GRAAL :: Blog

The video above, along with Fenris23's latest post Playing the Victim have given me an idea towards blending Graphic Facilitation with Sigilry and Servitor creation.

A good bit embarrasing for a carpenter*chuckle*

A few items, first, to give context; My time at home is spent in the 'yard'. I go indoors, if needful or feel like doing so. It is a shelter, useful in heavy rain, or to sleep, though I am often to be found sleeping in the yard (oftimes in the roomy tent), with one or all of three dogs aside me, (and me covered in misquito repellent, if not in the tent, lol). I have a small camper trailor, and rent the property and a larger trailor. This larger trailor and the source of my current injury, became over the years a storage area. (for awhuile I did not live here, but kept the place.) In the hallway of this place was a hole in the floor that I ignored; I walked over it. I did not fix it. (deliberate not so blind spot?)

Yesterday afternoon, this bit of 'reality' and I met closely, intimately. LOL  Me left leg all the way to me arse did go thru the floor and the leg through the piping underneath. After everything stopped moving, and I ascertained that nothing was broken, merely bruised and torqued,   I laughed at meself, here I am , a carpenter stuck up to hir arse in the floor of an area of hir own lair!

 Needless to say, a bit sore, and lesson learned *chuckle*

>^ ^

>~ ~

>>.

-<<<<<~ 

Rupert Sheldrake at Alternatives, St James 7/8/08

Rupert Sheldrake’s overview of his Morphic Resonance theory, started with the best summary of the history of western metaphysics I’ve ever heard, focusing on the  basic dichotomy of Eternity vs Change (aha, Apollo and Dionysos I thought). It certainly sharpened my understanding. He began with the Greeks who prioritised Eternity over all else, by argueing for an unchanging essence that underpinned and ordered everything. This possibly began with a mystical experience of a timeless realm he argued, but suggested this was a fundamental error which he sought to correct. Firstly Pythagoras had claimed number and mathematics was the basis of Eternity, the fundamental root of all being, existing in an ideal realm outside Space-Time. This was expanded on by Plato, who stated that everything had an eternal, perfect archetype, or blueprint, that existed in the same abstract, ideal realm as mathematics, giving it its form (thus there was one ideal horse-form, for example, which shaped all imperfect, real horses). A very conservative form of idealism, which emphasised the ‘normal’ and ‘perfect’, and created hierarchies of ‘natural perfection’. He then pointed to the Greek opposition to this stance, typified by Heraclitus, which said the only thing eternal was Change itself, as everything was in flux and diversity the norm. But observed that even Heraclitus had argued that there was a stability to reality, ordered by the Logos, in that everything moved in eternal cycles, repeating themselves over and over in a constant pattern, like the seasons (the classical Pagan or Dionysian view?). Thus even here the ideal of Eternity was still paramount, and maintained by the Logos, the eternal Word, or Law of Nature. Plato argued the Logos was guided by the archetypal Forms, which were all aspects of one Absolute Form, the Good (the ‘solar’ centre of the cycles you could say), and that Change, or ‘chaos’ as he saw it, was a mere drift away from perfection and order, and so an ‘evil’ to be opposed. Heraclitus thought the opposite but was marginalised in Greek thought. He only briefly mentioned Aristotle, the other great Greek idealist, who differed from Plato only in the more liberal view that the ideal Forms were somehow within Nature not outside of it, and that Change was a fine tuning towards gradual perfection, but still maintained the hierarchy of perfection and the faith in the ideal. An important minority view was that of the Atomists, typified by Democritus, who argued that only Matter was eternal, and consisted of particles or atoms, which randomly combined, uncombined and recombined according to geometrical rules, and that Change was merely this random ordering.   

Sheldrake then contrasted this with the Jewish ideal of Progress, the idea that there was not some preordained perfection but rather a perfection was something in the future that we move towards, and that Change was the norm that made this possible. This was realised by the wandering nature of legendary Jewish history and search for the promised land. He prefered this but pointed out that then as now, the ‘promised land’ was full of Palestinians, and so preconcieved ideas or goals rarely worked. He then explained how Christianity emerged as a fusion of the Greek and Jewish ideals under the late Romans. Here the Logos and the Absolute Form became aspects of the Mind of the Jewish God. Progress arrived as God’s plan, but Eternity still ruled. The ideas of Plato and Aristotle were thus Christianised. However with the collapse of Imperial Rome superstitioned reigned (Note: The Father, Son and Holy Ghost of superstition could be regarded as Jehovah, Absolute Form, and the Logos of earlier philosophy, but Sheldrake didn’t state this).

The most important factor was the return to centre stage of Plato, Aristotle in the Rennaissance, as well as the new  popularity of Democritus and his Atomism, which was linked to the concept of Individualism and social organisation. But it was not until the Reformation that the Jewish concept of Progress was really absorbed he suggested, and with it came the idea of Evolution. Then experimental Scientific Philosophy began and these three ideas became merged in various combinations. Francis Bacon took this idea up and essentially began the Enlightenment and Modern Science, but he and his later followers, Newton and Wren, were all Pythagoreans or Platonists at heart. These positions were based on habits of thought however not reason Sheldrake argued. Bacon’s greatest practical innovation however was said to be the systematisation of experimentation. Bacon also argued for a process of Social Evolution, believing that Change was the rule in the Human social order, as was demonstrated by History, but that Nature was eternal and fixed. It was goverened by the Laws of Nature, which as a lawyer, Bacon described legalistically. Sheldrake regarded this as anthropomorphic, qouting C S Lewis who said ‘this makes a falling stone a man, and even a citizen’.

