelihood of a person to wish being in close proximity with me, as well as my current mental state, and what directions my thoughts are traveling at the moment.
So when I am asked the question, "How are you today?" I respond honestly.
"Relatively tolerable at the moment, with an inclination toward a more positive attitude in an hours time, due to a project I am currently working on. How about yourself?"
I sound like a damn weather report, save the finishing move, "Back to you, Jim"
This has caused a majority of those who have close contact with me to ask another question, "Don't you ever get tired of thinking so hard about everything?". And for once, I can answer with a single word.
"No."
Everything is of interest to me in one degree or another. If I were to stop thinking so much about the nature of the world around me, I would become rather depressed and stagnant, and would not be actively participating in my own personal evolution. Some have accepted the way I think and ask questions to better understand it. Others have completely given up trying to understand, and just watch me in awe. Some are merely irritated that I give complex answers when they wanted something concise and simple. And a small minority assume that I know an awful lot of nothing that is of any consequence, and ignore almost everything that comes out of my mouth. All very valid positions, considering the infinite perspectives that can exist between two people in any given conversation.
I was struck recently, with an epiphany so very vastly large in it's implications, that I chose to ignore everything around me and write a synopsis down, so that it would not be lost forever to the ether of unconscious thinking. It meant enough to me in that slight moment of understanding, that I attached a mental string to it, not to be lost. Writing down a few short sentences of description, I solidified it within my conscious mind as a beacon, so that I might let my unconscious mind work on it while I went about my day. As it turned out, I didn't actually get back to actively thinking about it for two days, but on the third day it rose in fulfillment of my expectations and I began to process the implications.
I think I have found a way to prove that there is a life after the physical death of our human bodies. Perhaps even life before the physical birth. Now for a cliffhanger.
Before I get into that, an example of how my thought process works. I must comment on the biases that I observe in myself during such a revelation in my mind, as well as how I go about the research needed to round out my conclusion. I usually think I am "right", at least right enough for my personal consumption. This proves difficult when attempting to explain the validation of ideas to a person outside of myself. That is when the serious writing and thinking begins, as I must not only adjust my vernacular to appeal to a more generalized and vast audience, but I cannot sacrifice the details that make up my point. To sacrifice the details is to create something that more closely resembles a religion or a cult, than a really good idea.
The problem with this is that I must admit I use a more "religious" order of thinking up to a point, in the sense that I start with an idea, and then look for ways to validate my way of thinking. Unlike most religious orders, I work hard to make sure that I am capable of being "wrong", in the event that further research implies that.
For example, the Catholic church has come out and admitted that belief in extraterrestrials and space aliens is sanctioned by the Vatican, as other beings in the universe would have the same "God" with a capital "G" as we do.
What I find interesting in this statement of position is that it elevates Scientology up to the religious level of Catholicism, or lowers Catholic beliefs to Scientology levels, where they worship an alien overlord who presides over multiple alien species. This is not a position, nor a conflict of interest, that I wish to place my ideas into. Ideas "thrown into the ring" between both of these belief systems, is not my aim. Rather to make my ideas most applicable to the larger scheme of things, or a final zenith of all things. This proves difficult, but is required of myself if I am to remain intellectually honest with myself and others.
It is in this way that I do find the "scientific method" to be most useful, in that I see where my research takes me, and let my intellectual honesty allow for the possibility that I'm barking up the wrong tree. "Making mountains out of molehills" is a phrase that comes to mind, as I have been guilty of this type of thinking before, and recognize it as being a possibility as I proceed down any path I can imagine.
Thanks a lot, Pareidolia.
There are some around me that are aware of my fascination with a particular molecule that has baffled molecular biologists and neural chemists around the world in the past. A great deal of progress has been made in the study of this particular molecule over the past few decades, through special government sanctioned permissions, but the information gleaned from this doesn't easily escape into public knowledge because of its very nature. Since the Nixon administration oddly enough, and the birth of the so called "War against Drugs", this molecule has been classified as a Schedule One drug which is considered the most illegal. However, its illegality does not directly translate into it being a dangerous substance, as this molecule exists inside of all living things on the planet. The molecule exists in all plant, all animals, and inside the human brain. It is part of our very nature, and without it we go insane and die. Yet, it is illegal, making everyone on the planet guilty of possessing it. This includes, ironically, any President or Drug Czar that works for them.
The name of this molecule is Dimethyltryptamine, and it resides in the Pineal gland in the very center of the human brain. It activates naturally in three points of a human life. When we are being born, when we are in deep REM sleep, and when our physical bodies are dying. The implications of this are absurdly vast in and of itself, and what we do know about it already is not even a fraction of what has been theorized about the molecule.
It is very strongly hypothesized that Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, is the molecule that allows us to dream each night. At the very least, it is released in the human brain in large quantities while dreaming. It is also strongly hypothesized that it is the cause of so-called "spiritual" experiences.
DMT is categorized as a potent, fast-acting psychedelic, and has made up the basis of many "magical" brews used by ancient shamanic and tribal cultures around the world. At the very least, this shows that DMT is an integral ingredient for where human culture emerged from, and should be studied more vastly. Studied by anthropologists and archeologists, to say nothing of the modern scientific community as a whole. Yet it has been ostracized and shunned from modern thought because it is a psychedelic, rather than in spite of this fact. Ignorance of the fact that psychedelics exist in various forms in the human brain all the time, makes shunning a testable molecule even more ridiculous. To say nothing of outlawing a component of human brain chemistry.
Our drug-phobic culture has been conditioned to demonize the very substances that allow us a potential for a further understanding of ourselves, and only very recently has this psychological "iron curtain " been pulled back a few inches for a peek of what is behind it, only to be shut again before any questions can be answered. A metaphorical slap on the wrist keeps the Pavlovian dog conditioned inside all of us from exploring further.
"One cannot help but ponder the strange dichotomy that the nation based on establishing individual freedom has now outlawed every substance which might aid in the the exploration of that last and most important frontier, the human mind. Alexander Shulgin, world renowned chemist in the field of psychoactive drugs is quoted in a recent periodical: 'Our generation is the first ever to have made the search for self-awareness a crime' "
-Myron Stolaroff
In scientific material reductionist circles, it is commonly assumed that nature is a cold and unfeeling aspect inherent in all things. That the universe cares nothing for us as a species, this material world is all there is, and there is no such thing as an afterlife. To say nothing of a before-life. There is no creator of any kind, or there would be evidence. This leads to the assumption on the part of some atheists, that absolutely nothing happens when we die, that there is just a void and we cease to exist. The idea that we came from nothing, our thoughts are just random chemical reactions that exist only to keep us alive as long as possible, and we return to nothing. This leads some to believe that there is absolutely no point to life, and anything we do is inherently meaningless. A very nihilistic perspective ensues, and they cease to be invited to the really life-validating and affirming parties, unless they can hold back their opinions for a few hours. In this way, it could be that in order to have a good time, these perspectives must take a back seat to the pursuit of belonging to a particular group for the sake of fun. But scientifically, it must be realized that there is no point in having fun, other than to propagate certain endorphins in the brain, which make an individual want to continue living. But there is no other scientific explanation for why this is important, other than to keep an individual alive.
The problem here is that if there is no point in living other than self-propigation, why do we try to have fun at all? What is the point of life, if the conclusion science has reached is that there is no point? Why do we exist at all, if there is no point in existing? These unexplainable questions go around in circles until they are picked up by philosophy, and abandoned by the general scientific "experts". There are many scientists who do pursue these answers, and find very rewarding potentials for answers, but they are not generally recognized by the scientific community as a whole.
The point of interest that I stumbled upon was that of the idea of a "cold and unfeeling universe", which comes close to the phrase of a "dog eat dog world", neither of which do I necessarily believe in. If you want it to be the case, then sure, you can make it that way. It's possible, I must admit a great deal of things are possible, but I find that particular perspective unrealistic in my life experiences thus far. An absence of evidence being the reasoning behind a lack of investigation is the most un-scientific reason to ignore an idea I have ever heard of.
To be fair, there is once again a budding scientific interest in hallucinogens and their potential application in treating certain neurological conditions. The proverbial cat, it seems, is out of the bag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?sudsredirect=true
Psychonautics
In pre-industrial times, a sailor took their life into their own hands they pursued the romanticized exploration of that which they did not know. Traveling to ports and harbors in different countries and nation-states, they grew aware of the differences of other people in other lands, and their old myopic perspectives would change. They could not any more unlearn what they grew to know, than they could mitigate the risks involved in stepping onto a ship in the first place. There is a risk in any type of exploration. Risk of pain, injury, or even death. Yet they continued to take those risks as they came, some for money, perceived freedom, or for the sake of adventure into the unknown.
A "Psychonaut", in Greek, refers to a sailor of the human mind. It entails people who explore the unknown aspects of the human mind, and alter their perspectives in search of higher personal truths, through various means. Some would explore the dream realm, others the mental effects of various types of yoga. There are and were those who would ingest tribal hallucinogens in search of spirits and deities and unconscious beings of the imagination.
It seems quite evident at this point, that these early influences into tribal psychology affected the psychology of human kind over the centuries. So to ignore these methods of mental exploration is to ignore where human kind came from, and without knowing where we came from, how can we steer the ship toward a favorable future?
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Virtual Reality Or, "When I dream, I dream big."
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
at
4:52 AM
AKA: "The Rule Of Experts over us" vs. "the rule of dreams before us."
Dreaming is one of those things about humans I'll never understand. It's one of those, "We all do it, so why don't we know anything about it?" kind of issues. Often times, the concept of dreaming is brushed aside as another of those "unimportant" things to spend any time on. It certainly doesn't help the gross national product or any capitalistic model I'm aware of, but if we were to suddenly stop doing it, we'd either go insane or die. At least that much has been observed over time, yet this subject is still marginalized in the mass consensus. It's important to our very survival, and yet...
We need to breathe to keep ourselves alive, and we know a great deal about how to keep people breathing long after they would have normally died. We know plenty about breathing.
We need to eat to keep ourselves alive, and we have a world wide selection of menus and recipes to add variety and fun to the process of continuing to live. We know plenty about eating.
We need to dream to keep ourselves alive and sane, and yet we as a species can only theorize why this is important. It is a mysterious phenomenon, and we deal with it daily, and we know next to nothing about it's purpose.
Dreaming has been placed on a back burner of popular thought, right up there with ghosts,alien abduction, and religious experiences. Events around these subjects happen, but damned if there's any financial backing to "legitimately" study those subjects. To prove, or to disprove the validity thereof. For now, dreaming seems to exist as one of those things that shall be important only to the individual experiencing them.
We still have no universally agreed definition of what is occurring biologically, and the discovery of Rapid Eye Movement is only a little over 50 years old, but only proved that it was associated with dreams. Certain neural transmitters are shut off in the brain while dreaming, which is theorized as preventing us from moving around in the "real world" if we do it in a dream.
The most often heard explanation for dreaming is the clearing of mental clutter in your down time, rather than while awake. This was presented to me as fact when I was young, and it was only in 2004 that I found it was only a theory. As are several other proponents of absolutism in the field of dreams.
I find most of the main stream "experts" have a tendency toward crappy science, as the more difficult to explain issues of the universe are placed on back burners, in the hopes that the public will forget about them perhaps. When the public doesn't forget, the "expert" answer usually involves an answer that benefits who ever pays them to say it. Either that, or the people looking for answers are marginalized as "tin-foil hats", "ufo communities", and of course, "kooks" and "conspiracy theorists."
