Solipsistic Trance

Where do I go?
When the sun sets
To the east ?
Or the west?

Time is running out
I must hurry and choose a direction
I need a place to go when the sun goes down

It is nor clear waht I should pick it
But what if I choose the wrong one?
On to my death or my survival?
This risk why am I here with this risk?
The question with no apparent answer
Forbidden by those who call themselves sane
Sun draws near set…

The lower edge slices into the earth at the horizon
Time runs
Why am I here?
Time runs
What if I chose wrong?
Time runs

Still, why have I come here to be in this problem?
What if I die?
What if I live?
Time runs
Sun lowers evermore

What’s the real difference if death is the absence of life, but the life is denial or constant facing of death?
The two are the same
Time runs

I’m either dead or living hoping not to be dead
No matter what, death will always be here haunting me
Time runs

So why run to the east?
Or the west?
Sun starts to fade out of sight

The way I preoccupy my self with death and the avoidance of it
I shouldn’t have to fear it
I am death
Why not?
If its on my mind
And it is what defines my life?
Because if I did not die, I would not be aware that I lived

The sun sets and darkens engulfs all into nothingness….

……….……………Its like nothing ever changed…………………….…

Total Understanding (TRUTH) is Acceptance

Many seekers of truth, as they think of themselves, are searching for what they call enlightenment/truth or what can be called complete understanding or knowing. This may seem to be a path for the pretentious. Some would say, "One who seeks for truth thinks of themselves as better then others". Therefore, the path to enlightenment/truth or total understanding is given a bad rap. I'd like to offer you another way of thinking about understanding and the path to enlightenment(total understanding), not as a positive accumulation of knowledge or information, but as a passive accepting forgiveness which allows one to fully grasp something in its totality.

So, how can forgiveness lead to understanding?. Well, the bad-ass freelance philosopher/writer Alan Watts once said "To understand all is to forgive all.". The value of this statement didn't dawn on me at first. I had to think it over. I asked myself how could understanding which is a knowing of information be connected with pardoning something. This was not clear at all.

What does it mean to forgive? Some one does something hurtful to us. We feel resentment for them. Yet there are times we withdraw our negative feelings and put them aside. For example a baby knocks over a glass cup at a table. Most would not get mad at the baby. That is because they UNDERSTAND that the baby has no sense of judgement yet (hopefully).

So now this idea of forgiveness as understanding was clear to me. But being the intellectual manic that I am, I pushed this idea to its logical extreme. To illustrate, your eating at a mall food court and a man sits next to you to eat because the place is crowded. After the two of you eat for a few minuets his legs jolt and smack the table causing your tray of food to land on you lap ruining the food. You not KNOWING the person would get mad without hesitation. Yet if you KNEW his history of severe restless leg syndrome you would of withheld your negativity.

Then I started to think maybe if you knew everything about a person you would always be able to forgive them, because you would be able to understand their history and what circumstance brought him or her there to that point. We all know (hopefully) that virtually all of who/what we are is a result of our environment, and we have no control over that.

So, if one would to forgive all that happens, he/she is attempting to understand it all. If one accomplishes this then they will be in acceptance of all that is because they will fully pardon all of its misgivings and welcome its pleasures. From there understanding takes place- because with a clear and open mind the person could learn from the world unfettered by his fears or cultural/social/personal history biases. This state of openness is the hallmark of religious and mystic practice.

This (mind state of openness) is enlightenment through the understanding by means of forgiveness and acceptance; the path to enlightenment/truth is not selfish retaining of knowledge but full acceptance of all that is.     

What is Philosophy? Does it have use?

If you look up the term in a dictionary it will define as: the study of wisdom.
How can one study wisdom? Common sense tells us that wisdom is achieved intuitively over long periods of experience. So how could one learn in a book or class setting what life itself as a whole can only teach?
Wisdom in the dictionary is defined in short as knowing right from wrong. Again this skill (wisdom) seems to be gained solely from experience and life in general, not a classroom over a few years (like one can  learn other skills; engineering medicine etc).

