Thursday, September 24, 2009

Don't Let the Darwinists Steal Your Launch Monkey

I'm going through one of those phases in which I'm sick of hearing myself think. Similar, I suppose, to how a troll must feel, except that the troll is powerless to disengage from my thoughts. Queer.

It's not an unpleasant sensation. Far from it. In fact, I enjoy going through the arkive and rewriting an old post. It's a totally different experience. I think I mentioned that when I wrote the book, I went through lengthy cycles of "reception" and "trancemission," or planting and harvesting. For reasons that should be soph-evident, it was very difficult to harvest during planting season.

But since then, it's been like one long harvest. I never assume the harvest will continue, and I keep waiting for it to stop, but I don't make up the rules. I think I might actually be in one of those temporal fractals related to Terence McKenna's Whiteheadian idea about the ingression of novelty into the cosmos.

Should I even try to explain that bit of mystagoguery? Let's just say that, like the weather, there are a multitude of cyclic temporal patterns in the psyche, and when they all align at once, you hit the slackpot.

There he goes again, trying to write a new post when I didn't intend to! Here's an updated one from last year:

Let's call the Darwinists' bluff and find out who really believes in evolution, them or us. Time to separate the men from the bonobos, the chimps from the champs, the Overman from the Olbermann.

Although I'll largely discuss this in Aurobindean terms, I obviously believe we're talking about universal principles, so I don't think it's all that difficult to put them in a Christian context. For example, as Paul expressed it, there are the milk drinkers and the meat eaters (and he didn't even get into lactose-intolerant people such as Bill Maher or Charles the Queeg, who produce all that gas when they try to digest spirit):

"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?"

Mere manhood. For the purposes of argument -- even though it is a priori absurd -- let us stipulate that natural selection could get you that far, i.e., from dirt to man. That being the case, how does one account for the further evolution -- which takes place in the span of a single lifetime, not eons of random errors -- into higher and more subtle planes of reality?

Paul provides a hint, noting that humans must water and till the field (↑), but that "God gives the increase" (↓). We a-spire but God in-spires (spire meaning both breath and spirit, or pneuma). Or, you could say that our every inhalation is God's exhalation (hale being related to health and wholeness; if not, it ought to be). God himself has no expiration date, as his re-spiration is the rhythm of eternity and the heartbeat of existence.

Through this eternal respiration, God's energies course through every vein, artery, and capillary of the cosmos -- unless, of course, you have hardening of the categories, or atheo-sclerosis. The latter ultimately ends in a heart attack, except that it is you who have attacked your own heart, you heartless bastard.

Now, there are two great fields of evolution, which Genesis discusses in terms of the "upper waters" and "lower waters." It doesn't really matter what you call them, so long as you understand that there is a vertical scale in creation, with a "principial" realm above (i.e., the world of immutable principles, ideas, and archetypes) and a manifested world below.

What makes man unique -- among other things -- is that he is consciously aware of living in both worlds; in a sense, he has his feet on the earth and his head in the stars, i.e., the celestial realm. There was a time that even most scientists took this for granted, but no longer. Confusing method with ontology, the materialist has his feet in the clouds and his head up his ass, proctically speaking.

As man ascends the cosmic scale of evolution, on the one hand he interiorizes, colonizes, and assimilates more and more of the higher planes; at the same time, he exteriorizes what he has assimilated, in the form of culture. In one sense, you can view culture as the debris left behind marking man's evolutionary journey -- paintings, poems, symphonies, novels, game shows, whatever.

Let's say man disappeared from the face of the earth, but all his cultural artifacts were preserved and left behind. If some interplanetary anthropologist dropped down for a visit and rummaged through our stuff, what would he think about our long, strange trip from cave paintings to space shuttle?

In Aurobindo's terminology, the purely human realm ends with Mind. The divine realm is called Supermind. But there is no -- nor could there be any -- absolute gap between Mind and Supermind, just as there can be no gap between fetus and adult or ape and man; but again, the continuity comes from above, not below.