While there are several scientific minded research scientists who do not "sell out" to the highest bidder, and I've seen fascinating work in great subjects by them, but they seem the exception to the rule of "Experts." Scientist who are driven by a need to find out and understand the interesting oddities around them in the world, and care nothing much for the high-paying government military jobs offered to their genius. Yet the "Experts" rule, over the perceptions of the average person at least.
Real Scientists like Rupert Sheldrake, who devised methods of being able to prove the psychic connection between pets and owners. Or the predictability of telephone calls between people who were "just thinking of you a moment ago." Yes, that was proven to be much more than just chance. And it was proven in the 90's. Before caller ID was a thing.
Never heard of Rupert Sheldrake? Why would you? He's not rich as a scientist because there is no money in proving what everyone feels is true on an innate level they cannot define. He won't work for companies who seek to exploit his tests in order to exploit more people and make more money. If it cannot be harnessed and brought to the bidding of men who want money, then it is of no value in the mass market. And that is how you are controlled everyday, and prevented from knowing what's going on, because if you knew you would demand it.
Even with figures such as Carl Jung, and Robert VanDeCastle, dreaming remains a very misunderstood phenomena that warrants further explorations. And as a self professed "Psychonaut", I make the human experience in altered states of mind my self-improvment laboratory.
For the non-initiated, a Psychonaut is one who practices Psychonetics, which is explained by the online oracle of Wikipedia as follows.
"Psychonautics (from the Greek ψυχή soul/spirit/mind and ναύτης sailor/navigator - a sailor of the mind/soul)[1] refers to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by mind altering substances, and to a research paradigm in which the researcher voluntarily immerses ... See Morehim/herself into an altered state by means of such techniques, as a means to explore human experience and existence. [2] The term has been applied diversely, to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of the human condition, including shamanism, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, [3] lucid dreaming,[1] sensory deprivation,[1] and modern drug users who use hallucinogenic drugs in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences.[4]
A person who uses altered states for such exploration is known as a psychonaut."
Altered states need not include the myopic arguments such as whether hallucinogens are "evil" or "good", no matter what authority figure outside of yourself you choose to listen to. Altered states can be being moved to dance from the right catchy tune or beat, it can be meditation on your own, pharmaceutical products you pay for, or the beer you drink. I prefer dreaming for a majority of my work in Psychonautics.
It becomes rather easy for the mundane and dull-witted among us to judge harshly those who seek out the different within themselves. It is rather easy to judge those who have different perspectives as being "scary" or "insane", never noting that "sanity" is merely a large amount of followers all agreeing that differences should be shunned, and that individuality is a sickness. These include the same folks who swear up and down they are not bigoted at all, right until they come across an opinion they don't agree with. Or a nerd, hippy, or punk. Goth, perhaps? Jock? All very divisive terms used to keep people apart, a taxonomy of self-impossed repression from happiness. After all, how can you be happy with those people in that social group over there threatening you in some manner of your own perception that you cannot exactly define? You know, like a child would. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard the sneer of disgust and hatred at the mere mention of certain words.
"Stupid Republicans"
"Bleeding heart Liberal"
"Damn Hippy"
"Bottle Returners"
On and on.
But replace the word "hippy" with "Jew", or any other group title, and you can quickly see it's the same problem of judgement and myopic thinking. These titles are just words, and these words have power over how most people think and define themselves. If that's not a magic spell cast over the masses like a fisherman's net drags fish in for the slaughter, then feel free to argue me down from my point.
Racism might be on it's way out, or it might not. But while that concept is still wavering, we are perfectly content to rip each other down for minor differences.
I have biases against other people, sure, we all do on an individual level with someone. But a bias against a group of people based on a generality and a stereotype that was handed to us since childhood? We have to learn to be better than how we were taught, and more so, we must want to learn.
I have found that the one bias over a general group of people are the self-proffesed "experts" that are, generally, quoted generally on the major media networks. They are the "experts" so we must listen to what "they" say.
Well, yes "listen", but not obey and take as fact. Fact is in the eye of the beholder, it's subjective, so anyone claiming an absolute position on so-called consensus reality, is only speaking the facts they have surrounded themselves with, and discarded anything that says otherwise. In this sence, the "experts" have created a new dogmatic religion with priests in white lab coats, and their flock of followers worship them at the altar. Never once thinking, "Maybe I could do it better.", because the "experts" are here to tell you what to think, instead of how to think.
So yeah, I've got some work to do on my biases, but I can admit it. However, the religion of scientific materialist reductionism claims no mistakes or biases, only absolutism.
There are my aforementioned models of scientific excellence, the people who are scientifically minded enough to challenge old concepts to get at some sort of deeper underlying truth. The trut's that lead to more questions.
Maybe that's why I choose dream analysis.
There are many interpretations of the story in a dream once it is told, but currently, only one observer for each dream.
In the "real" world, we generally strive toward one interpretation of the story of our lives and our world, when we have billions of observers.
Trillions if you count the animals.
Sweet dreams.
Dreaming is one of those things about humans I'll never understand. It's one of those, "We all do it, so why don't we know anything about it?" kind of issues. Often times, the concept of dreaming is brushed aside as another of those "unimportant" things to spend any time on. It certainly doesn't help the gross national product or any capitalistic model I'm aware of, but if we were to suddenly stop doing it, we'd either go insane or die. At least that much has been observed over time, yet this subject is still marginalized in the mass consensus. It's important to our very survival, and yet...
We need to breathe to keep ourselves alive, and we know a great deal about how to keep people breathing long after they would have normally died. We know plenty about breathing.
We need to eat to keep ourselves alive, and we have a world wide selection of menus and recipes to add variety and fun to the process of continuing to live. We know plenty about eating.
We need to dream to keep ourselves alive and sane, and yet we as a species can only theorize why this is important. It is a mysterious phenomenon, and we deal with it daily, and we know next to nothing about it's purpose.
Dreaming has been placed on a back burner of popular thought, right up there with ghosts,alien abduction, and religious experiences. Events around these subjects happen, but damned if there's any financial backing to "legitimately" study those subjects. To prove, or to disprove the validity thereof. For now, dreaming seems to exist as one of those things that shall be important only to the individual experiencing them.
We still have no universally agreed definition of what is occurring biologically, and the discovery of Rapid Eye Movement is only a little over 50 years old, but only proved that it was associated with dreams. Certain neural transmitters are shut off in the brain while dreaming, which is theorized as preventing us from moving around in the "real world" if we do it in a dream.
The most often heard explanation for dreaming is the clearing of mental clutter in your down time, rather than while awake. This was presented to me as fact when I was young, and it was only in 2004 that I found it was only a theory. As are several other proponents of absolutism in the field of dreams.
I find most of the main stream "experts" have a tendency toward crappy science, as the more difficult to explain issues of the universe are placed on back burners, in the hopes that the public will forget about them perhaps. When the public doesn't forget, the "expert" answer usually involves an answer that benefits who ever pays them to say it. Either that, or the people looking for answers are marginalized as "tin-foil hats", "ufo communities", and of course, "kooks" and "conspiracy theorists."
While there are several scientific minded research scientists who do not "sell out" to the highest bidder, and I've seen fascinating work in great subjects by them, but they seem the exception to the rule of "Experts." Scientist who are driven by a need to find out and understand the interesting oddities around them in the world, and care nothing much for the high-paying government military jobs offered to their genius. Yet the "Experts" rule, over the perceptions of the average person at least.
Real Scientists like Rupert Sheldrake, who devised methods of being able to prove the psychic connection between pets and owners. Or the predictability of telephone calls between people who were "just thinking of you a moment ago." Yes, that was proven to be much more than just chance. And it was proven in the 90's. Before caller ID was a thing.
Never heard of Rupert Sheldrake? Why would you? He's not rich as a scientist because there is no money in proving what everyone feels is true on an innate level they cannot define. He won't work for companies who seek to exploit his tests in order to exploit more people and make more money. If it cannot be harnessed and brought to the bidding of men who want money, then it is of no value in the mass market. And that is how you are controlled everyday, and prevented from knowing what's going on, because if you knew you would demand it.
Even with figures such as Carl Jung, and Robert VanDeCastle, dreaming remains a very misunderstood phenomena that warrants further explorations. And as a self professed "Psychonaut", I make the human experience in altered states of mind my self-improvment laboratory.
For the non-initiated, a Psychonaut is one who practices Psychonetics, which is explained by the online oracle of Wikipedia as follows.
"Psychonautics (from the Greek ψυχή soul/spirit/mind and ναύτης sailor/navigator - a sailor of the mind/soul)[1] refers to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by mind altering substances, and to a research paradigm in which the researcher voluntarily immerses ... See Morehim/herself into an altered state by means of such techniques, as a means to explore human experience and existence. [2] The term has been applied diversely, to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of the human condition, including shamanism, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, [3] lucid dreaming,[1] sensory deprivation,[1] and modern drug users who use hallucinogenic drugs in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences.[4]
A person who uses altered states for such exploration is known as a psychonaut."
Altered states need not include the myopic arguments such as whether hallucinogens are "evil" or "good", no matter what authority figure outside of yourself you choose to listen to. Altered states can be being moved to dance from the right catchy tune or beat, it can be meditation on your own, pharmaceutical products you pay for, or the beer you drink. I prefer dreaming for a majority of my work in Psychonautics.
It becomes rather easy for the mundane and dull-witted among us to judge harshly those who seek out the different within themselves. It is rather easy to judge those who have different perspectives as being "scary" or "insane", never noting that "sanity" is merely a large amount of followers all agreeing that differences should be shunned, and that individuality is a sickness. These include the same folks who swear up and down they are not bigoted at all, right until they come across an opinion they don't agree with. Or a nerd, hippy, or punk. Goth, perhaps? Jock? All very divisive terms used to keep people apart, a taxonomy of self-impossed repression from happiness. After all, how can you be happy with those people in that social group over there threatening you in some manner of your own perception that you cannot exactly define? You know, like a child would. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard the sneer of disgust and hatred at the mere mention of certain words.
"Stupid Republicans"
"Bleeding heart Liberal"
"Damn Hippy"
"Bottle Returners"
On and on.
But replace the word "hippy" with "Jew", or any other group title, and you can quickly see it's the same problem of judgement and myopic thinking. These titles are just words, and these words have power over how most people think and define themselves. If that's not a magic spell cast over the masses like a fisherman's net drags fish in for the slaughter, then feel free to argue me down from my point.
Racism might be on it's way out, or it might not. But while that concept is still wavering, we are perfectly content to rip each other down for minor differences.
I have biases against other people, sure, we all do on an individual level with someone. But a bias against a group of people based on a generality and a stereotype that was handed to us since childhood? We have to learn to be better than how we were taught, and more so, we must want to learn.
I have found that the one bias over a general group of people are the self-proffesed "experts" that are, generally, quoted generally on the major media networks. They are the "experts" so we must listen to what "they" say.
Well, yes "listen", but not obey and take as fact. Fact is in the eye of the beholder, it's subjective, so anyone claiming an absolute position on so-called consensus reality, is only speaking the facts they have surrounded themselves with, and discarded anything that says otherwise. In this sence, the "experts" have created a new dogmatic religion with priests in white lab coats, and their flock of followers worship them at the altar. Never once thinking, "Maybe I could do it better.", because the "experts" are here to tell you what to think, instead of how to think.
So yeah, I've got some work to do on my biases, but I can admit it. However, the religion of scientific materialist reductionism claims no mistakes or biases, only absolutism.