Therefore most people laugh (thinking its a joke) or question the mental health of the person when they announce that their college major is philosophy. Some even think of philosophy students as completely pretentious.

Ive been thinking this over for a while and i think we can reach wisdom in the class setting. One other aspect of philosophy which permeates it yet is not mentioned in the very name (philos) is critical thinking and critical perspective.
This I believe is where the value of philosophy is at its most evident. Critical thinking- the ability to suspend ones own beliefs and the beliefs of others, into a realm of speculative thought which opens up new ways of thinking about the same old issues. This is the hallmark of innovation and paradigm shifts (think of Thomas Kuhn's book).
It is while we critically analyze something that we can "step out of the box" and almost objectively comprehend our own positions and those of others.

This is not only a value to intellectuals, this is of value to everyone. This is the real skill of philosophy, critical perspective. Most of us in the US are made to skip to critical thinking questions for homework in public school. The reason being that its too hard because there is no one clear cut answer. That's because it requires us to THINK. And as humans we are THINKING ANIMALS (thats our skill, in the same way as the birds skill is flight). Yet most students will complain if they are doing a task which requires anything over rudimentary cognitive skill.... but i digress.

Therefore the way in which students of philosophy study wisdom is through critical perspective- the suspending of beliefs into a neutral zone of somewhat-objectivity (i donut say complete objectivity because of Kant's theories). And philosophy is useful for everyone; being a student of psychology has shown me that the difference between depression and happiness is a change in perceptive- and if we are able to change our perspective at will- this skill (this wisdom) can benefit many people who feel stuck in maladaptive perspectives and world views.

If you are wondering why i say critical thinking is knowing right from wrong, it is because knowing that one can be wrong about their own position is probably the most sane thing a person can assume. Because given enough time, all theories can prove to be either false or incomplete.

Interpretation of the album LIGHT by Irreversible

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD FOR FREE: http://irreversible.bandcamp.com//

Statement about the music from the artists:

Light produces the experience of an audible trip around the circle of fifths. All twelve major keys are demonstrated throughout one rotation of the 64-minute movement.
(We recommend the use of headphones and the repeat function.)
These lyrics are crystallizations of the sequential phases found within the process of personal/planetary evolution. Over a two year period, each piece was transmitted through both natural and “unnatural” mediums. We present this album as a gift to anyone capable of hearing it, in hopes of encouraging self awareness and the fulfillment of one’s utmost potential. Share with each other.

  My statement about the lyrics and my aim for this blog:
I am approaching this material as a student of psychology studying the writings of a mystic describing altered states of consciousness and a system of metaphysics. The lyrics will be conveyed in a mythological format with the hero as the central figure.

