Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)
'Shortcut' Fallacy - Diminishment by Claiming Enlightenment Must Be Difficult
Contents
Utter routinization of syncretic
entheogenic myth-religion
Vajrayana lightning-vehicle short-path enlightenment
Mystic enlightenment may have been
common
The Jesus
life story was merely a transformation of the cult of Caesar, but that does not
mean that the Jesus figure is deficient in full, profound mystical meaning,
expressing the phenomena and insights of the intense mystic altered state --
because even the Caesar cult was designed and engineered to convey the full,
profound mystical meaning, expressing the phenomena and insights of the intense
mystic altered state -- because every two-bit, trendy, cult-of-the-week was
routinely designed and engineered to convey the full, profound mystical
meaning, expressing the phenomena and insights of the intense mystic altered
state. Genuine mystical revelation is
mass-produced and shrink-wrapped near the end of the heyday of the
mystery-religions. In this sense, S.
Angus is right, the mystery religions were somewhat burnt out when Christianity
took over.
The
Mystery-Religions and Christianity (Study in the Religious Background of Early
Christianity)
Samuel
Angus
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0806511427
Every
religion and school of philosophy was a superficially modified version of every
other, and they were all user interface skins on the same exact core initiation
technology: take entheogens, experience loose cognition, become aware of
no-free-will, transform your mental worldmodel to accomodate this experiential
insight, return to normal state of cognition, remain a control agent but now
with modified mental worldmodel of self-control as secondary controllership
only.
Around the
time of Sarapis, the creation of myth-religions had become totally routinized,
just as happens with Rock lyricists after they have practiced acid phenomena
double-entendres on several albums. The
double-entendre system becomes routinized, normalized, such that now anyone can
study my Web page and just read off the standard words and concepts, using them
without even having to understand them.
If you write a song with dense use of these words and types of
constructions, you will have true Classic Rock lyrics -- even if you've never
experienced the mystic altered state and have no particular understanding of
it.
So we are
enlightened, so we are a hierophant of ten authentic mystery cults, so the
inspiration-challenged Modern era will tie itself up in knots trying to figure
us out. So we have received our crowns
and we are a society jam-packed with superfluous sacred kings who are control
agents awakened to no-free-will. Like
awakening into the 70s: what happened to the great sweeping transformation of
reality?
Is this
all? Is there not more? Next stop: the semi-dark ages, official
literalism, Christendom, and esoteric mostly-suppressed mystic experiencing
inside and outside the official Church.
http://www.egodeath.com/mcpnotes.htm#xtocid15387
Key themes
of lyrical allusions to mystic dissociative phenomena [selected excerpts]:
New
morning
morning,
new day, sunrise, dawn, all things are new, sky grow pale, rising sun, brighter
than the sun that's rising, when all the world's asleep, dreams turn to
nightmares, good morning
Time
stoppage
time,
stopped, still, slow, stand still, freeze, suspended animation, permanent,
forever and ever, frozen in time, somewhere in time, no time, 25 o'clock, time
stands still, each watch I smash, time has come today
Prayer for
help
pray,
prayer, supplication, cry out, call out, knees, bow, save me, stop me, help me,
too far, too much, SOS, it's more than I can take, dire straits, flirting with
disaster
Vision
see, eyes,
awareness, light, vision, shine, 3rd eye, look through, see through you, flash,
blinded, swallowing colors of the sound I feel, see by a different light, in
the light, your gold dress is all I can see, seek the gold, in the camera eye
Tremors
shaking,
shivering, trembling, shake, shook, vibrations, electricity
Speech
disruption
tongue-tied,
speechless, dumb, communication breakdown, confusion, fool on the hill, don't
even know my own name, now that you know who you are, the killer who, feeling
like I'm dying, tell me who I am
Blurred/wavy
vision
see
through the haze, blur, fog, embryo, crystal spectacles, obscured by clouds,
obscured, blurry vision, mist, misty, see through your blurry sight, drip right
down in your eyes, underwater, seas, in the sea, under the sea, sea of madness,
under the ocean, watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea, looking through
glass, behind the waterfall, my watering eyes, beneath the waves, prism eyes,
out of focus, belladonnic haze
Fragmentation
smashed,
broken, fragmented, split, in two, making love with his ego, in pieces, apart,
cell of awareness, tide pools, breaking, my body below, my wandering body,
shatter the illusion of integrity, waves, twisted, squirming, bend, rubber,
plastic, the shape you've put me in, changes, going through changes, strange
changes, living in a wiggly world, rearrange me, garden starts to rearrange,
mountains move before my eyes, moving pictures, imagination like a bird on the
wing, physical graffiti
Emptiness
empty,
hollow, hole, echo, vacant, missing, take you/me away, let the sound take you
away, spaced without a trace, silence so loud, there's no one there, there's