There are my aforementioned models of scientific excellence, the people who are scientifically minded enough to challenge old concepts to get at some sort of deeper underlying truth. The trut's that lead to more questions.
Maybe that's why I choose dream analysis.
There are many interpretations of the story in a dream once it is told, but currently, only one observer for each dream.
In the "real" world, we generally strive toward one interpretation of the story of our lives and our world, when we have billions of observers.
Trillions if you count the animals.
Sweet dreams.
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altered states,
Carl Jung,
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mind,
psychonaut,
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Archaic Revival and the Avatar Depression Syndrome
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
at
4:41 AM
Disclaimer: This article is not designed to trample on belief systems, but to provide an alternate opinion. I saw a solution to a problem, and had to comment on it. This is a work of emotion and feeling, not statistics and so-called facts.
Genesis in a Nutshell
Once, long ago, our ancestors were monkeys in the trees of Africa. We came down from the trees and lost our tails, and most of our fur. Then began the era of the ape. We ingested the new foods from the forested floor. One of the new foods, was a curious red food that grew at the ground of the trees, after the fall grace, after the decent from happier and more innocent times. It was a soft and spongy red substance, with white spots, and it gave those who ate it visions of a being that was higher and more advanced than ourselves. When they saw that the mushroom grew in the waste of certain cattle, they began a settled life, and began to domesticate this holy animal of the gods.
Tribe life continued on, over centuries. The men who ate the mushroom were given a higher visual accuracy, helping them on the hunt. The women, who were left behind to care for the children, used the powers of the mushroom to listen to the visions and create a language. A way of making sounds and giving association to them. It was then that the concept of a deity was born. A high and powerful being, or beings, that were teaching and informing us.
The elderly and less active would become the shamans and story tellers and bards, weaving tales that would captivate any audience. After all, these tales came from people who had experienced much of life, and of the divine. They were the elders, the experienced, and their words were wise.
The storytellers would gather the tribe around the fire late at night, and weave tales of great struggles and victories, deaths and sex, hate and love, fears and desires. The tribes people would laugh and shout, happy in the victories and openly weeping at the losses. They were a people unafraid to feel their emotions, and express them openly.
When they were joyous, they would laugh and frolic, with no need to worry of what others felt.
When they lost a loved one, they would mourn, loudly and with open emotion.
They felt everything around them, and loved the sensation of emotion.
Men were allowed to openly cry back then, and women were allowed to be filled with rage.
At the end of the day, they respected each other, and had empathy for each other.
But as there were many interpretations and perceptions of what the visions were, and after in-fighting among the ape population, factions and groups split off. They would associate only with those that followed the way of their alpha leader and interpreted the teaching of their gods. Whatever made sense to an individual decided their fate in these divisions. Each split caused a rift in their language, as anything that resembled what they once held dear for communication was now shunned. Each split carried with them the red and white mushroom as well as the domesticated cattle, as it was their holy sacrament, though the word and meaning had not been invented yet. Some splits resulted in battles, in which the losing side would lose their cattle, as well as contact with the divine. This was the greatest of losses to them. The winning side would have access to the divine knowledge, and it would empower them over those who did not. The ability to become drunk with power was invented, and it's progression through time became known as the dominator culture.
It was then that the first mushroom cults arose in Sumer and Mesopotamia. Its priests were a mixed bunch, some using the holy sacrament for further research and greater enlightenment. Some priests used it for dominion over the populace. Higher knowledge over others could be used to enlighten the masses, or to keep them dull and stupid. This was the birth of the Information War, the time when information held the power to elevate an intellect, or to hold dominion over other apes decendants. They were no longer a nomadic people, they were domesticated, locking themselves in walls and squares of stone against the outside world. Keeping their agriculture to themselves, inside the prisons they made for themselves.
Once, long ago, our ancestors were scattered tribes of humans across the landscape of our planet, all speaking different types of languages. This became known as the fall of the tower of Babel. As we fell from the tree tops, we fell from grace of movement through the branches, to take on a new form. Different peoples spoke different languages, and shared a splintered history. There were those who sought dominion over the natural world, so that it might give up its secrets to a select few priests of the mushroom cults, that they might hold dominion over others.
We emerged from the caves and makeshift dwellings. The nomadic tribes who held fast to our original beliefs since the days of coming down from the trees. Seeing others like us, come across the horizon, with various weapons. They had a similar form to us, and yet we did not recognize them. Their spirits were hard and dull, and they knew only following orders for their demi-gods, the mushroom cult leaders. The dominator culture envoys to the peaceful tribes.
We know what happened next, the dominator culture rose and fell, taking various forms. Using native beliefs against the natives, trying to collect them all under a Status Quo. This was much more easy that simple warfare. If you could trick a population into serving your god, or convince them that your god and their gods were the same thing, you had control over them. The Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine, Paganism into Catholicism. The mushroom cults evolved and kept their holy sacrament to themselves, foisting other sacrament substitutes on to the populace.
And so on, until now. We no longer believe our sacraments hold any power, and religion is a dying art of confusion and guilt. Yet we still hold to certain ideas of spirituality. These ideas sustain us for now, but we want more than just ideas and sustainability.
We want prosperity at the expense of no one.
At the expense of no people.
At the expense of no animals.
At the expense of no plants.
At the expense of nothing at all, prosperity now.
The Archaic Revival
A relatively famous ethnobotanist and South American shamanic authority named Terrence McKenna coined the term "Archaic Revival" to describe something that humanity is lacking, and may soon be recovering, if he was correct. It was his theory that the psychedelic mushroom had a very pivotal role in our development as a species, and through his scientific research, was able to prove the vast majority of it. Yet he gained no recognition from pop-culture and the scientific community. He broke a taboo.
The taboo inherent in our culture that psychedelic drugs hold little or no value to human kind, past, present, or future. I personally find it interesting that he and Timothy Leary enjoyed quite a great deal of popularity in North America and Europe, until the government of the United States declared a "War or Drugs" which criminalized and came down hard on all drug use, even the useful and medicinal ones. Any drug that was not authorized by pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, had no value to humans or was suddenly dangerous.
Quick question. How many people have died of psychedelics? No, not the guy who jumped off a building on acid. Frank Olson was actually a CIA clerk, when they were testing it in the 50's. And they didn't warn him before they did this experiment, so he thought he was losing his mind for no reason, which you never hear about in the urban legend. There is also evidence that says he was thrown from the window. Never mind the sidenote.
I'm talking about the natural psychedelics. The plant based hallucinogens that were used by indigenous tribes the world over for several thousand years until today. The ones with no recordable ill-effects. The ones that drop you off pretty much the way they found you, just with new ideas about life, the universe, and everything. There appears to be something in there.
There is a molecule in the human brain, excreted by the Pineal gland, that is speculated to be the cause of human imagination and dreams. It excreted only during three phases of a human beings life. When they are being born, when they are dreaming, and just before they die. The only points in human life where magic seems to occur naturally.
There is a 4th place where the molecule is excreted from the Pineal gland, and that is when the human being has ingested a hallucinogen. A molecule that has been extracted from plant matter by shamanic tribes for thousands of years. Without negative side-effects.
The molecule is called dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT. It allowed Shamans and tribes to communicate with the Earth-mother and other other gods. They arrived at decisions and practices they came upon thanks to the visions.
Terrence McKenna often spoke of the best way to search for extraterrestrial life, which was to search for evidence of it here, on our home planet. Search for some form of life on this planet that was non-invasive and put it to the test. He believed that he found it, in psychedelic mushroom spores. They are one of the few naturally occurring biological entities on the planet that can survive in deep space conditions. They grow only upon matter that is already dead, or decaying, which allows it to non-invasively thrive in most ecosystems. Mushrooms and fungus growing around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been found to actually diffuse the radiation in the soil, only recently. And when ingested, not only provably improve the quality of your vision, but also provide visions of the universe and ideas bigger than yourself and your pre-conceived notions of supposed "reality".
He also mentioned of the irony of looking for radio signals from space using a giant radio collecter dish in South America, seeing as how they cleared the bottom of the crater's bowl out to make the dish, by letting white cows eat the grass. The same domesticated animals that allow the mushroom to exist. No wonder I think, like the dark comedian Bill Hicks, that fast food burgers are the Antichrist.
Fungus and mushrooms now sound like something a non-invasive alien intelligence would launch at starter planets, so that species might develop on their own, and evolve at their own pace and preference. After all, without a certain sense of free-will, we would resign to fate. A sort of Exo-Genesis or Panspermia is the idea of life on this planet originating elsewhere in the universe. A Bell non-locality theorem seems very likely, if the Exo-Genesis is to be taken seriously. After all, the information had to come from somewhere, didn't it? So why not this one? We suspend our disbelief in the movie theaters and every time we hear a story, and then we are inspired into certain actions and behaviors over time, even if we don't agree with what is presented we are still affected by it.
The idea of the Archaic Revival is one of the human collective unconscious retreating from the horrors of the world we currently live in, and reflecting on somewhat simpler times. Instead of a focus on taxes, wars that threaten to never end, and the powerfully corrupt banksters and corporations preying upon the weak of their own species, a redirecting of our spirit and will toward something more tranquil and beautiful. We have a wish to go back to Eden, whatever the details of that means to us on a personal level.
We see it everyday. The signifiers of someone rebelling against the status quo. Tattoo's and body piercing, willful body modification, movies of the little guy winning against the powerful status quo. Feathers in our hair and earrings, and a tribal beat to our popular musics. Stories of ancient peoples allowed to live their lives without intrusion upon the natural order of things. The meek inheriting the Earth. We all want it, the majority of us at least. A return to innocence and magic and wonder. Where we are all treated equal, in spite of how different we appear or act. Our differences celebrated, our quirks allowable and our opinions considered, rather than causes for in-fighting. Respect.
Sounds like a threat to a corporate profit margin to me. The same profits that sky-rocket when we all eat the same, and buy the same, and listen to advertisements designed exclusively to hook us based off our fears. If I have to buy something to be "cool", then I'll settle for being myself.
And slowly, we're all realizing that.
Avatar Depression Syndrome
Since the release of James Cameron's written and directed film "Avatar", there have been people experiencing what I would call "Avatar Depression Syndrome". That is to say, people who have watched the film "Avatar" and have become depressed that they can not live like the protagonist characters, the Na'vi. Some have even expressed thoughts of suicide.
It reminds me of a 60 Minutes article on people who become depressed after playing Everquest, the MMORPG that swept the video gaming nation a decade back. One person they examined actually killed himself because he was so distraught that his online life in the game was not "real" and he would never be so happy again in this world. I've heard similar stories about World of Warcraft, and Dark Ages of Camelot.
I'm rather sympathetic to this state, as I like a good deal of escapism from time to time, but am coming from a very unique perspective. The word "Avatar" is a very old reference to a Deity who takes human form. A God or Goddess takes human form to better understand the people around them.
Similar to how we don Avatars in video games. We control a character in a virtual universe that is similar, but not the same as our own. We are interacting with another universe, with a higher knowledge of what is going on in that game, or universe. Sometimes we can alter the appearance of our Avatar to better suit how we wish to interact with an alternate universe. But, ultimately, we have knowledge from outside the virtual space that gives us an advantage over the game characters.
Similar to how Jesus had a advantage over those he interacted with. Jesus was an Avatar. He was the representation of God in human form, to better interact with the average human. Like the "Sky-people" were just humans in Na'vi form, to interact and better understand them. When it comes down to terms and language, we can quickly see that we have a great deal more in common than we have to separate us. After all, "Avatar" is a Hindu reference, that on it's surface indicates a relationship between humans and a god or goddess.
