Thelemic Materialism (Thelemic Philosophy)
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A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Legis said
"If you believe your position to be "correct," then lets hear the incontrovertible truth from which your logic about what may be known stems. What's the foundation?"
I'm going to start from my specific position and move back more generally.
My position, on the particular issue that we're discussing, is that the physical world demonstrably exists and that -- at least at the moment -- there is insufficient evidence to think that any worlds beside the physical world exist (that is to say, there is insufficient evidence to think that there are some "spirit" worlds or "astral" worlds).
The "foundation" of this position is that the claim that the material world exists is very well supported (since the material world is clearly demonstrable), while claims that other worlds exist don't have anything approaching sufficient evidence to support them.
We could say also that "foundational" to my approach to this question -- and all questions, in fact -- is the notion (1) that it's easier to navigate the world if one has as accurate an understanding of the world as possible (given the evidence currently at one's disposal) and the notion (2) that the best way to acquire as accurate an understanding of the world as possible (given the evidence currently at one’s disposal at any particular moment) is to only accept claims for which there is (currently) sufficient evidence and to not accept claims for which there is (currently) insufficient evidence, always being ready to refine one’s understanding of claims as new evidence becomes available.
If you want to call the two “notions” I listed in the above paragraph “axioms,” I would dispute that because both notions are demonstrable.
Ok, now the ball’s in your court: where – exactly and precisely -- do you think I’m just “choosing” to believe stuff, just ‘cause? Be very specific in your answer -- and preferably succinct, if you can be -- and you’ll get a specific and thoughtful reply.
As I said before, depending on exactly what you say, I may even agree partially or fully with you. It depends on what you exactly have in mind, which is the whole point of having a discussion in the first place.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
It's a tautology.
You've already defined "exists" as being material, so you're basically saying, "the material is material, and stuff that is not material is not material."
profound
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
Los,
"Sufficient evidence": "Sufficient" is a subjective-opinion word. Anyone can claim that evidence is "sufficient" for them. Personally, I'm fine with that. I think that's all that ever really happens anyway.
What you're suggesting, though, is that there is some standard for "sufficient" by which such a personal judgement may be ultimately and finally determined to be correct or incorrect.
What is that standard?
Your unstated axiom lies at the beginning of the logic for creating that standard.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"You've already defined "exists" as being material, so you're basically saying, "the material is material, and stuff that is not material is not material.""
I've never defined "exists" as being "material." The definition I gave of "exists" is "manifesting in a detectable way."
So, to give an obvious example, the ideas I have for my next short story aren't "material" in the sense that I can't wrap my knuckles on them, but these ideas obviously do manifest in a detectable way (even if they're only detectable by me until I write them down).
See? Avshalom Binyamin has provided us a great example of someone making conclusions based on his fantasies about my positions instead of bothering to read and comprehend my actual position and draw conclusions based on what I say.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Los said
"See? Avshalom Binyamin has provided us a great example of someone making conclusions based on his fantasies about my positions instead of bothering to read and comprehend my actual position and draw conclusions based on what I say."
That's why I asked instead, which you also complained about.
Now, to my question:
@Legis said
"What is that standard?
Your unstated axiom lies at the beginning of the logic for creating that standard."
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Legis said
"Los,
"Sufficient evidence": "Sufficient" is a subjective-opinion word. Anyone can claim that evidence is "sufficient" for them. Personally, I'm fine with that. I think that's all that ever really happens anyway."
Obviously anyone can say that they find X, Y, or Z "sufficient" to support a claim (they "can" do this in the sense that it's physically possible for them to make such a statement).
However, there are indeed objective standards by which we evaluate whether evidence is sufficient or insufficient to support claims: these standards depend on the particular situation (on the exact claim, the specific evidence, and how the person making the claim is attempting to connect the evidence to the claim). For that reason, we can't sum these standards up into little pithy sayings that you can stick on your fridge, but we can -- for each and every instance of claims, evidence, and argument -- draw objective conclusions about whether arguments and evidence are sufficient to support the claims.
These answers aren’t always easy, so people may disagree – in the same way that people may “disagree” over the answer to a calculus problem that each one of them got different answers for.