This was followed by a history of the triumph of the Evolutionary paradigm in Science. At first simply seen as a social phenomena, Darwin expanded it into Biology and lifeform development, drawing on Social Theory, but maintained that Nature itself was fixed. Then Einstein demonstrated the Universe was expanding, but added a ‘fudge’ called the Cosmological Constant to maintain an eternal stability. This has shown to be false he claimed, and has been replaced by the idea that the Universe itself is evolving like an organism. Once thought to be running down into heat death, it was now seen as expanding constantly and evolving. Darwinian concepts are being deployed to explain this. However Matter was seen as eternal for a long time, as were ‘constants’ like Position, but Quantum Mechanics demonstrated this was not fixed either and was all a state of flux. But still Eternity was retained in the basic Laws of Nature. Sheldrake suggested that, given the trend this would go as well, and the Laws of Nature would be seen as mere habits, as Eternity was a myth.

This was where Morphic Resonance fitted in, as the mechanism of all evolution, from the Laws of Nature, to Lifeforms, to Mind and Memory. The general idea being that everything was linked into one big field on all levels, Nomological, Material, Cosmical, Biological, Social, Mental and Psychological. All ordered forms in this field were just habituated patterns, or impressions in it, based on nodes of force resonating with each other. It was these habits that had not only created the illusion of Eternity, but the illusion itself had become a habituated thought pattern, like all thoughts and ideologies.

His argument for Cosmological Morphic Resonance was to ask scientists if the Laws of Nature existed before the Big Bang and the formation of the Cosmos, if they say yes then they are Platonists, who believe in unprovable or unfalsifiable, non-scientific elements,  and if they say no, they either believe all the Laws of Nature miraculously came into existance at the Big Bang (including Laws effecting things not then existant), or that they evolved with the Cosmos. He likewise tackled Quantum Physics by suggesting the Multiverse contravened Ockham’s Razor, and that its supporters such as Lord Rees, the head of the Royal Society agreed, but had said it did away with God and the supernatural. In contrast he proposed a Resonant Quantum Mechanics (perhaps like Decoherence Theory?). He then outlined how Morphic Resonance made Genetics redundant, or at least as nothing more than a protein factory for producing the building blocks that Morphic Resonance organised. Evidence for this was the insuffient genetic difference between species, given the complexity and diversity of life. Furthermore he argued the brain functioned by connecting resonant ideas, and particularly that memory was a resonance between past and present mental states (and possibly even future states). Even our personal identity was a resonance between our current awareness and past memories. ESP was a resonance with others according to how well the subjects were atuned or alike. Group psychology and herd formation was another kind of socio-cultural resonance. But most controversially he suggested the mind was extended outside the body as part of a universal field of which we were all part, drawing parallels with Jung’s Collective Unconscious. Even suggesting that personal memories were stored here and not in the brain, which was just a tuning device. His evidence for his memory theory drew on Pribram’s holistic mind theory and research that showed an octopuses memory was everywhere in its brain, but nowhere in particular, and how bits of the human brain could be removed without memory loss. His extended mind theory draws on his ESP experiments.

Other anecdotes he put forward were that if Morphic Resonance were true, things learnt by other minds would spread, the much contested hundreth monkey effect. But gave evidence for this in the form of the mystery of the increasing ease of IQ tests. He even argued exams could be easier by answering the questions in reverse order, so the earlier answers tackled last will already have been answered by many others. He even suggested testing  this in an experiment with  head  of exam board.

When asked if he had a metaphysical philosophy that explained how all this worked he said no, but suggested that the philosophy of Kashmir Shivaism was interesting (curiously as this is also an influence on Neo-Dionysian thought).

I was very impressed by his presentation though noted he underplayed his experiments that haven’t had good results and was sceptical of his claim that Morphic Resonance was behind every ordered phenomena at every level! A good idea become obsessive or the greatest discovery of all time? Either way I think he’s closer than most others to science of the future.    

I just took two quick shots from my window:

They are gonna play marches out there as often as they can until tuesday. The big parades are gonna take place in front of my window. It's the Schützenfest! The same festivity every year where everything looks exactly the same every year, everything sounds exactly the same every year and which makes me almost lose all sanity every year because of the fucking marches. What you see there is not real military but ordinary people who for some reason wear uniforms . They are doing that because they have always done so every year in the summer. They even have a king and a queen. The king gets his title by shooting at a wooden bird with a gun.  There's never as much drunken yobbishness happening on the streets as when it's Schützenfest. These people must assume that everybody in this place enjoys it the way they are doing it, as loud as they are doing it and with all the limitations for traffic. In a few minutes the first parade will start which is gonna go on for several hours. I hope I don't lose my mind.