This vertical continuity is a result of a divine descent, not a material ascent -- the latter of which is strictly impossible. Matter doesn't "ascend" anywhere, or it wouldn't be matter. But matter does have horizontal continuity, which is why it is reducible to one giant ocean of undulating energy (which is a material analogue of the Divine sea of being).

And the reason why science is even possible is because of the horizontal continuity of creation -- which is another way of saying that we live in a Cosmos, or ordered totality, that is uniform throughout. This is why we just "know" that the physical laws we discover are universal, both in time and space. This assumption of science is rooted in faith, but the faith is hardly inconsistent with Reason. Rather, like all genuine faith, this is "preconceptual knowledge," or the "unthought known" awaiting fertilization and realization; it is the great waiting-womb of the unborns.

Now, mythological rumor has it that the upper and lower hemispheres "are separated by a 'golden lid,' which in some traditions is called 'the Gate of the Sun'" (Van Vrekhem) or "the threshold of the great Raccoon den in the sky" (Toots Mondello). Furthermore, "it is on this dividing zone above Mind and below Supermind" that we find four distinct levels of further evolutionary advance. Paul lumps them all together by referring to them as the carnivorous realm of "meat," but there are naturally different grades and cuts of meat. And there are different restaurants and churches that cater to different tastes, everything from mooseburgers to filet mignon. There are even churches that can make tofu look like meat, such as the Unitarians. But they don't fool anyone.

We discussed one of these levels the other day, that is, the "higher mind," or mind of light. One of Aurobindo's central ideas was that it was necessary for human beings to evolve toward the higher mind in order to literally build an evolutionary bridge between Mind and Supermind, otherwise the gap is just too vast.

I mean, some individuals have managed to span the distance -- we call them saints and mystics -- but if increasing numbers of human beings don't begin to occupy and live out of these higher realms, I personally don't see much of a future for man. Rather, in order to survive, he must literally begin to colonize these higher zones, just as he once colonized and developed the earth. (And just as it was once necessary for man to colonize the worlds of science and reason -- and still is necessary for most cultures.)

In fact, this is one of those intrinsic distinctions between the left and the true conservative, of which there aren't all that many. The leftist believes that unredeemed man is fine the way he is, and that it is just a matter of having a powerful enough state to manipulate conditions to make everyone happy, healthy, virtuous, and rich.

That is an insult to fairy tales.

The true conservative is primarily concerned with respecting the ontological realities of which this world is a derivative copy. He is concerned with permanent, which is to say, eternal things, and a culture is only "good" to the extent that it allows the individual to freely discover and conform to these higher realities.

But the higher realms are more than just the source of absolute morality. And this ontological space again contains gradations, which it must, on pain of being unreachable by humans. As God "descends" into existence, the "ray of creation" becomes increasingly diluted, so to speak, from the celestial light to the darkness of matter. Van Vrekhem writes that

"If the Supermind is symbolized by a Sun and the lower hemisphere by an ocean, then the rays of the sun penetrate the surface of the ocean and illumine its highest layers till the water gradually becomes darker and finally completely dark." Now, the higher levels of the water represent the upper limit of mind. For example, my cyberstalking troll cannot penetrate realms beyond mind, but that is not to say that he is devoid of light. To the contrary, all light is ultimately of the Light, even the light that darkens the atheist mind! But as Aurobindo wrote, "mind is a passage, not a culmination."

The point is, the mere mind of the milk drinker -- or lost vegan -- sees "through an ocean, darkly," and must rise into the light and air above the surface. Again, this first stop toward our deustination is what we call "higher mind," or the mind of light.

If there was a time that you didn't understand my writing -- or Schuon, or Unknown friend, or any other skywalking pneumanaut -- but now you do, it's simply because you are at the very least floating your boat on the surface of the lower waters with your toes dangling above. Give yourself credit. You are no longer a big fish in a very small pond -- like a Queeg, or the tenured mediocrities of baracademia -- but a humble fish in the upper ocean of truth, light, being, and bliss. Would you -- could you! -- ever go back into those skanky, lizard infested waters? No, of course not, any more than you would want to revert to breast milk for your nutrition.

