Thelemic Mage,
You misunderstand me if you think that I am saying that illusion is the enemy of Truth. I am not saying that at all. The great paradox is that is it in one sense Truth, the very substance of Truth.
And I agree that there is a substance that could take every human being right to that place which we aim for.
My battle with Jim is about the co-existence of the aeons.
So to continue with Frater INRI’s questions…mindful that we are talking about our cognitive capacity as human beings.
What neuroscience breakthroughs are we talking about exactly?
One primary example is recent breakthrough in our understanding that it is the linguistic faculty which makes us uniquely human rather than our ability to walk upright; that is homo loquax versus homo sapiens. The Cognitive Science of Religion has also recently “discovered” that knowledge (omniscience) is the definition of God. The Cognitive Linguists for their part has also “discovered” that God is a conceptual metaphor.
Well, priests all over the globe have been saying this for thousands of years…in English “in the beginning was the word.” Or alternately, from one popular source, “there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line is gone through all the earth.”
In response to your inclination “to disagree with the notion that neural circuits…brains[s] are all we have”, I will simply quote an African idiom; “but for its head, the snake would be a belt.” I am here referencing the primacy of the brain. You may cut your foot off today and still be able to respond to my post. But try cutting off your head, well don’t cut off your head, just take your brains out and try and respond to this post.
Evoking four kings…willingly. Well all you really need is Will isn’t it? The whole aim of initiating is to get past the trappings of ritual and external paraphernalia and simply control your universe with your mind. To quote the ThelemicMage “it’s as if you have the entire movement of the Earth and the Stars at your Will, completely.”
My dear friend, as it is written, “let my servants be few and secret, they shall rule the many and the known.” There are many people on “the path” who engage tirelessly in rituals without any success; and there are others who simply “chant”, speak, sing and the Gods appear. Again, “there is hope and help in other Spells” and “other sheep have I that are not of this fold.” I Am the way, the Truth and the Light…I Am My Way, My Truth and My Light. Every person has to find their own way.
Again, we are talking about cognitive capacity. An aeon according to Thelema is defined by ”thousands of years with vast evolutionary shifts in human consciousness.” First off, in more mundane terms, we are not Squid, the female doesn’t die after she gives birth. In most human cultures (which do not subscribe to the nuclear family model), up to three generations can live in a household…the ages co-existing if you will.
At the species level, we are saying that a certain kind of brain, makes for a certain mode of existence being. Cognitive scientists have identified what they term as “recurring symbols” in every human culture (so far known). These include, the cross, circle, colors, a holy spirit, notions of left and right etc. One recurring symbol among the species (not yet addressed by cognitive scientists), the existence of so-called gods, aliens, extra-terrestrials which resemble the human brain. Smaller human-like creatures whose dominant feature is not their body, but their but their brain. It is as if these creatures having fully developed the potential of their brain, have less use for the physical. That I believe is something to ponder.
So I ask.
What type of brain would be needed to speak every language that exists on the planet, as a few unknown members of our species are able to do in this aeon?
There is credible evidence of this.
What type of brain would be needed to be able to ground a ship in a seaport; kill a member of the crew by extracting his heart without ever touching him; and make hollow the inside of melons without prior knowledge of their location in this aeon?
There is a credible story.
What type of brain would be required to make one invulnerable to bullets? Or to make a person disappear in this aeon?
There is a credible story.
What kind of brain would be required to raise the dead, have it walk to a specified place of burial and then make it die again so it can be properly buried?
What kind of brain to bi-locate at Will?, to Transmorph? To fly?....
All of these things are happening in our aeon, have been happening before our aeon, and will be happening after.
Neither, the individuals who do these seeming impossible things, nor those who witness them speak about them much.
For example, I met one person who was present in Rwanda during the period of the genocide. I was told about warriors who were able to defy bullets and other such phenomenon. Upon coming back to the west, the person spoke with awe and bewilderment, ending each account with the words “nobody talks about this shit.”
Some members of our species can remember their past lives, but what kind of brain would it take to remember one’s future life?
What I am saying is that in every known culture around the world, their exists individuals who do things deemed impossible for our age. They also know other Truths,,,about beings living in the sea, in the earth, with us on the earth, and not just those who are commonly thought to come from up above. They know about the past aeons and about the future.
And what of those living amongst us, who look like us, but are not us? And what kind of brain would it take to be able to recognize these beings whose true nature is invisible to the common eye? And are these beings of a past aeon or a future? Are they our past, or our future?
In one sense, you may say that if the equipment exists, but people don’t use it, because they know how to, then no shifts will occur. Or, if the few people who figure out how to use it, keep it a secret, then there is co-existence; a minute few who know and the masses who don’t know. This is the great triangle or pyramid the knowers at the top and others at the base. This is the model existence of the universe as we as we are able to discern. The ages must always co-existence because matri/patricide and infanticide would wipe out a species. There isn’t a break and a vast shift occurs out of nowhere. There is no tabula rasa.
As a species, we have dedicated more time to finding differences among us (of there is none), than working on understanding our commonality. This is the benefit of some aspects of cognitive science. The knowledge is exists, but we generally don’t know HOW or WHERE to look for it. And it is within this context that the dictum “Know Thyself” becomes a paradox. Until we equally value each member of the human family, each human culture; then we will never what breakthroughs have been made. The west was “won” by genocide and the mass destruction of sacred elements of native cultures. When considers the absurdity of destroying the stone sculpture of the Aztec serpent god Quetzalcoatl and replacing with it the catholic cross, and of forcing Beninese natives to destroy their ancestral Asen; then one truly understands how much time we have wasted in our attempt to get at the Truth.
To revert to the original post, in a very real sense, my speck of dust tells me, that if the ages didn’t co-exist, there would be no such thing as “unredeemed elements of our overall consciousness.” From whence do we redeem them, and where will they abide when they are redeemed?
In the end, all I am saying is that given the abysmal failure of Western (style) academia, and of many Western esoteric groups and given that some much is hidden; we cannot make blanket statements about what does or does not exist. And we must be careful about what we think counts as credible evidence. We are a species divided by varying types and degrees of prejudice and we can’t know really what breakthroughs the “other” is making or has made. We must always remain open, and open to infinite possibilities…Nuit’s blanket is the “head which is not.”
The only Truth Seekers worthy of the name Mystic are those who have travelled far and wide, above and below; within and without physically and otherwise, and they never ever ever make absolute statements about existence.
“Hermes to hear, Dionysius to touch and Pan to behold.”
Love is the Law, Love under Will.