Boundary Dissolution
Awakened by Natures song from the nightmare of history. Descending from the trees, to ascend to the stars. This refers to the evolutionary lineage of our species changing from tree dwelling apes to a hybrid of human biology and technology leaving the planet for an intergalactic existence not bound by the earth.
Reject the fate of the unconscious and the fear they send out as a weapon against us. Ignite the flame of intelligence. The love that we have is the pain that we carry. This refers to the paradoxical notion that within our pain is the way to unconditional love because we must love the struggle of life with all our heart in order to feel bliss.
Song Summery: The lyrics in this song layout the modern day myth in which the hero wakes up to their species (homo sapiens) divine nature and fate (the singularity/the Omega point/the transcendental object at the end of space-time) which the greater consensus is ignorant and event hostile toward by trying to repress such knowledge. So the hero is told that they must light the flame of intelligence by accumulating self-knowledge, rejecting the status quo’s ignorance, and perceiving pain differently by embracing it. The title refers to the diluting of personal and external boundaries upon learning that ones inner mental space and external world are interconnected and share the same fate, thereby causing the sense of self to expand; thus the boundaries of the self fall into dissolution.
Time Compressing
Dunes appear as wind, shaped by the eternal image cast back through time. This refers to a kind of strange attractor in the future which shapes the past by pulling it towards itself and shaping historical events; this is also a Mckennaean idea.
Hidden inside the fractal matrix, meaning is made to synchronize. This refers to the nature of reality as fractal and that the Jungian notion of synchronicity is imbedded within the fractal pattern of reality.
Who aren’t they? Who am I not? Attention seeds awareness. This questions personal identity and then affirms that intent is prior to experience.
Is the silence speaking louder and faster? This refers to then tension of the present moment increasing with no noticeable cause.
In the tightening spiral. Can the truth emerge from (such) global greed? This questions whether the present political, economical, and social conflict of the planet will give way to the strange attractor at the end of space-time.
Talking apes transform as they approach the truth, moved by genes and information. This signifies how humans are different form other forms of life in the way they are attracted to the strange attractor and propelled to it by information and language.
There is no control, only suppressions of the flow. The mind now obsolete, drifting deeper, with self-control. This affirms that free will is an illusion and our fate is determined by that strange attractor in the future. Therefore the notion of the mind as an autonomous agent is outdated in the light of this (strange attractor) realization yet the mind still assumes self-control.
Song Summery: The lyrics in this song pick up where the last song left off. They focus more on the destiny of the species and existence which is now known to be caused by an object in the future (strange attractor) which creates the phenomenon of history. This attracting process is imbedded not only into the fabric of matter but also into human psychology in the form of meaningful coincidences or synchronicities. Such realizations cause one to question the nature of their personal identity and this leads to the conclusion that thought precedes individuality. In light of this understanding time begins to speed up in a process known to occultists as The Quickening. Doubts are raised whether the current world problems and crises will lead to this divine fate. Our peculiar use of language and information as distinct from the rest of life removes any previous doubts that our species and reality are not on this path toward the strange attractor. Finally any resistance in identifying oneself fully with these processes will only lead to an illusion of self-control. The title of the song refers to the sensation of time and the present moment gaining evermore significance/meaning, thereby causing a feeling of time compressing into the present moment- this is similar to the mystical feeling of the Eternal Now.

Quantum Exposition
Everything you cling to liquefies in your hands. Breaking free is something you must create. This refers to the hero’s struggle to lose his old identity as a separate from the world- signifying that in order to accomplish such a goal one must teach themselves how to perceive differently.
You’ve had dreams of losing all of your teeth. You were conditioned to only see red. This illustrates that one’s fear of death is caused by ignorant/limited cultural conditioning.
She tears down the hope I build up, taking my life and consuming my head. When my flesh freezes stiff, she shape shifts. Putting me back together inside of her, now I clearly see that all needs are met. “She” refers to the personification of the active process of time and nature (experience in general) which frustrates the hero by making his/her insights in reality meaningless. The frustration prior now gives way to an understanding that all searching is directed inward and nothing cannot be found outside of one’s Self.
How can she continue to destroy what she creates? This question is asked in ignorance of the paradoxical true nature of birth and death as the same event, therefore the hero thinks the contradiction is a mistake and questions it.
She devours her own tail to demonstrate circles and portals that welcome the prodigal son. This seems to answer the prior question stating that “she” does this to show the hero his/her true cyclical and paradoxical nature which the understanding of allows them to transcend the nightmare of history, which can be seen as the journey of the prodigal son, and return to the home of the imagination ( like in McKenna’s view) or the home of the universal mind/self of the eastern religions.
Lanterns glow over treacherous ground when failing sight causes me to stumble across a series of sinking stepping-stones. New found insights reveal hazardous paths which cause the hero to lose trust in where the body can take him/her.
His old ways fall into place as you behold his face. His tears seem to say, “The child is the father to the man.” The body as separate from other bodies- this idea starts to disintegrate for the hero as he/she realizes all people are connected, thus all children are really the fathers of all men (only one Self).
Everything that hurts purifies you thought pain. Earning scars was never a waste of time. This refers to the new understanding of pain where its function is to teach you and train you to receive higher forms of knowledge and awareness.
You mine for language in the mud, (but) soon enough you will find (that) everyone is yourself. This refers to the ill-fated attempt of the hero to find the perfect way of communicating with others, by searching the murky vague external world, when in fact he/she realizes all “others” are really their own Self.
Elders gaze east toward the rising sun, waiting for the arrive of the self-reflecting mode. Reality proves to be unreal. This refers to the understanding that all these realizations are not anything new and have come around before within the hero’s Self. In light of these insights reality becomes more akin to a dream then what was supposed to be reality.
I am you pretending to be me. My open arms reach out to you. I am you pretending to be me. Here the hero is embracing the realization of their connectedness with all others through sharing the same one Self.
Open your eyes. Let the sun come in. The hero reaffirms the insights gained.
Open your mouth. Spit the curse out. The hero denies the prior understanding of unattached personal identity.
Song Summery: The lyrics here show the hero going through first the frustration of being stuck in an old identity paradigm and then later realizing their true nature as being interconnected with all others, and that all opposites are really polar ends of the same thing-event. These insights reveal that all separateness is only an illusion and every self is the same Self. The title of the song refers to the understanding that paradoxes (like those expressed in some interpretations of quantum mechanics) are a fundamental part of reality.