Just added this for an even better impression:

Hmm, what will the Japanese come up with next?

When I first heard about Realdolls a few years back, I figured it would only be a matter of time before they started putting robotics in them.  Well, as far as I know they still haven't, but I have just heard about AI Robotics, a Japanese company that has started to make androids.

They are currently taking pre-orders for Perfect Woman, (I wonder how much feminist backlash they will face?) a female android that can apparently be taught to clean and cook (would you trust it?)  Can they be taught to kill? (Scary prospect).  I don't know if Perfect Woman has the same kind of sex enabled technology as Realdoll, but if it doesn't, its only going to be a matter of time before the two technologies meet...

Aside from the films Stepford Wives, Bladerunner and AI coming up in my head as I think where this is heading, I'm also thinking of the magical possibilities of these things.  If they really can clean and cook and perform other household chores, then I can see it won't be long before every household has one, or two.  Thoughts of the Matrix and Terminator also come to mind at this point.

But by the time they are in mass production, using them as a physical basis to house servitor spirits may become and attractive prospect.  After all, the ability to build slave lifeforms that did the sorcerors bidding was largely what the creation of homunculi was all about.

One last thing, for the heterosexual woman and gay men of you, apparently a male version of the android will also be available soon.  I wonder if they'll make it look like Data.  I dare say some will dress them up that way if they can...

Thanks a lot for your opinions on the goat pics. 

I quickly proceeded in doing the proof reading and layout for "Prometheus´ Tod" so it seemed likely to already design the cover as I was once logged in to my publishers´ server today. I uploaded all files for the book today which means that it should be available via Amazon and bookstores in about three or four weeks. For some reason Baphomet in his 'revolting' pose with a red background kept popping up in front of my mind's eye so I decided to make this the cover design. I think it looks quite cool. All logged in users can have a look at a preview of the book cover which is in PDF format here: http://network.kiamagic.com/zeitl0ch/files/-1/29/preview_10194516_27148_cover_5b2213a470.pdf

Do you like it? Sorry for most of you that the book will be in German. Anton has already asked me once about translations. At the moment I lack contacts to foreign publishers and the next obvious step for me will be to try and trigger some public interest in Germany first. If the book can find an audience I might see if my publisher can help me with an English translation. I know Feather speaks a little German and maybe somebody else of you does, too. If you think your German is good enough to read a German novel, maybe you can find a way to purchase it outside Germany (perhaps via Amazon). At least my first book "Zeitlochs ewige Abenteuer" is being advertised on a Japanese page as I saw.

Soon I will publish my novel "Prometheus´Tod". I decided I wanted a goat on the cover because in the book the story is told by the devil. I recently saw a perfect goat at the "Kinderbauernhof" ("children's farm" - something like a small zoo with farm animals) near where I live. It had a very thick beard and a lot of fur, seemd to belong to another race than the typical middle-european goats. Today I went there with a camera but the pen where I had seen it was empty. So I had to take photographs of some other goats I found. I guess that special goat could be back on sunday when the most visitors come. I think I'll go and take another picture of that one, then. Now I want to set up a little contest on which goat will be the one for the cover. I would like you to comment on them like the jury in "Idol" or "Next Top Model". Because I am Occulture's only true equivalent to Heidi Klum (she hosts "Germany's Next Top Model" - OK, I might not be married to Seal, but to seven of them instead, HarHar!) and because I am the one who will publish the book I reserve the right to comment myself and to make the final decision. However I am willing to seriously consider your opinions and I think it would just be fun playing the jury. OK?

Here's the first candidate:

LILLY

Hello Lilly! Lilly, you're very young aren't you? I have the impression the camera still scares you a little. You didn't want to look at the photographer, did you? Now, Lilly. We're seacrhing for a DEVIL, you see? I have the impression you're just a little too fluffy and white and cute.

Well, but I have to admit, Lilly, that at your second attempt you developed your very own way of being creepy. So you get some of my respect for that. But I am still not sure if this is the kind of devil we want. OK?

Next One:

PAN

Now, Pan! You step in front of a camera convinced that you're a professional. You have the greatest self esteem of all candidates. But I think the only postive thing I can really say about the picture is that you seem natural. Let's look at the next one.

Here we can see your self esteem and vanity again, but the pose is not quite what we wanted to see. You think you're beautiful but I think you lack anything demonic and that is what we need. Alright? Sorry, but I don't think you're gonna make it.

And last but not least:

BAPHOMET

Baphomet, I say it openly, you're my favourite! The expression of revolt you show here tells us you're the one who really gets the idea of being the devil. You show so much passion on that photograph it's just unbelieveable.

Baphomet, you know what you're doing. Just bluntly showing off your pentagram shaped head like this is what we need here. If we digitally improve that picture a little this could really be the one. There's just one thing about you that bothers me a tiny little bit. We'll see it on the next picture, too...

The problem I see is that despite your apparent age and experience you still don't know what to do with your ears. First the right ear goes down and then the left ear goes up. I am not yet sure if this will be a problem. We'll see...