Let's talk about these upper ontological stories and storeys of the cosmos. Again, they are anterior to us, like unknown but real territories that are yet to be inhabited by more than a few. And, just like geographical territories, the borders between them are only relatively, but not ultimately, real. You can draw a distinction between California and Nevada, or fetus and adult, or San Francisco and reality, but the distinctions are obviously not absolute.

In one sense, you could say that these higher stations correspond to the physical senses, only transposed to a higher key. For example, the "higher mind" corresponds with "hearing," the "illumined mind" with "seeing." The next stage, "intuitive mind," is analogous to touching; while the last one, Overmind, would be analogous to tasting God, as in the one taste of Buddhism.

(See p. 257: "Ananda chance to sat down at the last resort and enjoy a little moksha before somarise. Sorry, menyou have only one taste. Whoops, where'd ego?")

I'm not particularly interested in writing about the upper, upper stories, the tip-toppermost of the poppermost of the cosmic eschalator, any more than I want to teach quantum physics to my four year-old. At this point in history, it is much more important that a larger number of people merely colonize the higher mind, especially in America, which must lead the way. In other parts of the world -- such as the Islamic world -- it is critical that they merely colonize the lower mind, because they've got a long way to go in that respect (there are also various levels of lower mind that are conceptualized by developmental psychologists in diverse ways).

As I discussed in the Wholly Coonifesto, one of the keys to beginning the vertical ascent is to realize what Aurobindo calls the "psychic being" behind the ego. You might say that it is our true self, or soul, that identifies with whatever level we happen to be at. It is what accounts for the continuity in our lives, despite the incredible discontinuity between child, man, and beyond. It's why you still feel like the same person even though you aren't.

The soul, which is a general principle, is individualized in man. Indeed, it is why we are individuals, or at least capable of so becoming. You might say that the psychic being is our unique soulprint, or "spiritual personality"; where soul is indistinct -- like consciousness -- the psychic being is distinct, just as consciousness as such is refracted through the lens of individual brains. The soul couldn't really evolve in the absence of the psychic being. The latter "temporalizes and individualizes what is eternal in potentiality, transcendent in essence, in this projection of the spirit." Soul is present in other animals, but only in man is it "individualized and given shape" by the psychic being.

This is why each person -- potentially, anyway -- is as unique as a snowflake; and one reason why collectivism is therefore an "ontological sin." One godly man makes a majority. In a certain very real way, each person is his own species, and therefore a unique "problem of God." Which in turn is why man is condemned to transcendence, and why he must perpetually shed himself in order to become himself. So don't let the apes steal your meat money, or you'll end up nothing but monkey meat.

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anybody else feel a major disturbance in the pneumasphere last night and today?

I am wondering if what I am sensing is personal/psychological or if I am picking up something extra/trans-personal.

wv: warstoph

Gagdad Bob said...

I felt it strongly on Tuesday night. I never have difficulty sleeping, but I couldn't fall asleep for like three hours....

Van Harvey said...

Anonymous said "Anybody else feel a major disturbance in the pneumasphere last night and today?"

Yes.

It may not be what you mean, but it is how I marked it. And I'm looking to recolonize some lost ranch land... no tofu...Meat... Longhorn.

Saddle up.

Anonymous said...

My wife felt it too, but we thought it probably originated in one of us.

It's a profound sense of unease, with no apparant stimulus. I don't usually feel like this.

Gagdad Bob said...

Mrs. G. had a very strange "supernatural nightmare" last night. It even woke me up!

Van Harvey said...

"Through this eternal respiration, God's energies course through every vein, artery, and capillary of the cosmos -- unless, of course, you have hardening of the categories, or atheo-sclerosis. The latter ultimately ends in a heart attack, except that it is you who have attacked your own heart, you heartless bastard."

Heh. Lot's of breath freshening leaves of parsilly on the plate today, but the meat and potatoes of colonizing the mind and seeing "..."through an ocean, darkly," and must rise into the light and air above the surface..." - Ahh... aum..., a wholly satisfying meal.