nobody home, wish you were here, fixing a hole, so easily called away
Unity of
self and world
melt,
unity, together, disappear into the crowd, all together
Going away
farewell,
the end, go away, bye, gone, disappear, goodbye, lost, lost inside the mind,
sucked up into his mind, hello/goodbye, vanishing girl
Death
death,
dead, all dead, die, dying, hangman, hanged, gallows, guillotine, killed,
killer, showdown, no one knows I'm alive, you're killing yourself, the killer
in me/you, don't fear the reaper, the reaper is you/me, I don't live today, now
it's time to die, farewell to kings, is this not dying
Loss of
control
helpless,
control, loss of control, losing control, 5150 [police code for psychotic
crime], taking over, take control, assumed control, caught, held, toy, puppet,
voodoo, doll, trapped, no one there to steer, no place to hide, no way out,
where to hide, there's no choice, no escape, prisoners, on the run, paranoid,
hypnotized, mesmerized, no stopping, nothing can stop me, train off tracks,
runaway train, too late, heart attack, panic, racing, can't control my
fingers/rain
Elevation
spirit,
rise, sky, fly, flying, flew too high, flight, wings, float(ing), soar(ing),
high, higher, astral, elevate, elevator, close(r) to God, riding high, flying
high, never coming down, carpet, sky pilot, stone temple pilots, astral,
rocket, airplane, ship(s), starship, spaceship, magic bus, mystery tour,
balloon, ride the tier, bike ride to the moon, back in the saddle, psilocybic
pony, see-saw, crazy train, strapped in the electric chair, ride the lightning,
climbing the stairway, over the mountain, catch a saucer, climb the hill, how
high can you fly, interstellar overdrive
Falling
fall,
down, crash, led zeppelin
Travel
fountain,
float down the river, flow, stream, float downstream, path, track, walking down
that lonesome road, you're on your own, loneliness of the long-distance runner,
journey, trip, sail, ride, travellers, take a rise, free ride, up and away on
the open road, ride the tiger
Steersman
captain,
ship, steer, guide, guidance, direction, show me, lead me, helm, helmsman
Victor
champion(s),
prince, hero(es), victor(y), triumph(ant)
Circle
vortex,
whirlpool, maelstrom, black hole, round, circle, loop, ring, merry-go-round,
spinning, whirling, circling skies, calliope freezing and crashing, spinning
wheel, spiral stairs, magic ride goes round and round, spiral architect, ring
of stupidity, see the world spinning round
Insanity
insane,
insanity, piece of mind, mad, madness, madman, crazy, lunatic, confusion, mind,
(no) reason, (no) logic, blow my mind, lose your mind, you drive me mad, don't
understand, break down, nervous breakdown, out of my head, fever, burning in my
brain, Alladin Sane
Truth vs
illusion
truth,
lie(s), reality, false world, illusion, never-never land, unreal, nothing is
real, the grand illusion, the royal scam, now truth is false
A little web research reveals the plausibility and brilliance of James Arthur's conclusion that the Vajrayana short path of enlightenment is shamanic. Watts' book The Way of Zen mentions Vajrayana as the lightning-fast short path to satori, in several places.
There are just a few hints on the Web, just enough to validate Arthur. Vajrayana was created by combining tantric buddhism and the native Bon shamanism of Tibet. Just as Christianity has its hidden entheogenic source, so do Buddhism and Hinduism.
We can talk of original entheogenic Christianity, original entheogenic Buddhism, and original entheogenic Hinduism. What can we name these - gnostic alchemy, Vajrayana, and Vedanta?
Before I discovered the entheogenic dimension of religions, I debated over how much to emphasize cognitive loosening agents. My natural inclination was to emphasize them alot, but I first felt I had to "diminish" or understate the relevance of them, to emphasize the transcendent worldmodel instead.
After a few years of this awkward semi-suppression of the agents, after the core theory or worldmodel reached maturity with only minor reference to cognitive loosening agents, I had sufficiently differentiated the two topics: the agents, and the worldmodel.
After catching up with the latest books covering the entheogenic theory of the origin of religions, I now think that it is fully justified and necessary to strongly emphasize these cognitive loosening agents as being practically attached to the transcendent worldmodel; distinct yet firmly attached.
This transcendent worldmodel can fully stand on its own as systematic modern philosophical metaphysics of time, self, control, and will, but what would be stilted, artificial, and dishonest is to suppress the importance and effectiveness of the cognitive loosening agents.
It would be false to deliver the theoretical system of metaphysical insights without bundling it with the practical knowledge of how cognitive loosening works, and why cognitive loosening typically produces this transcendent worldmodel.
There is a full interconnection between cognitive loosening and worldmodel revision. They arrive in the world bundled together like king and queen, or 1s and 0s, or hardware and software. I just had to figure out how to correctly express their intimate relationship.
It is right to fully emphasize cognitive loosening and fully emphasize the classic worldmodel resulting from it, while differentiating between the two. The mystic state is not the revelation of insights revealed in the mystic state. Both actually work together as a system.
There is no workable system if you eliminate the loosening agent, or if you eliminate the metaphysical worldmodel. A practical technology of short-path enlightenment absolutely requires a convenient technique for loosening cognition, and a body of concepts presented in such a way as to facilitate rapid knowledge transfer.
Can you "gain enlightenment" without firsthand experience of loose cognition? Perhaps, but you certainly cannot practically *experience* enlightenment if you have the precise theoretical knowledge such as I am summarizing, if you lack loose cognition. You would still be a virgin, uninitiated, despite having read accurate, complete, comprehensive, and sufficient definition of the body of transcendent concepts.
Enlightenment *can* be defined and expressed in words. The experience cannot be conveyed *as experience* through words alone. Words are *required* for the "understanding" half of transcendence, and loose cognition is *required* for the "experiencing" half.
Though transcendent knowledge is distinct from transcendent experiencing, these two limit each other. You can't have full transcendent knowledge without full transcendent experiencing. You can't have full transcendent experiencing without full transcendent knowledge.
Lately I have assumed that my goal is *maximizing* transcendent knowledge and transcendent experiencing together. To maximize one, you must maximize the other. A theory of transcendent knowledge without a full technique of transcendent experiencing could never attain fulfillment and true maturity or completion.
A complete theory of transcendent knowledge *requires* a complete theory of transcendent experiencing -- that is, a full practical technique for attaining and employing loose cognition. That has been my recent approach and it is absurd to suppress entheogenic dimension.
I will continue to emphasize entheogens and continue to emphasize metaphysical worldmodels. The two work together and it is only silly to de-emphasize either part. Entheogens have been suppressed for too long. This stance will cost me some audience and gain me some audience.
I must be true to the ideas and agents both, and trust the audience to make their own decisions of whether to accept this bundled system. The only way I can achieve my recent vision of a super- efficient technology of transcendence is to fully put forth the potentials of entheogenic loose cognition techniques as well as putting forth a metaphysical worldmodel.
Thus will be created the first modern designed efficient system of transcendence -- something desacralized and modernized, mass- produced. If conventional approaches to transcendence are like the Macintosh user environment (sacred, a religion, covertly elitist) the approach people need and want is like Windows: cheap, no-frills, truly accessible, anti-elitist -- just an unassuming "good enough" tool to get the job done without making a glorified big deal out of it.
I want to be revolutionary by de-revolutionizing religion and bringing it down off its pedestal. Instant gratification, shrink- wrapped, fast-food, disposable enlightenment. Actually, the mystery religions had a comparable "chain-store" approach. I'm learning this attitude slowly -- I want to popularize the popularizer, Alan Watts, but do so like he did: resting on an unusually solid foundation.
Previous attempts at conveying transcendence are like SGML -- too complex to ever work. The short path is like XML's ideal -- simple enough to spread effectively while retaining potency.
Alan Watts for a generation with zero attention span -- it's justified, because mystic insight can and should be something so simple it requires no attention span. Those before me spoke against blind belief, in favor of direct experience.
So do I have to overthrow the assumption that mystic insight and experience are complicated or difficult. Rather, they are utterly simple and easy. This is really the only alternative, since the systems that portray it as complicated and difficult never reach the goal.
There are not two paths, one long and one short. There is only one practical path: the short path, which is the effective path, the path that works.
There is a
strong distinction between what a religionist believed and what they professed
to believe. Some mystics and clergy who
professed literalism believed esotericism.
We can only guess what percentage of supposed literalists were actually
closet esotericists.
There's
nothing terribly difficult about understanding or experiencing the esoteric
realm. Anyone in power was well-placed
to procure teachers and methods of exploring the esoteric realm. Not everyone who understands or experiences
the esoteric realm publically professes it.
There were
great socio-political forces preventing the public flourishing of esoteric
religion, at least in the Western religions, with only seemingly momentary
exceptions. The Mystery-Religions,
using mass initiation, clearly indicate that nonordinary experiencing is
potentially available on tap and isn't actually hard to come by, with
appropriate tools and techniques.
Explorers
of the psyche operated under heavy constraints. Mystics were perpetually persecuted by the official leaders of
their religions, and this limited and constrained the form of mysticism and the
records we have of it. They had to be
guarded and use veiled, obscure language, and "oral tradition" or
"oral teachings".
In
accordance with the official religionists, we think we know that mystic
experiencing is rare and beyond rationality, and only understood by a few, but
we don't know even that much. We
mistake familiar notions with reliable knowledge. The esoteric is not really so elite, so far up, so hard to
reach. The Gnostics were elitists, but
the step up was not really so high as to be beyond the reach of typical
people.
The
elitism of the mystics or Gnostics is more like the elitism inherent in knowing
a language or knowing how to read at a competent level, not like the elitism of
being taller than average or learning quantum mechanics calculations.
Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)