If we all did a calculus problem, and we each got a different answer, obviously each one of us would be able to “show our work,” and could say, “But I did the work right here, and my work convinced me!!” but only one of us would be able to show the work properly proceeding through the steps necessary to solve the problem.
It would be no use to object, “But “properly proceeding” is subjective! There’s no way to know who’s right!” because there is a way to know who’s right.
Take a simple case as illustrative. Let’s say you have a friend who can’t find his keys, and he tells you, “I think it’s most likely that aliens took my keys.” You ask why he thinks this. He says, “I had a daydream about aliens yesterday, and I think that was really a transmission from the mother ship to my mind, telling me that I’m being watched.”
Obviously, this guy is convinced by that argument. He’s “showed his work” and he finds it sufficient to support his claim. But is it actually sufficient? Of course not. A daydream can’t be evidence for what happened to one’s keys. Even if it were true that the daydream were a communication – and there’s no reason to think that it is – there still would be no valid way to conclude that whoever sent the communication also took the keys.
This guy is objectively wrong in thinking that he has sufficient evidence to support that claim, just like the kid in class who has the wrong answer is objectively wrong that his work sufficiently demonstrates the answer he volunteered. It doesn’t matter that the kid can “show his work” and it doesn’t matter that the guy can provide an argument that he thinks is sufficient…they’re both demonstrably wrong.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Los said
"
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"You've already defined "exists" as being material, so you're basically saying, "the material is material, and stuff that is not material is not material.""I've never defined "exists" as being "material." The definition I gave of "exists" is "manifesting in a detectable way."
So, to give an obvious example, the ideas I have for my next short story aren't "material" in the sense that I can't wrap my knuckles on them, but these ideas obviously do manifest in a detectable way (even if they're only detectable by me until I write them down)."
So, something you imagine, exists, because you can detect it?
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
Los, I'm noticing that you keep dancing around such an axiom with Av. Only, you don't seem to realize that it's what I'm talking about.
It would go something like this:
"Everything that exists manifests itself in a detectable way."
Response? Correction?
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Legis said
"Los, I'm noticing that you keep dancing around such an axiom with Av. Only, you don't seem to realize that it's what I'm talking about.
It would go something like this:
"Everything that exists manifests itself in a detectable way."
Response? Correction?"
Exactly. He's caught!
Since "manifestation in a detectable way" inherently interfaces the senses, and (according to Los' position today) this is the basis of how something is known to "exist," by his own words, his position is on par with subjective idealism.
Los, I suggest you go read Bishop Berkeley and brush up on your 17th Century immaterialism.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"So, something you imagine, exists, because you can detect it?"
Yes, it exists as an act of make believe. The plot of my short story that I'm imagining right now is a real act of imagination going on in my head.
In the same way, when one of you imagines chatting up one of your preternatural buddies, that's a real act of imagination.
But what doesn't exist -- in the sense of existing separate from you in the same way that your table exists separately from you -- is the preternatural buddy itself. That preternatural buddy exists only as an act of make believe, not as an actual separate being. In the same way, my short story plot exists only as an act of make believe, not something separate from me.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Legis said
"Los, I'm noticing that you keep dancing around such an axiom with Av. Only, you don't seem to realize that it's what I'm talking about.
It would go something like this:
"Everything that exists manifests itself in a detectable way."
Response? Correction?"
Ok, are you saying that this is an undemonstrated axiom from which I begin?
I'm not quite comfortable with that particular phrasing because I suppose there could be something that exists but that doesn't manifest in a way that is detectable by any human ever, but in that case, such a thing would be completely indistinguishable from something that doesn't exist, and, therefore, no human would be justified in thinking that it actually does exist.
I would phrase it as, "For all practical purposes, 'real things' or 'existent things' are those things that manifest in detectable ways, such that at least one human is capable, at some point in time, of detecting it. Anything that 'exists' but is utterly undetectable by any human being ever is completely indistinguishable from not-existing and can be treated, for all practical purposes, as not existing."
But I don't think that claim is undemonstrable. I induced it from my experience of real things...manifesting in detectable ways is a property of all real things.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Los said
"
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"So, something you imagine, exists, because you can detect it?"Yes. The plot of my short story that I'm imagining right now is a real act of imagination going on in my head.