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "Mrs. G. had a very strange "supernatural nightmare" last night. It even woke me up!"

4:22 a.m., fly over country time.

WIDE awake.

Gagdad Bob said...

I just asked Mrs. G., and she believes the nightmare was around 3:30 our time....

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "Mrs. G., and she believes the nightmare was around 3:30 our time..."

Puts me about an hour ahead... Moanrise must revolve around the upper tongan cosmos, at about twice the speed of lower earth's rotation.

Rick said...

Bob,
Have you read any Rene Girard?
I see a footnote in your book - but not a direct one..

The boy had a very vivid, strange dream a few days ago - Saturday I think, a short nap during the day, which I also think is strange for a short nap.

Rick said...

I plan on ignoring the 3:33am thing. Jus so ya know..

(No one said 3:33?)

James said...

A distrubance in the pneumashere? So that's what that was.

Anonymous said...

The actual disturbance took place at exacly 6:06 and six seconds. Draw your own inferences...

This disturbance signified the opening of a new Yuga (age). The new epoch will be notable for a certain porousness between the spirit and material worlds.

The forecasts calls for ghosts, witchcraft, and a resurgence in modern forms of the Inquisition.

julie said...

Heh - 3:00, I was wide awake, too. Thought it was just because of testing this morning (initial results positive; back for more Saturday). But before I fell asleep last night, I had a really unpleasant visualization. Also, creepy dreams this morning, and I had no idea where they came from since I haven't been watching or reading anything remotely like that lately.

Lots of resonance in today's post, too. I tell ya, the timing gets a little spooky sometimes...

Aquila said...

4:44 Pacific Time this A.M. for me. A rare sleepless predawn.

robinstarfish said...

Up until almost 4 AM MDT last night for no apparent reason. Just had no desire to sleep.

I did ferret out a rather large troll though.

Anonymous said...

Well, the Rapture was apparently scheduled this week. So maybe that's the issue.

Anonymous said...

I went to bed at 10:30 (tired, stayed up too late the night before), and slept like a baby till 8:11. Why are we talking about this?

Anonymous said...

Disturbance in the pneumasphere last night?
Some call it the "ascention symptoms".
Burn Agni Fire Burn

Van Harvey said...

Will?

Van Harvey said...

Victor Davis Hanson, Sleeping Through Speeches.

Van Harvey said...

Uh... my 'Will?' was about a half hour stale.

wv:robin
Robin, it's for you... get your own line, will ya? Sheesh.

mushroom said...

The first thing that came to mind was Jesus saying, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The second is that this is quite an adventure -- the nous frontier.

I don't know about ghosts and witches, but an inquisition seems imminent enough.

Susannah said...

Loved your rant, Van! Re: "saints," it's interesting that this is an interchangeable term for all believers in Christ in the NT: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." Or as Peter put it: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." It's true that Jesus made clear that his Way is a "narrow gate," and few find the way of mercy, compared to the path to destruction. And I suppose that in a culture that worships a false, capricious god, as in the world of Islam, further obstacles stand in the Way. But I have heard of Muslims coming to Christ through dreams of him...truly supernaturally. BTW, don't forget to pray tomorrow: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/23247-muslims-to-hold-massive-dc-prayer-rally

jp said...

I hate insomnia. I've had it for the last few nights.

I just assume that I'm drinking way too much coffee. Which I am.

But the insomnia is particularly irritating. I'm normally not that insomniatic. Normally, I'm not insomniatic at all.

Art Bell said...

I'll be airing a new show on exactly this anomaly very soon.

ahmad said...

While others convert to Islam--like this Gitmo guard.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/190357/page/1

Anonymous said...

Talk of "pnuemasheres" and other things should not be done, people.

Do not play at religion. Use only the Bible for your sources.

Attend Mass without fail and pray diligently, and that is all you need.

There is no need for so much probing and so much cogitation on these matters. This has been done for you long ago and now it is your responsibility to stick to authorized doctrine.

"Spiritual off-roading" is just another name for heresy.

terrence said...

