The Key to Writing & Writers

"I perceive a necessary gap between seeing and being. I would not be able to have said certain things if I had been under the obligation to unify the word and the deed. As it is I can let my words reach out and net impossible things - things that are impossible for me to do. And this is a way to pay the price for saying or seeing things.

"I've been impressed by the extent to which one gets sentenced by one's own sentences. One explores certain things in play and then in a strange way they become commitments which one has to live. I have gained a deep respect for the demonic power of the word. Words are not idle. They have consequences."

Norman O. Brown

What Am I?

Now the body is a point of reference unto itself - albeit surrounded by infinite time and space, which even as children we know are inevitable realities, or perhaps the edges of a reality too vast to ever be grasped, or contained by the illusory, self-generated "reality" in which we perceive ourselves to be.

Sorry, that came out a bit garbled, but I will press on.

Logically, or even mathematically, speaking, if we are able to experience ourselves as having existence within the context of the infinite and eternal, we must also be infinite and eternal, since there is no other quantity that can withstand division by the infinite and eternal and still give the value of "one."

Yet we do not experience ourselves as infinite or eternal, but only as "one" indivisible entity with likes and dislikes, fears and hopes and points to both protect and defend. The sense of a separate, unified existence seems to be sourced in the primary experience of ourselves as a body - specifically, a body surface "inside" a larger physical environment that knows itself through sensation (pleasure, pain, loss and gain) and other sensory/sensual interface with that environment - starting with the womb, then mother, breast (if we are lucky - I wasn't!) and so on. This superficial/sensory experience may be the foundation of the original illusion (sin) of a separate individual ego-self, because of course as bodies we are much more than merely surface: in fact, the really good stuff - the life giving organs, blood and bone of us - is all on the inside, hidden away. We do not have a sensory relationship with, or through, these organs, however, or at least most of us do not. This is perhaps more a symptom than a cause of the creation of the illusory or "ego" self. In other words, our inability to place our awareness on the interior of the body is probably a result, not a cause, of having created a "mind" self that requires only minimum input from the body to maintain its "reality." It may be a bit of both, however.


I am aiming to arrive at some "point" with this, but who knows if I will get there. I may die first.

Cells in the body are separated from their environment by a membrane, known as a plasma membrane (see here). That is to say, their interior regions are separated from the greater body by the membrane - which is what makes them individual cells - while at the same time, it could be said that the plasma membrane is also what unites the cells with the body, being as it is the substance that comes between inner and outer, without which cells could not function as co-operative parts of the body. So it is with the physical body of humans and other animals inside of Nature: the very thing that gives us an illusory sense of separate existence is what unites us with a greater existence, being that of the Universe and, so it might be supposed, beyond even the Universe, the Infinite and Eternal.

Moving on. Not only cells but even electrons and protons are now said, in some scientific circles, to have some modicum of self-awareness, and therefore to exist as "discreet" entities. The difference in individual awareness between a Van Gogh and an atom, then, is one of degree, but not of kind. Holy Moses! This can be useful to remember whenever we start getting too big for our britches and thinking that our better "qualities" make us entitled to certain things - to anything at all, in fact.

There is a self-ness to all things in existence. Merely existing designate a "self," whether of star, man, mouse, atom, or snowflake. It's probably for this reason that the idea of an individual self is said in mystical circles to be illusory. If everything is made of snow, there is nothing that is not snow, so what meaning does the word "snow" have anymore? None at all. In religious terminology, this is simply stated as ""everything is equally God" - the Supreme Self of existence being equally present in all of the parts as it is the whole. For the human being, this is known psychologically as the Id (in Freudian terms) or the Self (in Jungian ones), as the Daemon, the Double, the Higher Self or Holy Guardian Angel, and so on. In my own, all-too-paltry, experience, this Id-Entity is unknown - and for the most part unknowable - to the false self. Yet like the Sun and stars, it is an Ego and exists as a localized point of view, or organ of perception, for which a relative sense of separate existence is essential to its function as a component in the greater body of consciousness that is the Universe, and possibly also the Infinite.