Ego Collapsing
There are still fingers on my hands, and limbs on my body. This identity theft is invisible. This refers to the hero still noticing their body as separate, yet acknowledging that his/her realization learned previously is understood silently/mentally and not expressed in external reality.
The blackness to blame confiscated my set of telescopic changes. I am too afraid to wash my wounds in such cloudy water. This refers to those in power who push to keep the status quo which limits awareness of other ways to perceive reality. This refers to the hero still being too afraid to trust the “other” (external reality) as themselves.
I was never strong enough to break myself, but those seeking control throw nails on our road to blamelessness. I am stung with shame. Why have we always been mocked by fools? Why are we still being killed by cowards? The hero admits his/her failure to lose their old sense of separate personal identity and recognizes that those who seek to keep the status quo do not value blamelessness as a virtue and make it hard for one to cultivate humility. The hero now realizes the greatest obstacle on their path to a different sense of personal identity is his/her consideration of the mockery from ones ignorant to other forms of Being.
I thought these were MY thoughts. I thought it was MY self. It was never mine to begin with. The hero realizes they never had a Self which was separate to being with. What seemed to be separate ego was really non-existent to begin with.
Empty inside. I can only surrender to freedom. The hero’s true nature is emptiness and not any substantial Self. In light of this the hero can only accept the freedom which comes with nothingness.
Song Summery: The lyrics focus on the reinforcing of the previous insight from the last song about all persons sharing one Self. Here the hero is surprised to find their sense of personal identity still grossly unchanged. Yet the hero acknowledges their own fault by not trusting fully to the wisdom and allowing the status quo’s mockery to block the fruits of this understanding. Finally the hero comprehends that whatever they were identifying with as their Self was absent to begin with- the hero is empty inside after all. The title of the song refers to the outmoded identification with a separate ego collapsing into nothing which is the true essence of the hero.