Disclaimer - I am a long time lurker at One Cosmos. I read all Bob's posts, always, never miss one. I have read One Cosmos Under God, twice, and I expect I will read it again.

This "disturbance in the pneumasphere" is quite a coincidence. I have had a number of unusual dreams over the last few days.

I was very tired when I went to bed at 12:00 am this morning, and looking forward to some sleep after a long day (which included a hard weight training session).

However, I found that I could NOT sleep; I eventually got out of bed. Around 3:30am PDT, I was on my PC. I went back to bed just before 4:00 am, and did go to sleep. When I first woke up this morning, I vaguely remembered even more dreams. I dozed for awhile and had even weird dreams. I reviewed what I ate and drank yesterday, looking for a possible cause.

I read the post Bob put up today (I cannot say much about any posts, except that they always have a deep impact on me). I went to the Comments as I always do, and was floored! I ain’t the only one! I am one among many! I have no idea what this means, if anything. Nice to be in the coon-osphere, though, even in this way.

jp said...

Susannah says:

"But I have heard of Muslims coming to Christ through dreams of him...truly supernaturally."

You can get led to the down elevator through dream visions, too.

For instance, if your dream vision is sending you in the direction of an evil cult, it's probably a good idea to not follow that particualar dream vision.

mushroom said...

I'm not worried about Susannah.

It's kind of interesting that 3:00am or thereabouts starts the "fourth watch" of the night. There are people who believe that it is both a particularly good time to pray, and a particularly dangerous time spiritually.

jp said...

Mushroom says:

"I'm not worried about Susannah."

I'm not either.

It's just that Evil Cults are one my Subjects of Interest.

Along with Vegas and Mormons, of course.

Anna said...

Tuesday was the beginning of Fall... I thought any weirdness I felt was related to that somehow (or that I imagined it because it was the first day of Fall). Fall is gorgeous but it's also when swords flash (and some flash bright). Interesting that the word 'word' is in the word 'sword'.

Anna said...

I should have said "a time when...", didn't mean to imply the only "when".

julie said...

Mushroom,
There are people who believe that it is both a particularly good time to pray, and a particularly dangerous time spiritually.

Last night I found it to be both. Interesting post up at your place about the remnant today, btw.

Anna said...

...Wasn't going to say it but I've been awake lately, too, and thought it was due to 4pm sips of lingering coffee. Last night it was almost funny. I couldn't sleep, so I just got up, since that seemed to be the thing to do. It's been all week. There could be all kinds of reasons for it for me, but it felt weird to read people's accounts and not chime in, even if coincidence.

slackosopher said...

Maybe you've all seen this already...the cartoon version of "The Road to Serfdom"

http://mises.org/books/TRTS/

wv: jukedaft. That's exactly how I've been feeling!!

mushroom said...

Interesting, JP. Vegas, along with NASCAR, is one of those things I just don't get. What am I missing?

Cousin Dupree said...

I don't know about NASCAR, but with Vegas you're missing booze, blackjack, and hookers.

Van Harvey said...

Mushroom, I don't know about NASCAR either, but are you kidding?

Where else can you fetch a drummer from across country to, get a .50 cent drink (well... early 1980's), kick back and watch him enjoy a 'free drink' while blowing his entire weeks pay check at the tables in less than 15 minutes?

Now that's entertainment!

Rick said...

CT.

Gagdad Bob said...

Okay everybody, don't forget to listen to the color of your dreams tonight. Just tell yourself before falling asleep, "I will remember my dreams." That's usually sufficient.

Petey said...

... or play the game existence to the end of the beginning...

julie said...

I wonder, though - now we might actually be expecting to see something interesting. Doesn't that change things?

JWM said...