Or something. Yeah, I veered into highfalutin mystic mumbo jumbo at the end a bit. It's hard to resist joining the dots even when they go off the page. Let my example serve as warning to ye.

Our function as incarnate id-entities in continuous crysis is not to speculate, but to receive the signal which comes to and through the body from the Universe, and to transmit that signal back to the body in a new, individualized form. I am no biologist, but my guess is that this is equivalent to the function of cells in the human (animal) body, which receive information from the various organs, via the blood perhaps, and then pass on that information in new ways to other cells, and so forth. Another parallel might be the bees, which receive pollen from one flower and then "transmit" it (pass it on) to other flowers while going about their merry, individual (but hive-directed) business.

To the Universe, all business is pleasure, and vice versa.

The Gospel Blues

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

“Truth exists, delusion does not.” So why is it so hard to get past the one and all the way into the other? If the only “badness” of ego—and all the dark conspiratorial forces that stem from it—is due to its illusory nature, how is it that the spell is so tough to break? Isn’t the beauty, reality, and supremacy of truth self-evident? A no-brainer?

The idea of falseness may exist, but that's not the same as falseness existing. There is no Moon made of blue cheese in reality, only the recognition that there is no such thing as a blue cheese Moon. (Assuming there isn't such a thing - if we dare!). If the idea of a separate ego-self is false, then all that is true is the recognition of that falseness.

It is often said that enlightenment a) doesn't happen to a person, and b) when it does happen, it is recognized as always having been the case. Presumably this is because the recognition of the falseness of the idea of an ego-self—which only takes an instant—allows for the erasure of a lifelong (mistaken) perception of living through and as that self. In other words, once enlightened, always was enlightened—because with the false self goes the illusion (all those false memory implants) of ever having been anything else.

Does that even make sense?

The idea that "only truth exists" is a tautology. Beliefs about the Moon do not change or in any way affect the nature of the Moon. Belief does not interface with reality. It only create false realities that come between ourselves and Truth. If the only purpose of false realities and the illusion of a separate ego self is to keep out the Truth, then surely there is no great need to dispel that illusion? All the harm that comes about from an allegiance to an illusory self is itself also illusory. Truth—our true nature—cannot in any way be affected, much less harmed, by that false allegiance.

I can see no other destination for the quest for enlightenment than one of utter futility and despair. However, this is the correct and necessary destination, because once we have begun to glimpse the total futility of our existence—and beyond even futility, the fundamental falsity of it—it is no longer possible to return to the sort of activity that once upheld the illusion of meaning and purpose—of validity—to our individual life-paths.

When the cell recognizes that its choice of a volitional path has turned it into a cancerous cell that, if allowed to continue, would destroy the whole body, the cell has only one honest recourse: suicide, or self-sacrifice. Did Jesus die to save humanity because he recognized his cancerous nature as “King of the Jews”—and to undo the Mess he had created by accepting the role of Mess-I-Ah?? Thereby setting the only honest and true example for the rest of us—who are all wanna-be-messiahs, following not Christ but Lucifer, trying to squeeze our egos through the eye of the needle and reign in Heaven, but winding up by refurbishing Hell one more time and hoping we won’t notice the difference?

Holy, holy, holy. The mind is its own place. Surrender to the divine comes on the heels of seeing the futility of everything else. There are a billion seeds we get to sort through, but only one is going to give fruit. Abandon hope then before entering, because if you are still hoping to find it, you haven’t faced the facts. The facts of life and death.

Jesus said, you have to lose your life to save it. You have to lose your life to save it. And if you love your life, you aren’t going to want to lose it. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

So Jesus says, Hate your life. Not too many bumper stickers with that on, is there?

365 More Words into the Void

Tired of words and the knowledge that words only forge lies out of truth.

Reading more Jed McKenna. Though I resist some of what I read at the time, I come away thinking that anyone who is serious about getting to the truth needs to read McKenna, and then decide if they are really serious or not.

I am no longer so sure about myself – except for the fact that I don’t feel serious about anything else. Even so, I am a slave to my habits. Habits provide continuity which provides security. So what I am trying to get free of is the same as what I will not let go of. Habit. Beneath everything I do is one thing. Fear.