In the same way, when one of you imagines chatting up one of your preternatural buddies, that's a real act of imagination.
But what doesn't exist -- in the sense of existing separate from you in the same way that your table exists separately from you -- is the preternatural buddy itself. That preternatural buddy exists only as an act of make believe, not as an actual separate being."
Well, that's difficult to prove. How would you suggest we set up the experiment? Could we include subjective (qualitative) data?
Please address how anything exists without one perceiving it. Again, you need to rethink your idea of materialism -- it seems much closer to subjective idealism.
The issue lies with you saying you believe something exists in the mind, but you can't measure it with objective measurements (quantitative measurement) -- this has to do with your bias of emphasizing one aspect of research over the other. This a superstitious belief.
Do you have a problem admitting when something smells like bread? How do people agree on what smells like bread?
This is how we arrive a correlating data in the astral, bro.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
Well, I think part of the problem is that everyone keeps jumping several steps ahead to how they think Los is defeated before he gets the chance to actually understand and accept the position as his own, without having to worry about someone telling him it's wrong before he gets there himself.
I'm hoping to go one step at a time so that, if nothing else, he can fully, logically own being a naturalist, materialist, or whatever, beginning to end, without just devolving into the merely superficial authority of eternal doubt's rhetorical ability.
I'm looking for positive "knowing" instead of merely negative "knowing."
@Los said
" "For all practical purposes, 'real things' or 'existent things' are those things that manifest in detectable ways, such that at least one human is capable, at some point in time, of detecting it. Anything that 'exists' but is utterly undetectable by any human being ever is completely indistinguishable from not-existing and can be treated, for all practical purposes, as not existing.""
This gets at it, but it adds a bit of the logic that supports and follows.
I think it would be good to try to get to the most concise statement of the idea. Something like:
"That which exists is detectable."
Rephrase?
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Los said
"
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"So, something you imagine, exists, because you can detect it?"Yes, it exists as an act of make believe. The plot of my short story that I'm imagining right now is a real act of imagination going on in my head.
In the same way, when one of you imagines chatting up one of your preternatural buddies, that's a real act of imagination.
But what doesn't exist -- in the sense of existing separate from you in the same way that your table exists separately from you -- is the preternatural buddy itself. That preternatural buddy exists only as an act of make believe, not as an actual separate being. In the same way, my short story plot exists only as an act of make believe, not something separate from me."
So we both agree that there is a non material world of imagination and ideas.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Legis said
"I think it would be good to try to get to the most concise statement of the idea. Something like:
"That which exists is detectable.""
Well, the problem here is that what we're talking about is complicated enough that trying to condense it into fortune-cookie type sayings is inevitably going to lead to misunderstandings.
If we're talking about what humans are justified in accepting as existent -- speaking in practical terms, in the context of useful knowledge -- then I would say that "Someone is justified in accepting as existent that which is detectable, once the person in question has sufficient evidence for thinking the thing in question has been detected."
In that case, maybe we could use your fortune cookie statement as a brief summary of that concept.
But if we're talking about "exist" in the sense of being some real ontological object -- in the sense that it's possible for something to exist in another dimension, such that no human could ever possibly detect it -- then no, your fortune cookie statement wouldn't be sufficient.
In such a case -- where we're talking about, let's say, some being that inhabits another dimension that no human has ever detected and that no human, no matter what any human ever does, could ever possibly detect that being, ever -- I would argue that such a being, "existent" though it may be in some sense, is, from the perspective of humans, completely and totally indistinguishable from something that doesn't exist and that humans are more than justified as treating it as something that doesn't exist.
I don't think it particularly helps the conversation to try to boil these complex ideas into sentences of monosyllabic words.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"So we both agree that there is a non material world of imagination and ideas."
Depends on what you mean. Concepts and ideas are real things and we can't poke them with a stick, so they're obviously "non material" in one sense.
But on the other hand, we know that these concepts and ideas emerge from electrical activity in physical brains and are stored in physical brains. Further, we have no reason to suppose that these things do -- or even could -- exist apart from material brains. So they're not "non material" in the sense of being utterly separate from material.
As ever, it depends on the meaning of the words being used. Which is exactly why it's so unproductive to try to reduce everything to fortune cookie sayings.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
So are we back to your tautology, that only the material is material?