Tuesday was, I believe, the first day of fall. Equinox. It put an end to a long, tough, and ultimately, disappointing summer. Thankfully, I've avoided insomnia, but Tuesday and Wednesday were suffused with the palpable feeling that it was more than just this summer of '09, and its attendant drama, that had ended. The vibe was thick as a bass string, and just buzzed in my gut all day. Somehow, a very large chapter in my life has closed. Boom. Drop the curtain.
And I'm starrin' down the barrels of a new one, and I don't know quite what to make of it just yet. I've been remiss in my communications, the wfb sits like an abandoned blog ('cuz it is) and I am now one of the few people out there who needs to spend more time on line. As a sideline- Tuesday night I followed an impulse, and finally tossed off my membership at the lizard ranch. (but not my membership in the Society of the Easily Amused) Like how hard is it to get banned on LGF?
Not hard.
But maybe less of a sideline than I thought at first. Odd, but it wasn't until I sat here and read the comments that I connected dumping the lgf log-in as part of dropping that curtain on something passed. Boom. Something is coming.

JWM

hoarhey said...

"everything from mooseburgers to filet mignon."

Of course, mooseburger being the "higher" cut.

Anonymous said...

Stick to Catholic doctrine. There is no need for conjecture.

Tithe your 10% without fail. Give more if you can.

Go to Mass. No excuses.

Disturbances in sleep can be calmed by reciting the Rosary. No need to speculate on causes.

Really the true path has already been blazed so don't spend time mooning around with philosophy.

Quiet your minds and think how you might Glorify Christ.

And attend Mass. If you are not Catholic, fold your arms when it is time to recieve communion.

hoarhey said...

Yes Mm.

phil g said...

Interesting...I've had a gnawing, uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach the past couple of days and did not sleep well last night.

Something dark this way comes?

Van Harvey said...

JWM said "I've been remiss in my communications, the wfb sits like an abandoned blog ('cuz it is)..."

Oh, I don't know... you're last post has become quite a bustling Japanese garden....

;-)

Good to see you!

hoarhey said...

Bob, what do you make of a guy who wakes up anywhere from 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM, thinking about hot women aqaintances?
Any diagnosis?
It's highly disturbing to my pneumaspheres.

Gagdad Bob said...

Nothing earth shattering to report. Perhaps the most interesting dream involved Christina Applegate taking a nap on my couch in her undies. When she woke up, she wanted a popsicle -- which, of course, is sometimes just a popsicle. I remember trying to calmly explain to her that the soul existed and that she had one, and being greeted by the most vacant expression you could imagine. Still, I will admit to an impure thought or two...

"Christina Applegate." Now, there's a name that's loaded with symbolism.

Gagdad Bob said...

"Applegate." Perfect name for that old scandal in the garden.

Rick said...

Bob,
Are you sitting down?
The Nyquil ate my homework assignment.

Apocalypse solved!

Gagdad Bob said...

That sounds like a word invented by Joyce... maybe the medication broke your night quill.

son of a preacher man said...

Anon said:
Use only the Bible for your sources.

Stick to Catholic doctrine.

What do you do when they are in conflict?

sehoy said...

Yes on the disturbance stuff from here.

I usually have a hard time getting up in the morning, but this week I have been jumping out of bed at 4am because I can't sleep. This morning, at 4am, I was baking oatmeal cookies.

My dream this morning was that a friend in Germany, who I haven't talked to in several years due to political differences, had died and that I would be able to find her obituary in the Darmstaedter Echo. I wasn't sad in the dream. What I felt was some wonder at the realization that she had slipped out of the world without much material baggage that would have to be gotten rid of.

Coincidently, in the dream, when I got the news, I was sleeping on someone's couch in their living room and the walls, which were only about a foot away from the couch on every side were covered with bookshelves full of books. I was preparing to camp out on the couch and mourn the friend's death.

In waking life my name is Christina, but not Applegate. :D

I've been laying low and withdrawing from posting in the internet world. Something about Scipio's departure scared the bejeesus out of me.

Anonymous said...

JWM, it's good to hear from you.
Did you see your blog's last (7th) comment on Tuesday?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Paul lumps them all together by referring to them as the carnivorous realm of "meat," but there are naturally different grades and cuts of meat. And there are different restaurants and churches that cater to different tastes, everything from mooseburgers to filet mignon. There are even churches that can make tofu look like meat, such as the Unitarians. But they don't fool anyone."

I'm partial to prime rib.
Excellent post, Bob!

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