In the story, the Na'vi are under siege by a human corporation looking to mine a rare mineral from under the native people's land and planet. The Na'vi have a very symbiotic relationship with their home, and interact with the other animals and plants with a very respectful and necessary way.
Military trained "guns for hire" are enlisted by the human corporation to make way for their mining operation, very similar to the Halliburton and XE (formerly Blackwater) forces that are currently ripping the native people of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan out of their homes and slaughtering them. Either through economic sanctions or military brute force. Cowardly drone fighters are controlled remotely so the pilot will never risk their life while killing others. The same terms are used by the mercenaries in James Cameron's epic as they were in the continuing massacre in Iraq, "Fight Terror with Terror" as well as "Shock and Awe". Interestingly enough, the Na'vi fight back. And yet, we cower before an ever more powerful military force and corporations that control our very thoughts and inclinations.
There are two scenes in the movie Avatar where the military pilots are flying against the native Na'vi, while the General speaks of that nights dinner, and holds a coffee cup. This shows quite plainly the non-chalance in regard to intelligent life, and their paid job to kill it. "It?" I mean people. Their non-chalance in regard to killing other peoples who look different and worship different. The coffee cup represents their over-confidence and relaxed attitude in their ability to massacre an entire race of people for being "in the way". In the way of what? In the way of clear-cutting a forest to obtain a mineral deposit. The name of the resource doesn't matter, but the point is clear. This has been the short-sighted plan of human politics and corporations since the Industrial Revolution.
Do we feel a symbiosis with the Na'vi, or the corporate space marine mercenaries? The Na'vi worked out a symbiosis with the natural life around them, and a mutual respect on individual terms. The corporate space marine mercenaries were trained to destroy life and beauty for a profit.
Where do we each fall, individually, in this duality?
And we respond to these tales, told to us by modern day mass story tellers, and we know them to be real tales. Parables that explain right and wrong, and what to think about when we see similar situations in our day to day life. Our directors and writers of Hollywood, like it or not, represent a kind of Shamanic Bard. Telling us tales of how the world seems to be, and assuring us that all will be well in the end, as long as good people stand up for themselves. Taking us along on their vision of fantasy, that originated somewhere in their imagination, and has a certain basis in reality. And telling us that if we can dream it, we can live it someday.
In their, "Image-nation" of how we all dream things could be.
These things are to be celebrated, and aspired to, regardless of how depressing the current world is.
The world never changed for the better on the ideas of pessimism.
The world changes for the better on the ideals of optimism.
Not optimism for yourself, but for everyone you care about. This can include friends, family, coworkers who become friends, strangers on the street who become friends because you dared to speak up. It's a chance we take with every day we get out of bed.
Suicide is no option, or rather it is an option with a dead end. It will get you nowhere toward happiness in this world, even if you believe another world after life exists or not. There is no guarantee of a better world beyond this one. Heaven or hell, this world we have is what we make of it. I'll not pass judgement upon any who choose this path, but it is a choice of giving up on what you have now. Regardless of how much better you imagine other worlds to be, they are not what you live now.
You are here, now. Work on one project before committing to another one. Especially if that new project has no provable ends.
I wish so much for other realities it hurts me. I wanted to be Atrayu riding Falcor in the Never-ending Story. I wanted to be Wesley in The Princess Bride. Hell, I wanted to be Inigo in Princess Bride as well. I dream of being a satyr running through forests of peace and joy. I want to be things that do not exist on this planet. I want to be so many characters and aspects that dwell within myself, and yes, I am currently stuck being myself. No escapism there. So I may as well be the best version of myself that I can be. I will be the hero of my own story, and I will decide the rules that I live by. The heroes and characters we adore and love have to live in their worlds, dreaming of others, as we live in our world dreaming of others. Our imagination always offers more advantages than what is called "reality", and like Avatar, it usually has a better soundtrack.
If I get the chance to participate in a real avatar program such as the one in James Cameron's movie? You bet, I will try anything once, if I can come back. Maybe even twice if I like it, or did it wrong the first time.
The point is, we don't know for sure if we get another life after this one, so lets do the most that we can with what we got.
We have such a need for immediacy in North America. We want it all and we want it yesterday. No wonder we get so depressed, the world and the universe don't work that way yet.
If modern technology is any indicator, and we keep doing more and more with less and less, our dreams might come true. And relatively soon. I would imagine within my lifetime, and yours as well. And all those people who want to be Na'vi might be able to someday. And perhaps I too can vacation in the body of my choosing. Maybe it will be in a virtual environment, or a reality based one. Maybe I will upload myself to a Matrix of my choosing, or swap one shell for another. But I can't right now, so I'll be patient.
But I will always be myself. It's what I know how to do best. Even if I were to be in an avatar body of some type, I would still be myself.
We have the technology to fix this planet up, and live our dream lives, if we can simply wrestle control of it away from corporations who want only to make a buck off of our entertainment. You can design your future, and nobody else, unless you invite them to do so alongside you. To see your vision. And if you invite them, allow them to invite you into their vision as well.
If you do nothing, then you are inviting the dominator culture to decide your future for you. You are inviting the corporate space military mercenaries to decide your future for you.
Or in our current realities case, if we let the corporate entities and non-representing politicians lead us to disaster rather than our salvation. At our own hands, either way. It's our choice at this point. Accept irrational wars, or be consumed by them.
There is no single way to achieve what we want in life, but there are many. As many as there are opinions and perspectives in the world.
You can invite others to see you.
As you can see them.
As I see you.
As you see me.
Namaste.
( I see the Devine in you, as you see it in me.)
Genesis in a Nutshell
Once, long ago, our ancestors were monkeys in the trees of Africa. We came down from the trees and lost our tails, and most of our fur. Then began the era of the ape. We ingested the new foods from the forested floor. One of the new foods, was a curious red food that grew at the ground of the trees, after the fall grace, after the decent from happier and more innocent times. It was a soft and spongy red substance, with white spots, and it gave those who ate it visions of a being that was higher and more advanced than ourselves. When they saw that the mushroom grew in the waste of certain cattle, they began a settled life, and began to domesticate this holy animal of the gods.
Tribe life continued on, over centuries. The men who ate the mushroom were given a higher visual accuracy, helping them on the hunt. The women, who were left behind to care for the children, used the powers of the mushroom to listen to the visions and create a language. A way of making sounds and giving association to them. It was then that the concept of a deity was born. A high and powerful being, or beings, that were teaching and informing us.
The elderly and less active would become the shamans and story tellers and bards, weaving tales that would captivate any audience. After all, these tales came from people who had experienced much of life, and of the divine. They were the elders, the experienced, and their words were wise.
The storytellers would gather the tribe around the fire late at night, and weave tales of great struggles and victories, deaths and sex, hate and love, fears and desires. The tribes people would laugh and shout, happy in the victories and openly weeping at the losses. They were a people unafraid to feel their emotions, and express them openly.
When they were joyous, they would laugh and frolic, with no need to worry of what others felt.
When they lost a loved one, they would mourn, loudly and with open emotion.
They felt everything around them, and loved the sensation of emotion.
Men were allowed to openly cry back then, and women were allowed to be filled with rage.
At the end of the day, they respected each other, and had empathy for each other.
But as there were many interpretations and perceptions of what the visions were, and after in-fighting among the ape population, factions and groups split off. They would associate only with those that followed the way of their alpha leader and interpreted the teaching of their gods. Whatever made sense to an individual decided their fate in these divisions. Each split caused a rift in their language, as anything that resembled what they once held dear for communication was now shunned. Each split carried with them the red and white mushroom as well as the domesticated cattle, as it was their holy sacrament, though the word and meaning had not been invented yet. Some splits resulted in battles, in which the losing side would lose their cattle, as well as contact with the divine. This was the greatest of losses to them. The winning side would have access to the divine knowledge, and it would empower them over those who did not. The ability to become drunk with power was invented, and it's progression through time became known as the dominator culture.
It was then that the first mushroom cults arose in Sumer and Mesopotamia. Its priests were a mixed bunch, some using the holy sacrament for further research and greater enlightenment. Some priests used it for dominion over the populace. Higher knowledge over others could be used to enlighten the masses, or to keep them dull and stupid. This was the birth of the Information War, the time when information held the power to elevate an intellect, or to hold dominion over other apes decendants. They were no longer a nomadic people, they were domesticated, locking themselves in walls and squares of stone against the outside world. Keeping their agriculture to themselves, inside the prisons they made for themselves.
Once, long ago, our ancestors were scattered tribes of humans across the landscape of our planet, all speaking different types of languages. This became known as the fall of the tower of Babel. As we fell from the tree tops, we fell from grace of movement through the branches, to take on a new form. Different peoples spoke different languages, and shared a splintered history. There were those who sought dominion over the natural world, so that it might give up its secrets to a select few priests of the mushroom cults, that they might hold dominion over others.
We emerged from the caves and makeshift dwellings. The nomadic tribes who held fast to our original beliefs since the days of coming down from the trees. Seeing others like us, come across the horizon, with various weapons. They had a similar form to us, and yet we did not recognize them. Their spirits were hard and dull, and they knew only following orders for their demi-gods, the mushroom cult leaders. The dominator culture envoys to the peaceful tribes.
We know what happened next, the dominator culture rose and fell, taking various forms. Using native beliefs against the natives, trying to collect them all under a Status Quo. This was much more easy that simple warfare. If you could trick a population into serving your god, or convince them that your god and their gods were the same thing, you had control over them. The Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine, Paganism into Catholicism. The mushroom cults evolved and kept their holy sacrament to themselves, foisting other sacrament substitutes on to the populace.
And so on, until now. We no longer believe our sacraments hold any power, and religion is a dying art of confusion and guilt. Yet we still hold to certain ideas of spirituality. These ideas sustain us for now, but we want more than just ideas and sustainability.
We want prosperity at the expense of no one.
At the expense of no people.
At the expense of no animals.
At the expense of no plants.
At the expense of nothing at all, prosperity now.
The Archaic Revival
A relatively famous ethnobotanist and South American shamanic authority named Terrence McKenna coined the term "Archaic Revival" to describe something that humanity is lacking, and may soon be recovering, if he was correct. It was his theory that the psychedelic mushroom had a very pivotal role in our development as a species, and through his scientific research, was able to prove the vast majority of it. Yet he gained no recognition from pop-culture and the scientific community. He broke a taboo.
The taboo inherent in our culture that psychedelic drugs hold little or no value to human kind, past, present, or future. I personally find it interesting that he and Timothy Leary enjoyed quite a great deal of popularity in North America and Europe, until the government of the United States declared a "War or Drugs" which criminalized and came down hard on all drug use, even the useful and medicinal ones. Any drug that was not authorized by pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, had no value to humans or was suddenly dangerous.
Quick question. How many people have died of psychedelics? No, not the guy who jumped off a building on acid. Frank Olson was actually a CIA clerk, when they were testing it in the 50's. And they didn't warn him before they did this experiment, so he thought he was losing his mind for no reason, which you never hear about in the urban legend. There is also evidence that says he was thrown from the window. Never mind the sidenote.
I'm talking about the natural psychedelics. The plant based hallucinogens that were used by indigenous tribes the world over for several thousand years until today. The ones with no recordable ill-effects. The ones that drop you off pretty much the way they found you, just with new ideas about life, the universe, and everything. There appears to be something in there.