Resonance
Emerging from unconscious depths, the mind’s eye awakens, dispelling the mirage. Stories of war and fear lose their control. The hero is overtaken by a deep situated intuition which drives out feelings of fear and hostility.
Loving those who hate, shelter for the cold. Greet the moon with grins, float in mirrored light, our salvation found reversed in lies. Paradox is understood to be the ultimate truth which sets one free.
We are nothing, a thread on the cosmic loom. Innocent victims do not exist. The hero understands all people to be insignificant when compared to their place as a part of the whole cosmos. The hero understands victims to be unaware of how their own karma has brought them their suffering for beneficial reasons once known and now forgotten.
We are everything, shaping reality with dream. The hero understand all persons to be co-creators of the universe.
Sent up through the Earth where the fire was washed away by the water, flowing north to where the mind is being blown away. The field of potential looks more real then real. Waves wait for us to pay particles attention. This signifies how the mind as co-creator of reality through quantum particle/wave vector collapse, of potential, emerges out from nature.
Hovering above a maze of mirrors searching for ourselves, only to find an other. Here the hero in a mystical state searches for the one true Self only to find others in search for the same thing.
We are alone. Hiding in humility. We are all one. Full of emptiness. Clear white light wipes tears from our eyes. We breath in new life. Pieces of the broken vessel, picked up, made whole. The hero understands that he/she is all that exists and the multiplicity of persons and things is only an illusion because the true nature of separate things (like atoms) is that they are made of emptiness. Truth as the all encompassing white light of non-duality quells anxiety and creates new identity in the hero, one which is true to the understanding that all identity of separateness is illusory.
Ignorance creates dissonance. Radiance requires resonance. Ignorance creates fragmented personal identity by lack of knowledge of the metaphysical unity. This unity in order to manifest requires radiating of the understanding that all is one.
Uncovering hidden gnosis in plain view sets the serpent free to slither towards the key. The appreciation of this truth reveals hidden wisdom in the everyday world which brings about accelerated spiritual development.
Empty space, overflowing vacuum inhabit the ether, boiling into steam. This signifies how the hero now is aware of the subtleties which make mundane setting become mystical.
Disembody at will during dualities dance. Fires only reveal immense darkness. This signifies epistemology as infinite showing that more knowledge or answers only brings about more questions. Touch the wound in your own hand. It flows. This affirms that the mystery of one’s own Self is inexhaustible.
Self-prescribed addictions erode in its wake. Wheat and Chaff will be made separate. The hero’s accumulated karma falls away as what really matters (self-transcendence) dissolves all unnecessary distressing.
Ancestors anticipated their descent. Sprit and matter will be fused. The process described here has been prophesized in the past and will result in mind and matters losing their respective boundaries and becoming one phenomenon.
Song Summery: The lyrics portray the growth and maturation of the hero’s intuition. He/she finally resolves the contradiction of identifying with the ALL yet having a finite body-existence. The hero realizes that he/she is the architect of this process thus all suffering experienced is necessary to complete the processes of self-transcendence. Therefore the hero becomes capable of riding with what is happening to him/her instead of being overwhelmed and confused by it. What needs to be done becomes clear as the hero’s dharma becomes explicit. However with this new found internal compass the mystery of what is going on becomes ever deeper. The title of the song refers to the hero finally resonating with his/her realizations rather then being puzzled by them.

Soul Expanding
Dime-sized pupils roll back. Float through the Bardo, but resist astonishment.
Bleed color, breath sound, complete soul retrieval. Here the hero enters a kind of trance and is transported into a realm which can trap one in its awesomeness, but being absorbed in the experience hampers proper traveling through the space. Soul can be defined here as McKenna’s “felt presence of immediate experience”. Therefore the hero experiences his/her present moment begin to change with senses blending together.
Climb with the serpent that scales your spine. The hero is guided thought this new expanded multidimensional hyperspace with their internal body-wisdom personified as the “Kundalini” snake from Hindu mythology.
What appears to be a new discovery is really only the recovery of lost truth. At this point the hero realizes that they have been on this journey many times before and have just forgotten it over and over again.
Time in the tomb is over. The hero awakens from their slumber of ignorance as he/she realizes novelty is an illusion because nothing is lost and everything returns.
Sit atop the soul’s throne. These rites of initiation allows your soul to exteriorize. The hero’s feeling of being in the present moment has become so profound that his/her internal mental affirms seem to extend or exteriorize out into the world having direct access to it, much like as if the soul now supreme authority like a king upon his throne.
Song Summery: Here the lyrics point to the hero’s participation in the present moment shifting to a position where he/she identifies more and more with all that arises moment to moment. Thus as the name of the song implies, the hero feels their soul or feeling of being here-now is expanded.

Paradox Integration
All ways fall away. All veils are lifted. The illusion of identity, exposed by blinding light. Emanating from the tops of heads, marking the end of “us and them”. As the hero soul was expanded, mentioned in the previous song, their identity as separate from other dissolves.
Summoning manna from the sky, tossing a wrench in manufactured lack. Resolute courage, delivering purpose. The hero is nourished by his/her new identity and has no regrets of leaving behind the old personality. