Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Destiny Delusion

From a post I made at RS, seems worth repeating here for those who aren't following the frantics over there.


... something I was talking about yesterday with a friend which I called The Destiny Delusion (future article?) - the way in which we, our constructed ID selves, manage to get hold of (what we assume to be) elements of truth, reality, and the divine, and shape them, according to the patterns of our lower/wounded natures, into a grand destiny-design that FEELS as real, more real even, than anything we have experienced. Entheogens, for me, were a major component in creating and expanding that Destiny Delusion, whereby I became convinced of certain things about myself and my role in the universe, personal and beyond. People we meet (especially ones we fall in love with, in my experience) hook into our delusional narratives (all of which, let's face it, are founded in and filtered through an erroneous belief that we are "discreet," separate entities) and so we get married, join groups, follow gurus, start movements, write books, sing songs, and all the rest, happily building (adding our energy and attention to) a "second matrix" kind of set-up (bardo realm for the living) that keeps us from realizing the truth about ourselves and reality, preciselybecause it appears to be "ultimate truth/reality." In simple (paranoid) jargon, it's the old shtick of demons disguised as angels, luring us into hellfire by playing on our vanity. Hence the inorganics that CC describes, hooking into our patterns, fears, hopes, desires, and telling us exactly what we want to hear.


I am 44 years old and I have to face up to the very real possibility (and I think it's more than just a possibility) that my whole adult life has been a kind of wrong turn. That said, recognizing the wrongness of it may just make it the right path after all, in a strange and mysterious way, though that remains to be seen. REALLY recognizing how wrong we are goes much deeper than an intellectual concession, all the way to the marrow of our bones. It is, I imagine, a psyche-splitting axe blow from which we never recover our former sense of selves.


Obviously the idea of demons (aka patterns) tricking us into a false sense of destiny is ‘paranoid’ in the extreme, and if it were true, recognizing the truth of it would make it very difficult NOT to become paranoid, even clinically speaking. But ironically, it’s only the constructed ID (which is responsible for co-creating this diabolic delusory realm) that insists on seeing things in such black and white terms at all. It insists on imagining angels and demons as also being discreet entities, like us, and so the danger is in reinforcing the second matrix program through fear and resistance to it (the flyers feed on fear of the flyers – so ignorance to them may be the best defense the average man has, puny as it is).


Angels and demons aren’t separate beings, however, but opposite poles of a single energy-consciousness system much like day and night; and human beings are capable somehow of containing the full spectrum of awareness that spans that polarity (hence the angel and devil on each shoulder cliché). The real danger is not in becoming prey to demons, but in mistaking cold for hot, day for night, demon for angel, and responding inappropriately (insanely) to the cues. There’s nothing “bad" per se about being taken over/eaten by inorganic beings. The badness/wrongness is in the error of thinking that something else is happening than what is in fact happening. That’s delusion, and the real trouble with delusion is that it’s self-sustaining and self-propagating: when we are deluded, our mistaken assumptions cause us to act in ways that lead us ever deeper into delusion.


The first, most difficult but also essential step, is recognizing our capacity for delusion as being very nearly total, and to do that without giving in to paranoia and despair. Not-knowing (knowing that we don't know WTF is going on) is the only real ground in which gnosis can grow in, and I presume it's for that reason that gnosis always happens of its own accord, never as the result of anything we do.


Real freedom begins with not needing to understand anything before we accept it, accepting things as they are, and letting understanding come post-acceptance.

11 comments:

Tzadkiel said...

Been awhile since I checked in, glad to see your still sharing your thoughts with us all. Interesting post, I cant believe how strong the meme of illusory reality is at the moment. It seems to be coming from all angles at the moment. Good to see your take on it.

So do you feel entheogens can have a healthy role to play in a persons life or do you feel they always reinforce delusionary tendencies?

I am certainly party to as many delusions about my self as the next guy but I find all my experiences with entheogens seem to do the exact opposite of reinforce them. They seem to pretty clearly make visible how ridiculous any delusions of grandeur i might have are, and ultimately just gently indicate to me that we are all just parts of the whole trying to know itself.

Jasun said...

That's why i use the term second matrix.

enthegoens can unravel delusions, but the constructed ID being what it is, it will quickly assemble a whole new set of delusions at a higher level of awareness, delusions which are much harder to "bust" (see through) because they seem much more real than everyday delusions, and in a sense they are - more real-ly delusional, being even deeper patterns.

Tzadkiel said...

Thanks for getting back to me.

Im still curious as to how you view entheogens, if you see them as having any part to play in improving clarity. If they bust illusions or can, then the missing part of the equation would seem to be a way in non altered consciousness to not reassemble a new delusion? Would unraveling a personal delusion whilst meditating or just thinking put one at less of a risk of reassembling a second matrix delusion?

I think its pretty clear that the Red Ice Radio level of thinking functions very effectively as a second matrix but you and I are under no such delusion.

How helpful is it to even consider the difference between illusion and real? Ultimately is there any inherent difference between what is called illusion and what is called real? What differs is only what, the attitude of the perceiver? Are those two words any different then Yin and Yang? Is Yin more "real" then yang? or vice versa? Isn't what matters how we respond to something, what we learn from it, not wether we call it real or false?

I don't ask these things as a nihilist or cynical person but as someone deeply engaged with the world. Someone who loves the woods, the streams, the wind, and the stars. Whether they are "real" or an illusion, first, second, or third matrix, they bring joy and love to my heart all the same, you know what i mean?

Douwe Jan Schrale said...

the comment of habits as demons made me think.. the world outside exist out of information the world inside also exist out of information. and as patterns are just materialized connections that seem to stay inside just as matter is out side.. things and entities strong enough to not be forgotten. so entities can be inside our brain and outside of our brain. but there are different rules inside your brain.. than outside your brain.. but then again whats outside is different forces interacting with each other disconnecting and reconnecting in new formations.. thats actually what our brain does while its interacts with the outside world..

Douwe Jan Schrale said...

all is one .. in different stages of remembering that its one. and by that separated .. at the same time it tries to remember and keeps on forgetting.

in that way organisms grow...

but while this happens all is still one.. and everything else is illusion, if certain beings are closer to god thats only because the remembered

In nature i experience a great deal of oneness part of the community. of life also the stars who shine in the information.. inclusive the sun.. they are connected with the oneness. they shine there light and the light becomes life..

Jasun said...

Tzadkiel said...
"Im still curious as to how you view entheogens, if you see them as having any part to play in improving clarity."
Not sure if you're asking having not read the RS piece or because it left you still unsure of my view?

The "Red ice radio" 2nd matrix notion is relatively easy one to recognize and get past. It's just a flimsy tree branch as compared to the trunk of our delusion, that of being individuals with special destinies.

"Ultimately is there any inherent difference between what is called illusion and what is called real?"

What a strange question! Real and unreal isn't a polarity like day and night. What we perceive (and the fact that we do perceive) is real - the way we perceive it to be, isn't.

"Isn't what matters how we respond to something, what we learn from it, not wether we call it real or false?"

Sounds like something Castaneda wrote. If you are only responding to your own delusions, i.e, to mistaken perceptions, isn't that an unreal state to be in - disconnected from everything?

We have the capacity to turn mountains into molehills.

Theofilia said...

"Real freedom begins with not needing to understand anything before we accept it, accepting things as they are, and letting understanding come post-acceptance".

Wisdom 101!

dboy said...

i was checking out the comments at RS (talk about signal to noise), and i copied the last sentence of one of your comments, with the intention of commenting, but theophilia beat me to it. i was going to say, that is the only way to understand high level mathematics,the lecturers make the point continuously, it doesn't stop the students from whining 'but what does it mean?'.

pueokeokeo said...

"Entheogens, for me, were a major component in creating and expanding that Destiny Delusion, whereby I became convinced of certain things about myself and my role in the universe, personal and beyond."

Entheogens surely helped to amplify the madness that was already there, the madness of the western-colonized-mind which leans heavily and angrily towards worshiping self (the image) which keeps the colonization train moving.

The colonization-headed view of the world (which has taken over the world) is always about feeding the belief and desire of being the chosen person/people (for the role of martyr and/or hero and/or the damned). The idea of destiny according to colonized-mind is focussed on destiny as strictly an outer phenomenon (usually having to do with becoming a star or being the chosen one who the star will shine all of it's light onto).

Jason, hopefully the "destiny delusion" idea does not stamp out the idea of destiny. (I don't believe that you are trying to stamp it out, btw). We each do have our own destiny, I believe. But it is an inner destiny -- which is a practice/work/way in waiting that is tailor-made for the individual who may or may not align with it whole-heartedly during a lifetime (often thanks to fate). The inner destiny is not something that we fulfill as individuals but something that fulfills us when we align with it, and deepens our humanness as a being who gives purpose to life rather than imposing purpose on life (as it happens with destiny delusion of working to colonize other minds with our own bright ideas).

Inner destiny is about being in community (community of all life on earth, galaxy included) and outer destiny (the destiny delusion) is about being in a commune (mental or otherwise), and having a special role in that commune such as guru or guru's favorite disciple. But even more specific, inner destiny is more than just being in community, it is a discovery of self as community and the role one has as mediator who keeps the community in balance.

Life is not all about fate and it's not all about destiny , but is an inter-weaving of the two throughout one's life. Fateful events can throw destiny off course, into the delusional realms within the individual, but coming to know fate brings one back to aligning with "inner" destiny -- which is always getting back to the way of communal practice/work. It is a work that specifically chose the individual for his/her unique destiny which, when aligned with, re-balances community (whole earth community) and keeps one returning to the work (because it so subtly pleasurable to fulfill destiny !)

(from the essay)


I think we are on the same page but I would say the badness/wrongness in not in "thinking that something else is happening than what is in fact happening." I think badness/wrongness is in thinking that one can know what is in fact happening below the apparent happenings. This is the problem of those who invest in meta-physical belief systems / occult belief systems. And then it becomes a problem for all of us but at least it gives those who are aligned with their inner destiny something to do -- not to make it sound like a "good news" situation. But in my case I know that I have a lot of that meta-physical bullshit floating around in my own thought processes (because I read a lot of people who are hooked into it) , so I have the opportunity to stay busy looking at my own desire for getting beyond the physical world where deep ache pulsates.

Theofilia said...

off topic short comment for dboy, OK, Kephas? (if not = OK)

dboy, I read your last blog and wrote a comment but it didn't go through. I want you to know that your "opportunity to learn a deep lesson about myself" by not having courage to use the blue-glowing Sword, which is "the real intelligence and cultural driver behind reptilian civilization", is NOT lost!

Check out www.mysticrebels.com scroll about half way down and see if this Sword of Discrimination gives you shivers the way it gave me.

P.S. I read Castaneda way back when , read Florinda's Shabono too, that's why I get it and like all yous' crazy people:)

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree with what tzadkiel said and similar to what quantum physics is showing; reality is created/molded/affected in large part by an entities observation. To be sure there is objective reality; objects that have a specific identity of their own regardless of outside influence, and there is subjective reality; objects which are that created by our perception of reality qua perception. It's all novelty information exchange. One isn't more real than the other, but one is more beneficial to our current status as beings depending on our current objective location in space/time. Obviously that is a gross oversimplification, but worthy to note. It is our perceptual reactions to the akashic field whilst under the influence of psychedelics which will in large part mold our perceptions to what is being created or playing out. Since all matter has access to the memory of all other matter in the universe (including the mind) novelty is played out on an infinite scale. Life is eternal and I don't think that ones identity can ever be obliterated, but our perceptual field may be changed thus affecting our identity based upon where our consciousnesses is at in space/time or outside of it. At the risk of dragging on, my point is this; humans live on innumerable levels of reality all at once, but by grounding ourselves in our present state of normal perceptual reality we are able to create a firm personal identity that is essential to us navigating these other spiritual realms. I don't believe that life tends toward entropy (in the ultimate sense) Love is the photons of the soul.