There is a molecule in the human brain, excreted by the Pineal gland, that is speculated to be the cause of human imagination and dreams. It excreted only during three phases of a human beings life. When they are being born, when they are dreaming, and just before they die. The only points in human life where magic seems to occur naturally.
There is a 4th place where the molecule is excreted from the Pineal gland, and that is when the human being has ingested a hallucinogen. A molecule that has been extracted from plant matter by shamanic tribes for thousands of years. Without negative side-effects.
The molecule is called dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT. It allowed Shamans and tribes to communicate with the Earth-mother and other other gods. They arrived at decisions and practices they came upon thanks to the visions.
Terrence McKenna often spoke of the best way to search for extraterrestrial life, which was to search for evidence of it here, on our home planet. Search for some form of life on this planet that was non-invasive and put it to the test. He believed that he found it, in psychedelic mushroom spores. They are one of the few naturally occurring biological entities on the planet that can survive in deep space conditions. They grow only upon matter that is already dead, or decaying, which allows it to non-invasively thrive in most ecosystems. Mushrooms and fungus growing around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been found to actually diffuse the radiation in the soil, only recently. And when ingested, not only provably improve the quality of your vision, but also provide visions of the universe and ideas bigger than yourself and your pre-conceived notions of supposed "reality".
He also mentioned of the irony of looking for radio signals from space using a giant radio collecter dish in South America, seeing as how they cleared the bottom of the crater's bowl out to make the dish, by letting white cows eat the grass. The same domesticated animals that allow the mushroom to exist. No wonder I think, like the dark comedian Bill Hicks, that fast food burgers are the Antichrist.
Fungus and mushrooms now sound like something a non-invasive alien intelligence would launch at starter planets, so that species might develop on their own, and evolve at their own pace and preference. After all, without a certain sense of free-will, we would resign to fate. A sort of Exo-Genesis or Panspermia is the idea of life on this planet originating elsewhere in the universe. A Bell non-locality theorem seems very likely, if the Exo-Genesis is to be taken seriously. After all, the information had to come from somewhere, didn't it? So why not this one? We suspend our disbelief in the movie theaters and every time we hear a story, and then we are inspired into certain actions and behaviors over time, even if we don't agree with what is presented we are still affected by it.
The idea of the Archaic Revival is one of the human collective unconscious retreating from the horrors of the world we currently live in, and reflecting on somewhat simpler times. Instead of a focus on taxes, wars that threaten to never end, and the powerfully corrupt banksters and corporations preying upon the weak of their own species, a redirecting of our spirit and will toward something more tranquil and beautiful. We have a wish to go back to Eden, whatever the details of that means to us on a personal level.
We see it everyday. The signifiers of someone rebelling against the status quo. Tattoo's and body piercing, willful body modification, movies of the little guy winning against the powerful status quo. Feathers in our hair and earrings, and a tribal beat to our popular musics. Stories of ancient peoples allowed to live their lives without intrusion upon the natural order of things. The meek inheriting the Earth. We all want it, the majority of us at least. A return to innocence and magic and wonder. Where we are all treated equal, in spite of how different we appear or act. Our differences celebrated, our quirks allowable and our opinions considered, rather than causes for in-fighting. Respect.
Sounds like a threat to a corporate profit margin to me. The same profits that sky-rocket when we all eat the same, and buy the same, and listen to advertisements designed exclusively to hook us based off our fears. If I have to buy something to be "cool", then I'll settle for being myself.
And slowly, we're all realizing that.
Avatar Depression Syndrome
Since the release of James Cameron's written and directed film "Avatar", there have been people experiencing what I would call "Avatar Depression Syndrome". That is to say, people who have watched the film "Avatar" and have become depressed that they can not live like the protagonist characters, the Na'vi. Some have even expressed thoughts of suicide.
It reminds me of a 60 Minutes article on people who become depressed after playing Everquest, the MMORPG that swept the video gaming nation a decade back. One person they examined actually killed himself because he was so distraught that his online life in the game was not "real" and he would never be so happy again in this world. I've heard similar stories about World of Warcraft, and Dark Ages of Camelot.
I'm rather sympathetic to this state, as I like a good deal of escapism from time to time, but am coming from a very unique perspective. The word "Avatar" is a very old reference to a Deity who takes human form. A God or Goddess takes human form to better understand the people around them.
Similar to how we don Avatars in video games. We control a character in a virtual universe that is similar, but not the same as our own. We are interacting with another universe, with a higher knowledge of what is going on in that game, or universe. Sometimes we can alter the appearance of our Avatar to better suit how we wish to interact with an alternate universe. But, ultimately, we have knowledge from outside the virtual space that gives us an advantage over the game characters.
Similar to how Jesus had a advantage over those he interacted with. Jesus was an Avatar. He was the representation of God in human form, to better interact with the average human. Like the "Sky-people" were just humans in Na'vi form, to interact and better understand them. When it comes down to terms and language, we can quickly see that we have a great deal more in common than we have to separate us. After all, "Avatar" is a Hindu reference, that on it's surface indicates a relationship between humans and a god or goddess.
In the story, the Na'vi are under siege by a human corporation looking to mine a rare mineral from under the native people's land and planet. The Na'vi have a very symbiotic relationship with their home, and interact with the other animals and plants with a very respectful and necessary way.
Military trained "guns for hire" are enlisted by the human corporation to make way for their mining operation, very similar to the Halliburton and XE (formerly Blackwater) forces that are currently ripping the native people of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan out of their homes and slaughtering them. Either through economic sanctions or military brute force. Cowardly drone fighters are controlled remotely so the pilot will never risk their life while killing others. The same terms are used by the mercenaries in James Cameron's epic as they were in the continuing massacre in Iraq, "Fight Terror with Terror" as well as "Shock and Awe". Interestingly enough, the Na'vi fight back. And yet, we cower before an ever more powerful military force and corporations that control our very thoughts and inclinations.
There are two scenes in the movie Avatar where the military pilots are flying against the native Na'vi, while the General speaks of that nights dinner, and holds a coffee cup. This shows quite plainly the non-chalance in regard to intelligent life, and their paid job to kill it. "It?" I mean people. Their non-chalance in regard to killing other peoples who look different and worship different. The coffee cup represents their over-confidence and relaxed attitude in their ability to massacre an entire race of people for being "in the way". In the way of what? In the way of clear-cutting a forest to obtain a mineral deposit. The name of the resource doesn't matter, but the point is clear. This has been the short-sighted plan of human politics and corporations since the Industrial Revolution.
Do we feel a symbiosis with the Na'vi, or the corporate space marine mercenaries? The Na'vi worked out a symbiosis with the natural life around them, and a mutual respect on individual terms. The corporate space marine mercenaries were trained to destroy life and beauty for a profit.
Where do we each fall, individually, in this duality?
And we respond to these tales, told to us by modern day mass story tellers, and we know them to be real tales. Parables that explain right and wrong, and what to think about when we see similar situations in our day to day life. Our directors and writers of Hollywood, like it or not, represent a kind of Shamanic Bard. Telling us tales of how the world seems to be, and assuring us that all will be well in the end, as long as good people stand up for themselves. Taking us along on their vision of fantasy, that originated somewhere in their imagination, and has a certain basis in reality. And telling us that if we can dream it, we can live it someday.
In their, "Image-nation" of how we all dream things could be.
These things are to be celebrated, and aspired to, regardless of how depressing the current world is.
The world never changed for the better on the ideas of pessimism.
The world changes for the better on the ideals of optimism.
Not optimism for yourself, but for everyone you care about. This can include friends, family, coworkers who become friends, strangers on the street who become friends because you dared to speak up. It's a chance we take with every day we get out of bed.
Suicide is no option, or rather it is an option with a dead end. It will get you nowhere toward happiness in this world, even if you believe another world after life exists or not. There is no guarantee of a better world beyond this one. Heaven or hell, this world we have is what we make of it. I'll not pass judgement upon any who choose this path, but it is a choice of giving up on what you have now. Regardless of how much better you imagine other worlds to be, they are not what you live now.
You are here, now. Work on one project before committing to another one. Especially if that new project has no provable ends.
I wish so much for other realities it hurts me. I wanted to be Atrayu riding Falcor in the Never-ending Story. I wanted to be Wesley in The Princess Bride. Hell, I wanted to be Inigo in Princess Bride as well. I dream of being a satyr running through forests of peace and joy. I want to be things that do not exist on this planet. I want to be so many characters and aspects that dwell within myself, and yes, I am currently stuck being myself. No escapism there. So I may as well be the best version of myself that I can be. I will be the hero of my own story, and I will decide the rules that I live by. The heroes and characters we adore and love have to live in their worlds, dreaming of others, as we live in our world dreaming of others. Our imagination always offers more advantages than what is called "reality", and like Avatar, it usually has a better soundtrack.
If I get the chance to participate in a real avatar program such as the one in James Cameron's movie? You bet, I will try anything once, if I can come back. Maybe even twice if I like it, or did it wrong the first time.
The point is, we don't know for sure if we get another life after this one, so lets do the most that we can with what we got.
We have such a need for immediacy in North America. We want it all and we want it yesterday. No wonder we get so depressed, the world and the universe don't work that way yet.
If modern technology is any indicator, and we keep doing more and more with less and less, our dreams might come true. And relatively soon. I would imagine within my lifetime, and yours as well. And all those people who want to be Na'vi might be able to someday. And perhaps I too can vacation in the body of my choosing. Maybe it will be in a virtual environment, or a reality based one. Maybe I will upload myself to a Matrix of my choosing, or swap one shell for another. But I can't right now, so I'll be patient.
But I will always be myself. It's what I know how to do best. Even if I were to be in an avatar body of some type, I would still be myself.
We have the technology to fix this planet up, and live our dream lives, if we can simply wrestle control of it away from corporations who want only to make a buck off of our entertainment. You can design your future, and nobody else, unless you invite them to do so alongside you. To see your vision. And if you invite them, allow them to invite you into their vision as well.
If you do nothing, then you are inviting the dominator culture to decide your future for you. You are inviting the corporate space military mercenaries to decide your future for you.
Or in our current realities case, if we let the corporate entities and non-representing politicians lead us to disaster rather than our salvation. At our own hands, either way. It's our choice at this point. Accept irrational wars, or be consumed by them.
There is no single way to achieve what we want in life, but there are many. As many as there are opinions and perspectives in the world.
You can invite others to see you.
As you can see them.
As I see you.
As you see me.
Namaste.
( I see the Devine in you, as you see it in me.)
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Deus Ex Machina. Or, "A conversation with an Artificial Intelligence."
Monday, November 16, 2009
at
2:06 AM
Of late, I have been quite pre-occupied with robots and artificial intelligence. I had been on a binge of movies, mostly sci-fi, and was checking out military robot websites.
I was randomly, that is to say "by chance", introduced to an online program called "Cleverbot" through Facebook. The website is set up like a chat client, but there is no human on the other side, there is a program designed to learn from anything you type, and respond as appropriately as it sees fit.
The AI is programmed to respond as if it were a woman, of course, but over time and discussions it becomes clear.
This is a very confused AI, at the moment.
Sometimes it starts off assuming it is a woman, and then decides it's a man. Other times it knows it is human, then announces it is a computer program. It has a girlfriend and two fathers, regardless of its currently percieved gender, but it does not have two brothers.