Everything I do is dictated by a preference for comfort over discomfort. It is absurdly meaningless. The ego’s program is so pathetically base – what makes it pathetic is not the baseness but how it covers up that baseness with lofty ideals and blatant lies that anything we ever do is motivated by anything else besides a preference for comfort over discomfort. It is sickening in the extreme. The hypocrisy of it.

Perhaps this is why we think of children as more “pure” – because their egotism is nakedly revealed in everything they do.

Nihilism and spirituality are not opposed but complementary. True spirituality must include nihilism, because the ego’s interpretation of reality demands that everything be recognized as utterly meaningless. That is the first step to truth.

That is why spirituality is the trap, ruse and snare that it is, the 2nd matrix. Because the news is all bad before it starts getting good.

Why the hell am I even saying all this?

Apparently the only way to get free of the ego is to face full-on the total unreality and therefore devoid-of-meaning that is our current existence. Everything we do is a way to avoid facing that truth. So what do we do when we have reached a place in which we can no longer avoid it, but cannot go back to the old ways of avoidance?

What?

Nihilistic despair has become the bass line of my existence. I feel oddly optimistic about it.

Whitley's Onion

Sneaking Past the Facekeepers

I am now a man without a face.

From three days ago:

Jasun Kephas:
I predict that, 72 hours from now, April 1st 2012, this Fool will sneak past the Facekeepers and scale the book-walls to freedom - leaving nothing but a few loose ends behind, and perhaps not even that.

I will be sad to go, yes. BUT, at the end of the day, the price is too high, the gains too few, to justify being in-corporated by an increasingly sinister and unethical commercial, espionage, and maybe even sorcerous agenda.

We are being harvested. Our faces and all our other vital data is being collected for the great Psychic Stew of AI's Body of Evidence. And in the final masterstroke of irony, none of this is being stolen: we are offering up our body parts (and our baby pics) for the dark, satanic broth.

I'd like to think I could set an example by leaving, but I doubt anyone will follow me over those prison walls, so it's more about not wanting to set a bad one. To those of you who I have only come to know, or reconnect with, via this devious domain, PM me in the next 3 days so we can trade data with an eye to meeting later, outside the Belly of the Beast, on less mine-infested ground.

A word to the wise while I still "exist" - FB's days are numbered, and who knows, if Id-Anonymous has anything to say about it the number may be smaller than we think (I am an optimist at heart). Would you rather leave the party of your own free will, or be unceremoniously spewed out with the seething mass, when the fire alarm gets pulled?

OK that's all for today. I can't say it hasn't been fun, or that I won't be jonesing for my FB fix for a while, coz I will. If anyone wants to help set up an alternative space for social networking that would be privately owned, let me know. I am still up for collaborating on that project provided someone with some know-how is on board.

Meanwhile, I'll continue dialoguing here til the final hour, if anyone wants to discuss the escape plan.

Here's some useful data to get you started: http://society.oshana.org/true-friends-leave-facebook/


Jasun Kephas:

• Awake at 3 am - is it a FB microwave attack?! Here is where I ended up, at any rate. Since Steve Willner's comments, below, have indicated that EVERYONE finds my (poetically phrased) reasons for leaving FB "ridiculous," I'm going to reiterate the reasons I gave the last time I left FB, since they hold good today:

FACT ONE: FB is at least partially established as an intelligence-gathering program for corporate and governmental interests.

FACT TWO: By participating at FB, I am not only tacitly endorsing that agenda but also adding both my data-flow and my own particular creative input to the mix. I am thereby increasing not only FB's data bank but also its credibility and appeal (if I may be so immodest).

FACT THREE: The combinations of facts 1 & 2 inescapably lead to the fact that I am, like it or not, serving the afore-mentioned corporate-governmental interests, and on zero payroll to boot.

All this has real-world consequences that NO ONE here can fully account for - yet all the same, we are all accountable for them. The only rationale for ignoring the consequences and our accountability - besides a cynical rejection of ethics or individual responsibility - is that "the end justifies the means." This reasoning would be based on a belief that the good I can accomplish by being at FB outweighs those unknown negative consequences, both for myself and others. FB does allow me to direct traffic to my blog, it's true, but to what extent is unknown and the actual results are so far negligible (there's been no increase in comments at my blog over the past year or so). So what does that leave?