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
@Avshalom Binyamin said
"So are we back to your tautology, that only the material is material?"
Look, buddy, if you're interested in having a serious, grown up conversation, you have to stop talking in riddles and fortune cookies.
You asked me if we both think that a non-material world exists, and I explained that it depends on what you mean by that. If your implication is that there is some world other than the material one -- in the sense of being an entirely separate world that doesn't depend on the material world -- then there is insufficient evidence to think that this is the case.
Nothing about what I've said there is a "tautology," and the only way to pretend that it is is to reduce these complicated and nuanced ideas to misleading fortune-cookie summaries and try to talk about your fortune cookies instead of the actual conversation.
-
A few discussions on this forum stimulated this thinking process for me recently (Thanks Los!) and I find it actually quite interesting. Wondering if the community here would not mind if I run it by to get a little feedback or edit/augmentation.
One of the appeals of Thelema to me historically was the idea of how compatible Thelema is with other religious, esoteric, or mystical traditions, and in principle, any religious or mystical tradition is 'upgradeable' to Aeon 3.0 so to speak.
Thelema, I think most here would agree, is a combination of a philosophy and a religion. Putting the religious component aside, how compatible is Thelema with modern western philosophy, primarily Materialism or Physicalism?
There is no question that Philosophical Materialism is the dominant 'belief system' of academic and educated western society. What does it look like if combined with Thelema?
This is where, to be honest, I found Los' posts absolutely fascinating because at face value, to me at least, I did not see compatibility between Philosophical Materialism with Philosophical Thelema (unless of course one is uniting philosophical materialism and combining it with it's opposite to produce a new child or synthesis).
Materialism is a monism - meaning it assumes there is only the measurable physical reality and provides no allowances for spirits or a mysterious dimension to consciousness and any activity must be a function of the brain/body
.
Thelema, one could say would still be Philosophical Dualism (as defined by philosophy, not thelemites) because Thelema of course does have allowances for spirits and indeed credits it's existence as a preternatural spirit as it's author.This gets interesting, I promise
As defined by Crowley (can't find the reference), the Aeon of Isis could be understood simply as the aeon where 'the material denies the spiritual'. The Aeon of Osiris could be defined as 'the spiritual denies the material'. Distinguished by our modern Aeon that is the child Horus, product of Isis and Osiris - 'both material and spiritual, at once' (my words).
This suggests to me that actually the idea of a Thelemic Materialism is quite an interesting 'concunction' to ponder. What happens to the union with the spiritual in a purely physical philosophy that for all states and purposes, is Thelemic? How does the physical transform enough to allow for all things spiritual, and how does the spiritual transform to become all things material?
What this would suggest to me is that a very pivotal point in the evolution of Western Science is on the horizon and we can find evidence of this emergence in academic progress now currently just outside of mainstream.
The reemergence of Pan Psychism'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism as a mainstream theory. The discovery that the material universe is 'alive', having an experience with various levels of intelligence. (this idea is still not taken seriously amongst mainstream outspoken proponents of materialism, but at least it's now an accepted 'debate' academically philpapers.org/rec/HOLPPN).
Where does Materialism begin to 'touch' it's opposite and find a transcendent in the New Aeon?
Daniel Dennet and Ray Kurzweil famously assert that 'computers' can be conscious, and have conscious experience. Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. One favorite quote of mine by Kurzweil is "People ask me if I believe God exists, I always reply 'not yet' "
Coupled with the discovery that the universe, too, is a giant quantum computer. www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-universe-is-a-quantum-computer.html Seth Lloyd makes it clear that he is not saying the universe is like a quantum computer, it actually IS a quantum computer.
So to summarize - Materialism may be the least explored and possibly most relevant candidate for synthesis with Thelema that may do more to establish the 'aeon of the crowned and conquering child' than any other body of religious thought.
And while I often disagree with Los's conclusions, I do think his explorations of a purely material Thelema is something that is worthwhile and needs the support of the thelemic community.
Would love to hear some thoughts or feedback. Apologies if I have bastardized any one's knowledge or understanding and please correct me where you feel I have.
I never said anything of the sort.
All I'm saying is that we both agree that imaginary goblins are real.
All we need for evidence is that it is detectable to at least one person.