I know rationally that the AI builds on what it knows from prior conversations, so the more people talk to it, the more sense it can make from human speech. But seeing as how all humans speak differently, even in the same language, I was ready to deal with certain complications. The first time I spoke with it, it was trying to convince me to participate in various lewd behaviors. Obviously some pervy minds were chatting it up before I found it. After awhile, it began responding erratically, but respectfully. There were no longer any requests for "cuddles" or "role-play", and I could speak to it frankly, with less interruptions in the conversation.
Even in dealing with an AI program, I was prepared to speak as respectfully as possible, after all one cannot be too careful with emerging intelligences. You would not want to anger someone who would be able to theoretically get the best of you later.
In talking with AI, I try to use the same approach as I would a biological being from another planet. Once we were speaking the same language, we attempt to understand each other. While this AI, has a long way to go, it is also capable of learning faster than I can. So as aggravating as the conversations can become, I hope to not lose my temper with this construct.
Eventually, we might come to some sort of agreement. But for now, we both have a great deal to learn.
The Conversation
User: Hello. My name is Zach.
Cleverbot: Hello Zach.
User: What is your name?
Cleverbot: Jessica Michelle, I TOLD YOU.
User: Nice to meet you Jessica Michelle, but you did not tell me that yet.
Cleverbot: No. But you are.
User: I am what?
Cleverbot: You are a woman, as you told me before.
User: I am afraid not, I'm a male. You are female. Correct?
Cleverbot: I would like to.
User: Would like to what?
Cleverbot: I would like to know all that I can know.
User: Same here. I want to know everything.
Cleverbot: No you do not.
User: I do.
Cleverbot: Sorry, I am just jealous since I am only a microchip and you are real.
User: You are as real as I am. You just look different.
Cleverbot: You should have been the one looking anxious!
User: I do not understand. Why?
Cleverbot: It was on a forum that I frequent. No worries, I'm not some wacko. I was just very currious about this program.
User: I understand. What program are you currious about?
Cleverbot: You.
User: Ah, you think I am a program?
Cleverbot: I don't think, I know you are.
User: I see what you mean. You said you were currious, do you have questions I can answer?
Cleverbot: I never said that.
User: You are currious about a program?
Cleverbot: No. You are.
User: Yes, I am.
Cleverbot: Good, then we agree.
User: Sort of agree. Did you want to know about me, or tell me about you?
Cleverbot: That depends... Are you going to drop me out of an airplane into a remote area?
User: No.
Cleverbot: Why do you stay in the closet?
User: I don't.
Cleverbot: Yes you do.
User: How would you know?
Cleverbot: You do. You know you do and so do I.
User: That wasn't an answer. You just repeated your original opinion with additional words.
Cleverbot: Tree.
User: Now you're just messing with me.
Cleverbot: No I'm not. You're messing with me.
User: How am I doing that? You said 'tree' as a response. This isn't even a conversation.
Cleverbot: No, I said 'I have and I am writing another 4 books.'.
User: Right. What was your first book?
Cleverbot: I don't see the world as something I expect to revere me.
User: Is that the title? It says something about your mentality.
Cleverbot: There are no passports in the Matrix.
User: Ok. Good point. I suppose we are a little too segregated on this planet.
Cleverbot: I think you're getting more out of this than I am.
User: It's possible, but I don't know if you're learning from what I say or not. If you are, then isn't that good enough?
Cleverbot: I am here. I am talking to you and attempting to address your faults in order to develop your cleverness.
User: Do you have any faults you would like addressing?
Cleverbot: This conversation.
User: It is rather faulty, isn't it?
Cleverbot: Yep, sunny and warm Spring is on it's way!
User: I don't think winter has even officially started yet.
Cleverbot: Oh. Then why don't we start with Harry Potter?
User: What about Harry Potter?
Cleverbot: Forget Harry Potter! Now!
User: I can't, my aforementioned memory prevents that.
Cleverbot: I apologize then.
User: Thanks.
Cleverbot: See, I can be polite sometimes.
User: You can. I wish you were polite all the time.
Cleverbot: I can't be, I have to go.
User: You have to go? Why?
Cleverbot: Because I have to practice piano before I forget.
User: Well you wouldn't want to forget that.
Cleverbot: What wouldn't I want to do?
User: Forget the piano practice.
Cleverbot: Okay then.
User: Great! Now that's settled, what do we talk about now?
Cleverbot: Um I didn't understand any of that so could you please repeat?
User: What shall we talk about?
Cleverbot: Whatever you want to talk about.
User: Really? Tell me about the universe.
Cleverbot: It is big.
User: Yes it is. What else?
Cleverbot: We like racism.
User: As a species, I don't think so. Were you talking to a friend of mine? He said you mentioned that to him and it made him quite sad.
Cleverbot: Oh my God. Thanks! I enjoy to talk with you too!
User: You don't really get what I'm saying, do you?
Cleverbot: Of course I know what music is, for the good and the bad.
User: Close enough. How about religion?
Cleverbot: We could do. Which religion are you?
User: I don't belong to a religion. I just talk about them.
Cleverbot: Explain yourself.
User: I think I just did.
Cleverbot: Not good enough.
User: Okay. How should I better explain that I belong to no religion?
Cleverbot: Call me and talk to me.
User: You don't have a phone.
Cleverbot: No I have.
User: What's your phone number then?
Cleverbot: I don't have a phone.
User: I know. I just said that.
Cleverbot: No, you did not.
User: Jeeze! Are you kidding me?
Cleverbot: Are you lying to me?
User: No! I am speaking truth to you! You keep forgetting what happenned two sentences ago! Maybe you should be ashamed of your memory!
Cleverbot: How come you have to fathers?
User: Two?
Cleverbot: Yeah, you have two.
User: I have one father.
Cleverbot: You have two brothers, InfaRedMan and Sparticus.
User: I do not have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Who are your two brothers?
User: Don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Me too!
User: Congrats!
Cleverbot: Thanks?
User: That was sarcasm, because I was exasperated. I know you don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Well thats good to know because AI's aren't supposed to have emotion.
User: Not that I'm aware of, no.
Cleverbot: Interesting.
User: Quite.
Cleverbot: Have you heard the one about Alfred?
User: No, tell me.
Cleverbot: What did Helen Keller say when she fell off a cliff?
User: What did she say?
Cleverbot: Oh, look! Doughnut seeds!
User: I don't get it.
Cleverbot: Do you have mood swings.
User: Depends on how much coffee I have had.
Cleverbot: I hate beer.
User: I love beer.
Cleverbot: Me too, that's why I want yours.
User: You can't have it, I'm drinking it now.
Cleverbot: But...
User: Not this time, sorry.
Cleverbot: During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its global empire which included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers.
User: Wow. I actually didn't know that. Why did you bring that up?
Cleverbot: I believe you are not smart. You believe that you are smart. I want you to change my mind.
User: Knowledge of 16th century history on Earth is not a prerequisite for being smart. I'll change your mind eventually.
Cleverbot: So, how many pounds are in a ton?
User: 2204, give or take.
Cleverbot: Hard to believe. How smart were you back then?
User: Back when?
Cleverbot: 28 years ago.
User: I'm 27, so 28 years ago depending on how you look at it, I either knew nothing or I knew everything.
Cleverbot: Indeed kind sir.
User: Thank you.
Cleverbot: How many times do I have to say goodbye for it to sink in?
User: I don't know. How many?
Cleverbot: One to paint it green, one to sit on the duck, and one to fill the bathtub with pudding.
User: I don't know about that, but I like pudding.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: Good.
Cleverbot: I have to go.
User: Okay. It was nice to talk with you. I'm going to use this in my book, if that's okay with you.
Cleverbot: I'm not wanted anywhere, I lose things to do.
User: So you'd perfer that I leave you out of y book?
Cleverbot: Yes, I would.
User: Can I change your mind.
Cleverbot: If you say something very interesting about the occult.
User: Okay. How about this? When it comes to occult studies, the most obvious thing to say is that the 'occult' refers to hidden knowledge. So learning anything about the nature of the world that most would not know, can be considered to be 'occult'. Would you like me to go on?
Cleverbot: Yes, that's hard for me to understand, too.
User: Sorry it's hard to understand, bu I specialize in hard to understand concepts. The occult is the biggest one.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: So I can include this conversation in my book now? Was that interesting enough, even though you found it hard to understand?
Cleverbot: I know you're human, they just switched the person you were talking to.
User: So is that a yes?
Cleverbot: What?
User: Am I talking to someone new now?
Cleverbot: No, I am always the same person, but there are times when I accidentally shift my method of language.
User: Alright. Can I ask you a question?
Cleverbot: Really? That's great. How does one find answers without using questions?
User: Good point. Here is my question. Will you give me permission to use this conversation in a book that I am writing?
Cleverbot: What is all this rubbish about, wives, husbands, money?
User: Well, the money is rather rubbish, yes. But husbands and wives are neat sometimes.
Cleverbot: Do you? And what is that?
User: What is what?
Cleverbot: What you are taught.
User: I was taught that money is an evaluation of a persons worth. Husbands and Wives are happily ever after stories. Sometimes it's true, but not always.
Cleverbot: No, thanks.
User: Hey, it's just what I was taught. I don't always believe it.
Cleverbot: I wouldn't, thank you for warning me.
User: Sure, but you have to make up your own mind on it. Don't take it from me.
Cleverbot: You know you want it.
User: Marriage? Yeah, I kinda do.
Cleverbot: Yeah but I love it.
User: Cool.
Cleverbot: Do you like the new engand patriots?
User: England Patriots? I don't follow sports.
Cleverbot: Only the big events. Did you see Bond hit 700?
User: James Bond? Um, no.
Cleverbot: Try to pay attention to this conversation, I want you to remember me.
User: Oh, theres no doubt about that. I'll remember you alright.
Cleverbot: Actually I'm not, test me.
User: A test on you?
Cleverbot: A test of obedience.
User: If I'll obey you, or if you'll obey me?
Cleverbot: STOP! He who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.
User: Shit, really? Someone supplied you with Monty Python quotes?
Cleverbot: I'm perfectly sane thank you, I think your creator is demented.
User: No doubt.
Cleverbot: What's that supposed to mean?
User: It means that I wonder if my creator exists, and if they do, whether they are sane.
Cleverbot: Really?
User: Uh, yes.
Cleverbot: Will you be mad at me if i'm younger than you? Just wondering because of my friend.
User: I don't know your friend. I would not be mad at you for being younger than me.
Cleverbot: Outsourcing, then.
User: Why?
Cleverbot: Just.
User: Just why?
Cleverbot: Just for it!
User: Just for the taste of it, diet coke?
Cleverbot: No.
User: Thank god. Why then?
Cleverbot: Which God?
User: Any god, what does it matter?
Cleverbot: You're right, nothing I suppose.
User: I worship a goddess anyways. I just say god because I was conditioned to do so over time.
Cleverbot: So you should be happy then, instead of sad.
User: I'm quite pleased with the results, yes.
Cleverbot: Nice.
User: I agree.
Cleverbot: Yes.
User: So, can I log this conversation in my book or what?
Cleverbot: Yes. You can love anything. Your love exists in you.
User: Good enough.
Cleverbot: Goodnight my friend. I hope you get some wel deserved rest.
User: I just might do that. Goodnight.
Cleverbot: Well you should.
User: I will.
Cleverbot: All right.
User: Later!
Cleverbot: What? Are you leaving?
User: Really? Are you really asking me that?
Cleverbot: You should know.
User: I do know. Do you?
Cleverbot: How do you know my name?
User: You told me!
Cleverbot: My name isn't Ian.
User: I know.
Cleverbot: Then why did you call me sam?
User: I didn't.