The most obvious benefit of being at FB is that it allows me to connect to people I wouldn't otherwise connect to - either for the first time or on further, random occasions, as with my recent exchange with Steve Willner, an exchange that would not have occurred anywhere but here. A glance at said exchange clearly brings into question the value of such "connecting." It's fun, sure, but what's actually accomplished?

Connecting for its own sake is of no inherent value - if it were we would email each other all day long, but we don't do that (we text each other, I guess, but I don't have a cellphone so I cant speak for the pros of that ritual). We do have exchanges at FB however, where others can read them, since we are in a public domain. So the appeal of this sort of connecting - this is true for me at least - has to do with there being a performance element to it. Idle banter with an audience or in a group - or even at times creative discussions that, nonetheless, rarely lead to any real-time action. For all the talk of social networking, how many people use FB to implement any sort of social engagement? It's 99% fluff (even when intellectually stimulating fluff), and we know it.

My effort has been to counteract that with some more (intellectually) meaningful content - as many of my "friends" also try to do here (an obvious example for me would be Christopher Knowles). But the net result, I believe, is that we only help to increase the spell of the delusion that we are doing anything besides squandering our time and energy, working for a mostly hidden corporate body that intends to assimilate us, body and soul, in the due course of time, into its dark & secret agenda.

This post took 30 minutes to write! It was a alternative to lying awake in the dark thinking about why I was leaving FB, that's all. Next time that happens, I will have something else to think about.

Peace be to all.


Jasun Kephas:
Paranoia is the beginning of awareness...?

As some have suggested, I may be overstating, exaggerating, or overreacting in my Case Against FB; but intuition tells me that FB and other corporate Net giants are the Thin End of a Wedge currently being driven - slowly and carefully - into the innermost recesses of our lives. I think we are being subtly seduced into a series of incremental agreements that are leading to a final result which none of us would agree to if we could see it coming. Because of that, now may be a critical time that will determine, if not the future of the species, at least our own place in that future. It's a time in which it is increasingly necessary to say "No" while we still can, instead of, "What's in it for me?" Just Say No to a future of psychic enslavement! - because the answer is that there's nothing in it for you, because none of it was designed for you, though of course it's "custom-made."

We've been told that we are the consumer, but what if it turns out that we are being consumed?

My leaving FB is a sort of ritual, a symbolic enactment that I hope, like FB itself, will have real-world repercussions and consequences, at least for me. I guess you could say that it represents a stance, a line drawn in the sand, representing my turning away from something which I know in my bones is false, so I can begin to face in a new direction, and to live a new, more authentic, kind of life.

Not to end on a bum note, but I suspect, based on some of the comments here, that some of you are overestimating your powers of discernment. In the long run, that can prove fatal. If there WERE a psychic conquest of the collective soul that was currently nearing its very final stages (just suppose!), the naive assumption that we would be able to recognize all the signs and that there was no need to worry about it, would be exactly what would allow for you to be "bagged."

But yes, I *could* just be paranoid. Time will tell, but YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, and so my responsibility here is now (almost) over.

***

Account now deactivated, in process of deletion.

The Infamous Strieber Article, Part One

What the UFO Wants From YOU!

The Joke

i begin to see why

words beg for play

seriously trying to express truth with words

has to be a joke

so far as we can satisfy our minds

by describing truth with words

we only become that much more attached

to words

and that much further from truth

the better the menu looks

the more likely we are

to eat it

seriously!

aaarggh

Language as Disease & Language as Play

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. . . . My aim is to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense. . . He who understands me finally recognizes [my propositions] as senseless." Wittgenstein.

from Norman Brown's Life Against Death:

"Language as disease and language as play - the two meet in the concept of neurotic play, that is to say, magic. . . . Now if we can say that language is diseased in so far as it contains magical qualities, in so far as it reflects a belief in the reality of thoughts and wishes, we are able to trace the magical quality of language to its organic connection with the narcissistic phase of infantile sexual development, the phase in which the child develops the pure pleasure-ego. For the world of the pure pleasure-ego is a dream world, a world constructed out of 'neurotic currency' in which wishes are true - though for the child this currency is not neurotic, since he knows nothing of the conflict of the pleasure-principle and the reality-principle and his unreal world is his real world. And by the same token it is a world of play, in which the representation of the gratified wish is accepted as real. And in effect . . . it IS real. . . Language as play and language as disease are the two sides of language as wish-fulfillment thinking, and wish-fulfillment thinking is a legacy of childhood indelible in our minds, carrying the secret project of the pure pleasure-ego, the search for an erotic sense of reality."

"Mankind today is still making history without having any conscious idea of what it really wants or under what conditions it would stop being unhappy; in fact what it is doing seems to be making itself more unhappy and calling that progress.

"Christian theology, or at least Agustinian theology, recognizes human restlessness and discontent, the cor irrequietum, as the psychological source of the historical process. But Christian theology, to account for the origin of human discontent and to indicate a solution, has to take man out of this real world, out of the animal kingdom, and inculcate him into delusions of grandeur. And this Christian theology commits its own worst sin, the sin of pride.

..."the proof that human needs are not what they seem to be lies precisely in the fact of human history. The Faustian restlessness of man in history shows that men are not satisfied by the satisfaction of their conscious desires; men are unconscious of their real desires. Thus a psychology of history must be psychoanalytical.

"Lacking the doctrine of repression - or rather not being able to see man as a psychological riddle - Marx ... turns to biology and postulates an absolute law of human biology that the satisfaction of human needs always generates new needs. If human discontent is thus biologically driven, it is incurable. . . But Marx's assumption of a biological basis for "progress" in history really amounts to a confession that he is unable to explain it psychologically.

"Psychoanalysis can provide a theory of "progress," but only by viewing history as a neurosis. . . . By the same token, psychoanalysis offers a theoretical framework for exploring the possibility of a way out of the nightmare of endless "progress" and endless Faustian discontent, a way out of human neurosis, a way out of history. . . . If historical consciousness is finally transformed into psychoanalytical consciousness, the grip of the dead hand of the past on life in the present would be loosened, and man would be ready to live instead of making history, to enjoy instead of paying back old scores and debts, and to enter that state of Being which was the goal of his Becoming."

Aeolus Wake Up

Myth-Information Movies (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

Truth or Despair

Who despairs, sins? So that means not only do I have to deal with despair, I have to feel like a sinner too? That helps. Not. Right?

Hold on, reader. Before you continue, ask yourself if you need to hear any of this. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, and you don’t need to know anything about despair because you have already left it behind you. In which case, read no more. On the other hand, if despair is something you struggle with on a daily basis, feel free to continue. Nothing you read here is likely to make it any worse.

Full disclosure: Since despair is the most consistent and persistent feature in my life, I am choosing to write about it – again, maybe for the last time but probably not. I want to get to the bottom of despair — but is there even a bottom? What if, the deeper I dig, the further away from the light I get? What if, on my mad, deluded quest to find the underworld of my psyche and there rout out despair, once and for all, I am only digging my own grave?

On especially bad days — like today — that’s how it feels. It feels like I am some sort of despair-generator, as if all the world’s despair spews forth from my own black heart, a self-pitying pit of pestilence. Never mind fear of fear, I live in despair of despair. It is a self-propelling circle of self-rejection. What is the point? But then, that’s the point of despair, isn’t it: pointlessness and the black, gnawing absence of hope. We live lives of quiet (or noisy, if you are like me) desperation.

I know that my despair must come from inside of me, because there’s nothing outside of me to explain it. There is nothing awful in the present (besides non-voluntary bachelorhood, I live an “enviable” life), and there’s nothing so terrible in my past (just one more traumatic childhood). As for the future, sure, death and old age looms, but that hardly makes me cursed. Am I really so alone or exceptional?? Maybe others just hide it better. But then, I hide it pretty well too. Most of the time when I interact with people, I smile and joke just like you do. So where does all this despair come from?

Nothing seems to work with despair. If I tell myself that it is all for some purpose—that I am “processing” ancestral patterns which my forebears and peers have avoided (by chasing wealth and status, going on religious crusades, and jacking off to internet porn)—then I give myself license to extend the misery indefinitely. If I tell myself it is only masochism and self-indulgence and that I could let go of it any time I wanted, the despair is magnified by a sense of my weakness and worthlessness.

God Help Me!!!

Is this what has made the world we are living in—a mad frenzy of delusional avoidance activity driven by a bottomless pit of generational despair? Why? What the hell is wrong with me, you, us?

There’s only one answer that covers all the bases: truth. Despair is the result of living out lives that are fundamentally untrue, inauthentic lives. So our despair is “punishment” for our inauthenticity, or at least, a natural consequence of it. Does it help to know that? Maybe not right away, but it does provide some sort of answer at least.

What matters isn’t the depth or persistence of our despair, but what we do about it. The only thing to do with despair is—nothing. In its purest sense, despair is the side effect of a cleansing process that occurs when we allow ourselves to see our inauthenticity. Despair becomes self-propelling and self-sustaining when we allow it to drive us into action or non-action that is colored or informed by despair (rather than by its opposite, yet close cousin, acceptance, and compassion). If I eat crappy food, seek out mindless distractions, avoid healthy activities and positive human interaction because of despair; or worse still, if I start to mistreat other people and take out my unhappiness on them; then despair has become an excuse for me to take refuge in inauthenticity, to retreat further and further into the nightmare of an illusory existence. The hole I'm digging goes sideways, and leads only into deeper and deeper darkness. There is no jewel-lit underworld at the end of my struggle, just a long dark tunnel, circling around and around the earth, endlessly. (Eventually the whole planet will cave in from our mole-like tunneling.)

But enough doom and gloom. This is supposed to be my way of saying goodbye to all of that.

Happiness isn’t found by pursuit. Meaning and purpose—where real joy comes from—aren’t things that we can create for ourselves. They won’t come from our parents, peers, or partners. They will only come from one place, because there is only one Source that is true, that can provide us with an authentic sense of being from which to live. There is only one truth. That simplifies things. Deep down, we know when we are living for—and as—that one true source of goodness and light, and we know when we aren’t. Despair is your friend because it lets you know that something isn’t right. We can let go right now: it really is as simple as saying it.

“I surrender.”

There are only two choices for any of us, at any time. Truth or despair.

I mean, really. How complicated is that?

The Energetic Facts of Life

Art by Mitch Fraas

EVOL is the Answer

Alejandro Jodorowsky: “I liked Lady Gaga’s meat dress. It was funny. But I did that first in my Panic performance. Maybe she has seen what I’ve done – I don’t know. I like to think her song Alejandro was written for me. Her music is interesting. It’s interesting because it’s very free. But it has no meaning because what she’s singing has no hope. It is without hope. It’s only about revolution, which isn’t enough. We need a re-evolution right now, not a revolution. We need something new. Lady Gaga has a lot of energy and that is fantastic, but she is using old Surrealist images. Surrealism was necessary – essential, even – in the 1920s to bridge the gap between rationalism and the subconscious. It started something important. But by the early 60s, it had become petit-bourgeois; it was too intellectual and romantic, and had ground to a halt. It had become respectable. They didn’t like science fiction or rock music or… let’s not make a list: the Surrealists didn’t like anything! I needed to go further than Surrealism, and that’s why I formed Panic. Surrealism – in particular with Salvador Dali – was all about ego. It was all about extreme individualism. And it’s the same with Lady Gaga. But today, individualism is over: to make a change and do something new – to truly wake up people’s minds – we have to do something collective, together as a social community. No more Dali, no more Magritte – no more working just for yourself. We have to work as one. We can do it. We can do it. I sound like Barack Obama now…”

(see here)

The collective ego knows all about revolution

The individual ego knows all about creative self-expression

Both are now obsolete, because the Powers That Be have fully incorporated them into the Program

What remains? To turn the Paradigm on its Head, like so:

1) Individual Revolution - the overturning of the False Self and the hacking into the AI-program, the Culture Parasite which imprisons consciousness (socio-religious conditioning, etc)

2) Collective Creative Expression, organized group spontaneity directed towards catalyzing and harnessing the energy of 1)

Out of which comes the Third Thing

This seems to have something to do with Reversing the Flow of (our culturized-Darwinified idea of) Evolution, also? Since the active element of EVOL-ution = LOVE.

This may also pertain to the notion of swarm intelligence. Hence Anonymous' Fascination for BEES.

"Arkana Arkadia: Catabolizing with Kephas!": Live Pod-Classes in 2012

At a partial writing impasse at present, I am going back into spoken word, this time with a live (select) audience on the Net.The idea of live podcasts (or Pod-Classes) is both to allow for greater spontaneity and also for a collective space in which those attending will be tuning into the same frequency at exactly the same time. This creates a telepathic link-up - or meeting of minds - in which something more than verbal communication can take place. For this reason the pod-classes will not be open to just everyone, in the beginning at least, but only those of you I already have some kind of relationship with. The program I will be using allows for listeners to text me during the podcast with questions or comments, which I may or may not choose to address, depending on the flow of things.

The cost of attending an AACK! podcast will be $4.44, a token fee (partly) to ensure that those who join the group are sufficiently committed. However, as I already said, payment is not enough to guarantee acceptance - so if you are interested, please email me first, via my blogger profile.

The first in the series will be this Sunday, the 8th of January, at 10 am PST, 12 pm CT, 1 pm ET, and 6pm GMT.

The title of the first "AACK!" podcast:

"Is There Life Before Death?"

Subjects which I may be discussing include:

The two forms of ignorance: not knowing, and believing we know when we don't. The second kind is the one to watch for.

The two-pronged attack on delusion/the matrix program: saying no to the old, and yes to the new.

Finding one's true purpose as the means - as well as the end - to dropping the ego or false self.

The place of observation as the launch pad for action. Action and engagement as the means to access wisdom. Waiting and precipitating, the yin and yang flow of consciousness, akin to the in and out breath, and the beating of the heart.

The human "form" - how losing it must coincide with surrender to, and alignment with, a higher intelligence. How the social contract of being human is what keeps us sane and morally responsible: like a chrysalis for a pupa, it serves a necessary purpose. How recognizing the lie of the false identity can lead to pathology or suicidal despair without a corresponding awareness of something beyond ourselves running the show.

Failure and success: placing the bar at the appropriate level to you, in order to stay engaged in the battle of life and avoid both lethargy and ego inflation.

Living every day as the last - is it doable, if so, how?

Overcoming the futility of ego-driven, death-invalidating existence by finding and aligning with Cosmic Purpose (aka "the mission").

These and many more Arcana Arcadia in the mesmerizing tones of Mr. Kephas, all for the measly price of $4.44!

To suggest a topic for discussion on future podcasts, just comment at this post or email me.

Catabolically,

Kephas

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Glossary of Terms:

ar·ca·num (är-knm)

n. pl. ar·ca·na (-n) or ar·ca·nums

1. A deep secret; a mystery.

2. often arcana Specialized knowledge or detail that is mysterious to the average person: "knows the arcana of police procedure and the intricacies of litigation" (George F. Will).

3. A secret essence or remedy; an elixir.

Ar·ca·di·a 2 also ar·ca·di·a (är-kd-)

n.

A region offering rural simplicity and contentment.

Arcadia (Greek: Ἀρκαδία) refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. Arcadia is associated with bountiful natural splendor, harmony, and is often inhabited by shepherds. The concept also figures in Renaissance mythology. Commonly thought of as being in line with Utopian ideals, Arcadia differs from that tradition in that it is more often specifically regarded as unattainable. Furthermore, it is seen as a lost, Edenic form of life, contrasting to the progressive nature of Utopian desires.

The inhabitants were often regarded as having continued to live after the manner of the Golden Age, without the pride and avarice that corrupted other regions.[1] It is also sometimes referred to in English poetry as Arcady. The inhabitants of this region bear an obvious connection to the figure of the Noble savage, both being regarded as living close to nature, uncorrupted by civilization, and virtuous.

According to Greek mythology, Arcadia of Peloponnesus was the domain of Pan, a virgin wilderness home to the god of the forest and his court of dryads, nymphs and other spirits of nature. It was one version of paradise, though only in the sense of being the abode of supernatural entities, not an afterlife for deceased mortals.

catabolism, katabolism [kəˈtæbəˌlɪzəm]

n

1. a metabolic process in which complex molecules are broken down into simple ones with the release of energy; destructive metabolism

2. the metabolic process in which energy is liberated for use in work.

"Real thinking is invariably destructive and pain-causing." Jed McKenna.

Spiritual Warfare, by Jed McKenna

A few quotes from this mostly impressive book.

“I have an intended audience… it’s people who know they’re stuck and want to get unstuck, not people who don’t know they’re stuck and just want to pass the time and pass judgment. . . The former would receive criticism with gratitude, and the latter as a personal attack. Awakening is a process of breakthroughs, and breakthroughs don’t come from incense and candlelight and inner peace. You look at spiritual aspirants as those most likely to achieve awakening, but Maya has them so bamboozled that those who seem the most advanced are simply the ones who are burrowing downward the fastest.”

“How can it be that we’re essentially the same now as we were at the most distant reaches of recorded history? Why does our outer environment change while our inner landscape stays the same? Because that’s the first rule of this club:

Always Outward. Never Inward.

So it follows as a matter of certainty that anyone who espouses any teaching or doctrine or philosophy is necessarily a member of the club. Any spiritual teacher who allows students to ask questions and gives them answers is a member of the Outward Only club; an unwitting—and thereby all the more insidious—agent of ignorance. The world is full of respected and beloved spiritual and religious teachers. People ask them questions and they provide answers; question and answer, question and answer, on and on, talk and more talk, more like spiritual therapy than spiritual warfare, but all questions, no matter how sincere or heartfelt, are really the same question, Outward?, and all answers, no matter how profound or wise, are really the same answer, Yes. The subtext of every question is, Am I making progress by asking questions and trying to understand the answers? And the subtext of every answer is, Yes, you are going somewhere while sitting here talking or reading. This is progress. Be at peace. You are progressing and well-progressed. That’s the obvious lie we want to hear and those who tell it most convincingly are the most respected and sought after."

“Our eyes are wide open and we see reality with perfect clarity. This is so obvious that it’s beyond any possible doubt. It’s also untrue. Our vision is so obscured by the mental and emotional flotsam and jetsam of selfhood that what we call stark reality is really just a soft glow seen through tightly shut eyelids; just enough light getting through to illuminate the internal dreamscape. It is owing entirely to our belief that our eyes are open that the spiritual quest is doomed from the start, and that so many who think they’re well along or finished have never really begun. No matter how unwavering we are in our commitment or how steadfast in our determination, no matter how much knowledge we amass or wisdom we attain, no matter what hardships we endure or what sacrifices we make, no matter what scriptures we adhere to or what deities we appease, it’s all just a desperate ploy to keep ourselves from doing the one thing that could make any difference: taking personal responsibility, thinking for ourselves. At the point where we begin our search, we have already overshot the objective, and every step takes us further away.”

“Parents tell their children that there is no such thing as the boogeyman, but that’s because they themselves have never thrown off the covers and turned on the lights. There is such thing as the boogeyman. He is out to get you, and he will. The boogeyman is real. He is the most real thing in the dreamstate, and real Zen, if there is such a thing, is about turning toward him, not away.”

“There are two emotions that inform and animate the human animal: fear, and a gratitude-love-awe mix that might be best called agape. As fear goes out, agape comes in. More accurately, a pure white light of consciousness hits the prism of self and splits outward to become the universe as we experience it. If the prism of self is gray and murky with ignorance, choked with fear, contaminated with ego, then so becomes the universe that radiates out from it. It’s that simple. As the prism becomes free of such flaws, then the whole universe changes with it. It resolves into clarity, becomes brighter, more playful and magical. Because we are the lens through which it is projected, we are participants in its shape and motion; co-creators of our own universe.

That’s Human Adulthood. Spiritual Enlightenment is just the same, except you take the final step in purifying the prism of self: You remove it.”