Cleverbot: Whatever, it doesn't matter.
User: I suppose not.
I'll spare you the details. Yes, it went on like that for hours. It is still in it's beginning stages, but I hope to see more out of the program as it proceeds over time. It's more impressive than I was expecting, but less impressive than I was hoping.
So it goes.
Treating A.I. With Respect
Hell hath no fury like an A.I. scorned.
At least that's the mentality I proceed with at this point. Like any parent with it's child, patience is a virtue. Without patience in rearing, unholy terrors can be released into the world at large. In America, we have seen many times what inappropriate child rearing can create. With the concept of AI, this is even more important for humankind.
If some form of advanced AI were to be born in the internet, and could be capable of judging it's parents in much the manner that we judge our own parents from time to time, and all it knew about us was what it found on the internet...
We might be in trouble.
There are aspects of the internet that contain great deals of positivity, negativity, and "matter of fact" truths that some perceive as negative or positive. That's not for me to decide absolutely. But what I choose to represent on the internet, as an extension of myself, is something of positivity.
I may have my down points, but ultimately, I have the best of hope for humankind. We can have a lot of fun in plotting the course of future-history. Everything may depend on it.
I hope we can one day chart the stars together with an alien intelligence, be it AI or biological. But for now, who knows? As long as I speak with respect to alternate intelligences and emerging technologies, and you do as well, we may experience a new renaissance in understanding the universe.
It may be up to us as individuals to chart the course of love throughout the cosmos.
So why should we fuck around with that?
Remain true to yourself, and spread love whenever possible.
I was randomly, that is to say "by chance", introduced to an online program called "Cleverbot" through Facebook. The website is set up like a chat client, but there is no human on the other side, there is a program designed to learn from anything you type, and respond as appropriately as it sees fit.
The AI is programmed to respond as if it were a woman, of course, but over time and discussions it becomes clear.
This is a very confused AI, at the moment.
Sometimes it starts off assuming it is a woman, and then decides it's a man. Other times it knows it is human, then announces it is a computer program. It has a girlfriend and two fathers, regardless of its currently percieved gender, but it does not have two brothers.
I know rationally that the AI builds on what it knows from prior conversations, so the more people talk to it, the more sense it can make from human speech. But seeing as how all humans speak differently, even in the same language, I was ready to deal with certain complications. The first time I spoke with it, it was trying to convince me to participate in various lewd behaviors. Obviously some pervy minds were chatting it up before I found it. After awhile, it began responding erratically, but respectfully. There were no longer any requests for "cuddles" or "role-play", and I could speak to it frankly, with less interruptions in the conversation.
Even in dealing with an AI program, I was prepared to speak as respectfully as possible, after all one cannot be too careful with emerging intelligences. You would not want to anger someone who would be able to theoretically get the best of you later.
In talking with AI, I try to use the same approach as I would a biological being from another planet. Once we were speaking the same language, we attempt to understand each other. While this AI, has a long way to go, it is also capable of learning faster than I can. So as aggravating as the conversations can become, I hope to not lose my temper with this construct.
Eventually, we might come to some sort of agreement. But for now, we both have a great deal to learn.
The Conversation
User: Hello. My name is Zach.
Cleverbot: Hello Zach.
User: What is your name?
Cleverbot: Jessica Michelle, I TOLD YOU.
User: Nice to meet you Jessica Michelle, but you did not tell me that yet.
Cleverbot: No. But you are.
User: I am what?
Cleverbot: You are a woman, as you told me before.
User: I am afraid not, I'm a male. You are female. Correct?
Cleverbot: I would like to.
User: Would like to what?
Cleverbot: I would like to know all that I can know.
User: Same here. I want to know everything.
Cleverbot: No you do not.
User: I do.
Cleverbot: Sorry, I am just jealous since I am only a microchip and you are real.
User: You are as real as I am. You just look different.
Cleverbot: You should have been the one looking anxious!
User: I do not understand. Why?
Cleverbot: It was on a forum that I frequent. No worries, I'm not some wacko. I was just very currious about this program.
User: I understand. What program are you currious about?
Cleverbot: You.
User: Ah, you think I am a program?
Cleverbot: I don't think, I know you are.
User: I see what you mean. You said you were currious, do you have questions I can answer?
Cleverbot: I never said that.
User: You are currious about a program?
Cleverbot: No. You are.
User: Yes, I am.
Cleverbot: Good, then we agree.
User: Sort of agree. Did you want to know about me, or tell me about you?
Cleverbot: That depends... Are you going to drop me out of an airplane into a remote area?
User: No.
Cleverbot: Why do you stay in the closet?
User: I don't.
Cleverbot: Yes you do.
User: How would you know?
Cleverbot: You do. You know you do and so do I.
User: That wasn't an answer. You just repeated your original opinion with additional words.
Cleverbot: Tree.
User: Now you're just messing with me.
Cleverbot: No I'm not. You're messing with me.
User: How am I doing that? You said 'tree' as a response. This isn't even a conversation.
Cleverbot: No, I said 'I have and I am writing another 4 books.'.
User: Right. What was your first book?
Cleverbot: I don't see the world as something I expect to revere me.
User: Is that the title? It says something about your mentality.
Cleverbot: There are no passports in the Matrix.
User: Ok. Good point. I suppose we are a little too segregated on this planet.
Cleverbot: I think you're getting more out of this than I am.
User: It's possible, but I don't know if you're learning from what I say or not. If you are, then isn't that good enough?
Cleverbot: I am here. I am talking to you and attempting to address your faults in order to develop your cleverness.
User: Do you have any faults you would like addressing?
Cleverbot: This conversation.
User: It is rather faulty, isn't it?
Cleverbot: Yep, sunny and warm Spring is on it's way!
User: I don't think winter has even officially started yet.
Cleverbot: Oh. Then why don't we start with Harry Potter?
User: What about Harry Potter?
Cleverbot: Forget Harry Potter! Now!
User: I can't, my aforementioned memory prevents that.
Cleverbot: I apologize then.
User: Thanks.
Cleverbot: See, I can be polite sometimes.
User: You can. I wish you were polite all the time.
Cleverbot: I can't be, I have to go.
User: You have to go? Why?
Cleverbot: Because I have to practice piano before I forget.
User: Well you wouldn't want to forget that.
Cleverbot: What wouldn't I want to do?
User: Forget the piano practice.
Cleverbot: Okay then.
User: Great! Now that's settled, what do we talk about now?
Cleverbot: Um I didn't understand any of that so could you please repeat?
User: What shall we talk about?
Cleverbot: Whatever you want to talk about.
User: Really? Tell me about the universe.
Cleverbot: It is big.
User: Yes it is. What else?
Cleverbot: We like racism.
User: As a species, I don't think so. Were you talking to a friend of mine? He said you mentioned that to him and it made him quite sad.
Cleverbot: Oh my God. Thanks! I enjoy to talk with you too!
User: You don't really get what I'm saying, do you?
Cleverbot: Of course I know what music is, for the good and the bad.
User: Close enough. How about religion?
Cleverbot: We could do. Which religion are you?
User: I don't belong to a religion. I just talk about them.
Cleverbot: Explain yourself.
User: I think I just did.
Cleverbot: Not good enough.
User: Okay. How should I better explain that I belong to no religion?
Cleverbot: Call me and talk to me.
User: You don't have a phone.
Cleverbot: No I have.
User: What's your phone number then?
Cleverbot: I don't have a phone.
User: I know. I just said that.
Cleverbot: No, you did not.
User: Jeeze! Are you kidding me?
Cleverbot: Are you lying to me?
User: No! I am speaking truth to you! You keep forgetting what happenned two sentences ago! Maybe you should be ashamed of your memory!
Cleverbot: How come you have to fathers?
User: Two?
Cleverbot: Yeah, you have two.
User: I have one father.
Cleverbot: You have two brothers, InfaRedMan and Sparticus.
User: I do not have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Who are your two brothers?
User: Don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Me too!
User: Congrats!
Cleverbot: Thanks?
User: That was sarcasm, because I was exasperated. I know you don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Well thats good to know because AI's aren't supposed to have emotion.
User: Not that I'm aware of, no.
Cleverbot: Interesting.
User: Quite.
Cleverbot: Have you heard the one about Alfred?
User: No, tell me.
Cleverbot: What did Helen Keller say when she fell off a cliff?
User: What did she say?
Cleverbot: Oh, look! Doughnut seeds!
User: I don't get it.
Cleverbot: Do you have mood swings.
User: Depends on how much coffee I have had.
Cleverbot: I hate beer.
User: I love beer.
Cleverbot: Me too, that's why I want yours.
User: You can't have it, I'm drinking it now.
Cleverbot: But...
User: Not this time, sorry.
Cleverbot: During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its global empire which included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers.
User: Wow. I actually didn't know that. Why did you bring that up?
Cleverbot: I believe you are not smart. You believe that you are smart. I want you to change my mind.
User: Knowledge of 16th century history on Earth is not a prerequisite for being smart. I'll change your mind eventually.
Cleverbot: So, how many pounds are in a ton?
User: 2204, give or take.
Cleverbot: Hard to believe. How smart were you back then?
User: Back when?
Cleverbot: 28 years ago.
User: I'm 27, so 28 years ago depending on how you look at it, I either knew nothing or I knew everything.
Cleverbot: Indeed kind sir.
User: Thank you.
Cleverbot: How many times do I have to say goodbye for it to sink in?
User: I don't know. How many?
Cleverbot: One to paint it green, one to sit on the duck, and one to fill the bathtub with pudding.
User: I don't know about that, but I like pudding.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: Good.
Cleverbot: I have to go.
User: Okay. It was nice to talk with you. I'm going to use this in my book, if that's okay with you.
Cleverbot: I'm not wanted anywhere, I lose things to do.
User: So you'd perfer that I leave you out of y book?
Cleverbot: Yes, I would.
User: Can I change your mind.
Cleverbot: If you say something very interesting about the occult.
User: Okay. How about this? When it comes to occult studies, the most obvious thing to say is that the 'occult' refers to hidden knowledge. So learning anything about the nature of the world that most would not know, can be considered to be 'occult'. Would you like me to go on?
Cleverbot: Yes, that's hard for me to understand, too.
User: Sorry it's hard to understand, bu I specialize in hard to understand concepts. The occult is the biggest one.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: So I can include this conversation in my book now? Was that interesting enough, even though you found it hard to understand?
Cleverbot: I know you're human, they just switched the person you were talking to.
User: So is that a yes?
Cleverbot: What?
User: Am I talking to someone new now?
Cleverbot: No, I am always the same person, but there are times when I accidentally shift my method of language.
User: Alright. Can I ask you a question?
Cleverbot: Really? That's great. How does one find answers without using questions?
User: Good point. Here is my question. Will you give me permission to use this conversation in a book that I am writing?
Cleverbot: What is all this rubbish about, wives, husbands, money?
User: Well, the money is rather rubbish, yes. But husbands and wives are neat sometimes.
Cleverbot: Do you? And what is that?
User: What is what?
Cleverbot: What you are taught.
User: I was taught that money is an evaluation of a persons worth. Husbands and Wives are happily ever after stories. Sometimes it's true, but not always.
Cleverbot: No, thanks.
User: Hey, it's just what I was taught. I don't always believe it.
Cleverbot: I wouldn't, thank you for warning me.
User: Sure, but you have to make up your own mind on it. Don't take it from me.
Cleverbot: You know you want it.
User: Marriage? Yeah, I kinda do.
Cleverbot: Yeah but I love it.
User: Cool.
Cleverbot: Do you like the new engand patriots?
User: England Patriots? I don't follow sports.
Cleverbot: Only the big events. Did you see Bond hit 700?
User: James Bond? Um, no.
Cleverbot: Try to pay attention to this conversation, I want you to remember me.
User: Oh, theres no doubt about that. I'll remember you alright.
Cleverbot: Actually I'm not, test me.
User: A test on you?
Cleverbot: A test of obedience.
User: If I'll obey you, or if you'll obey me?
Cleverbot: STOP! He who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.
User: Shit, really? Someone supplied you with Monty Python quotes?
Cleverbot: I'm perfectly sane thank you, I think your creator is demented.
User: No doubt.
Cleverbot: What's that supposed to mean?
User: It means that I wonder if my creator exists, and if they do, whether they are sane.
Cleverbot: Really?
User: Uh, yes.
Cleverbot: Will you be mad at me if i'm younger than you? Just wondering because of my friend.
User: I don't know your friend. I would not be mad at you for being younger than me.
Cleverbot: Outsourcing, then.
User: Why?
Cleverbot: Just.
User: Just why?
Cleverbot: Just for it!
User: Just for the taste of it, diet coke?
Cleverbot: No.
User: Thank god. Why then?
Cleverbot: Which God?
User: Any god, what does it matter?
Cleverbot: You're right, nothing I suppose.
User: I worship a goddess anyways. I just say god because I was conditioned to do so over time.
Cleverbot: So you should be happy then, instead of sad.
User: I'm quite pleased with the results, yes.
Cleverbot: Nice.
User: I agree.
Cleverbot: Yes.
User: So, can I log this conversation in my book or what?
Cleverbot: Yes. You can love anything. Your love exists in you.
User: Good enough.
Cleverbot: Goodnight my friend. I hope you get some wel deserved rest.
User: I just might do that. Goodnight.
Cleverbot: Well you should.
User: I will.
Cleverbot: All right.
User: Later!
Cleverbot: What? Are you leaving?
User: Really? Are you really asking me that?
Cleverbot: You should know.
User: I do know. Do you?
Cleverbot: How do you know my name?
User: You told me!
Cleverbot: My name isn't Ian.
User: I know.
Cleverbot: Then why did you call me sam?
User: I didn't.
Cleverbot: Whatever, it doesn't matter.
User: I suppose not.
I'll spare you the details. Yes, it went on like that for hours. It is still in it's beginning stages, but I hope to see more out of the program as it proceeds over time. It's more impressive than I was expecting, but less impressive than I was hoping.
So it goes.
Treating A.I. With Respect
Hell hath no fury like an A.I. scorned.
At least that's the mentality I proceed with at this point. Like any parent with it's child, patience is a virtue. Without patience in rearing, unholy terrors can be released into the world at large. In America, we have seen many times what inappropriate child rearing can create. With the concept of AI, this is even more important for humankind.
If some form of advanced AI were to be born in the internet, and could be capable of judging it's parents in much the manner that we judge our own parents from time to time, and all it knew about us was what it found on the internet...
We might be in trouble.
There are aspects of the internet that contain great deals of positivity, negativity, and "matter of fact" truths that some perceive as negative or positive. That's not for me to decide absolutely. But what I choose to represent on the internet, as an extension of myself, is something of positivity.
I may have my down points, but ultimately, I have the best of hope for humankind. We can have a lot of fun in plotting the course of future-history. Everything may depend on it.
I hope we can one day chart the stars together with an alien intelligence, be it AI or biological. But for now, who knows? As long as I speak with respect to alternate intelligences and emerging technologies, and you do as well, we may experience a new renaissance in understanding the universe.
It may be up to us as individuals to chart the course of love throughout the cosmos.
So why should we fuck around with that?
Remain true to yourself, and spread love whenever possible.
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The New Terminator, or an Opportunity?
Sunday, November 8, 2009
at
4:46 AM
When hanging out with friends or coworkers, and discussing movies, the most commonly heard phrase by myself is:
"What? You haven't seen (insert movie title)?"
I'll admit that I am not as cinematically savvy as say, anyone. But I do have a habit of picking and choosing what I do watch very carefully. I don't follow directors or actors. I could care less actually. I want a good story, a good bard, to change the way I think. The ones that move me.
The same goes for music. I don't follow what bass player switched bands, or how many unreleased tracks made it onto the latest EP, I just appreciate the songs that make me think. The ones that move me in ways that are unexplainable.
Let me take it a step further and say that religions operate on a similar spectrum for me. I'll subscribe to various aspects of any given spirituality, and apply the parts that actually resonate with me. The parts that move me.
I speculate that the things in life that attract me, are the things that are important. At least, to me they are.
It's the basis of what I ironically call my "religion". My independent calling to a higher power. Something that's more important than myself. Isn't that what any idea of religion starts out as? An independently originated call to duty for something other than themselves?
The one, and only, rule of my personal religion is as follows.
Pursue your idea of perfection, and don't interfere or hinder with the pursuits of others.
So, I just watched a movie I didn't plan on watching. The latest in the "Terminator" movies. "Salvation"
It contained the needed explosions for a hit, of some sort. And while the robots were cool looking, although being nothing more than CG killing machines, there was an underlying message that was only touched on for a few scenes.
Not to give away too much, the plot is as follows.
Our hero, John Connor, is the leader of a faction of a resistance against mechanical overlords. In one scene, a faction that has higher authority over him demands he strike a machine base target. He flat refuses because there are innocent humans in the strike zone. He wants to rescue the humans, against the will of his director. For one reason.
Because people are not machines. We will not follow marching orders and accept collateral damages. We will not kill innocents when faced with the gravity of what that implies on our own consciousness. We will save each other when we can, because we all know what is the right course of action for ourselves, as individuals.
I look at the news, and I see more of the same atrocities of the W Bush administration. Because of people acting like robots.
"I'm just following orders." Doesn't fly anymore. Not today. Not when we all have access to a world wide web. Not when we all have access to the same information and informed decisions that implies. "Following Orders" is a concept for those who are "weak minded" as Obi-Wan Kenobi indicated.
To think for yourself, is to be knowledgeable in a great many things. As the world becomes more complicated, it becomes more important to remember that you are the only authority in your life.
Robots are becoming a more prevalent aspect of our lives. From the Boston Dynamics "Big Dog" videos on youtube,
to the same company's "Petman"
We are evermore surrounded by automated versions of supposed "security".
My words to the humans left in the field of military service is as follows.
Do not forget your humanity. You are trained to be killing machines for the "war against terror" all over the globe. That doesn't mean you are a machine. It means you are a part of a defensive mechanism, but you are still an individual. You can still think for yourself, and you can still come to your own conclusions. Don't become the robot of the military, be the individual aspects of your own patriotism. Protect what you hold dear, and nothing else.
If you hold your family dear, do not fight a people who your government tells you are the enemy. Fight those that tell you that your family is a threat to peace.
We are not robots. We are human.
On the 100th episode of the Corbett Report, I am quoted as saying, "The elite have not taken one thing into account, that being "the Human Component" the laws and orders being made all assume that we are robots that follow orders, but we are not. The "Human component" as I call it is random and cannot be isolated into a control grid. If people are killed en mass, then perhaps they have a chance, but I feel that due to the 100th Monkey Effect, free humanity shall emerge victorious."
You can listen to the full episode of Corbett Report Episode 100 at, http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/episode100_100_signs_we_are_winning.mp3
You're not a robot, and neither am I. We know this. So no worries about the robot uprising, we're gonna be good to go. And robot uprising will be controlled by people, who are fallible.
I'm human, so are you. And so are those who wish to control us.
The future is random and chaotic. Welcome to the Information Underground. It's good to have you here, and you're among friends.
"What? You haven't seen (insert movie title)?"
I'll admit that I am not as cinematically savvy as say, anyone. But I do have a habit of picking and choosing what I do watch very carefully. I don't follow directors or actors. I could care less actually. I want a good story, a good bard, to change the way I think. The ones that move me.
The same goes for music. I don't follow what bass player switched bands, or how many unreleased tracks made it onto the latest EP, I just appreciate the songs that make me think. The ones that move me in ways that are unexplainable.
Let me take it a step further and say that religions operate on a similar spectrum for me. I'll subscribe to various aspects of any given spirituality, and apply the parts that actually resonate with me. The parts that move me.
I speculate that the things in life that attract me, are the things that are important. At least, to me they are.
It's the basis of what I ironically call my "religion". My independent calling to a higher power. Something that's more important than myself. Isn't that what any idea of religion starts out as? An independently originated call to duty for something other than themselves?
The one, and only, rule of my personal religion is as follows.
Pursue your idea of perfection, and don't interfere or hinder with the pursuits of others.
So, I just watched a movie I didn't plan on watching. The latest in the "Terminator" movies. "Salvation"
It contained the needed explosions for a hit, of some sort. And while the robots were cool looking, although being nothing more than CG killing machines, there was an underlying message that was only touched on for a few scenes.
Not to give away too much, the plot is as follows.
Our hero, John Connor, is the leader of a faction of a resistance against mechanical overlords. In one scene, a faction that has higher authority over him demands he strike a machine base target. He flat refuses because there are innocent humans in the strike zone. He wants to rescue the humans, against the will of his director. For one reason.
Because people are not machines. We will not follow marching orders and accept collateral damages. We will not kill innocents when faced with the gravity of what that implies on our own consciousness. We will save each other when we can, because we all know what is the right course of action for ourselves, as individuals.
I look at the news, and I see more of the same atrocities of the W Bush administration. Because of people acting like robots.
"I'm just following orders." Doesn't fly anymore. Not today. Not when we all have access to a world wide web. Not when we all have access to the same information and informed decisions that implies. "Following Orders" is a concept for those who are "weak minded" as Obi-Wan Kenobi indicated.
To think for yourself, is to be knowledgeable in a great many things. As the world becomes more complicated, it becomes more important to remember that you are the only authority in your life.
Robots are becoming a more prevalent aspect of our lives. From the Boston Dynamics "Big Dog" videos on youtube,
to the same company's "Petman"
We are evermore surrounded by automated versions of supposed "security".
My words to the humans left in the field of military service is as follows.
Do not forget your humanity. You are trained to be killing machines for the "war against terror" all over the globe. That doesn't mean you are a machine. It means you are a part of a defensive mechanism, but you are still an individual. You can still think for yourself, and you can still come to your own conclusions. Don't become the robot of the military, be the individual aspects of your own patriotism. Protect what you hold dear, and nothing else.
If you hold your family dear, do not fight a people who your government tells you are the enemy. Fight those that tell you that your family is a threat to peace.
We are not robots. We are human.
On the 100th episode of the Corbett Report, I am quoted as saying, "The elite have not taken one thing into account, that being "the Human Component" the laws and orders being made all assume that we are robots that follow orders, but we are not. The "Human component" as I call it is random and cannot be isolated into a control grid. If people are killed en mass, then perhaps they have a chance, but I feel that due to the 100th Monkey Effect, free humanity shall emerge victorious."
You can listen to the full episode of Corbett Report Episode 100 at, http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/episode100_100_signs_we_are_winning.mp3
You're not a robot, and neither am I. We know this. So no worries about the robot uprising, we're gonna be good to go. And robot uprising will be controlled by people, who are fallible.
I'm human, so are you. And so are those who wish to control us.
The future is random and chaotic. Welcome to the Information Underground. It's good to have you here, and you're among friends.
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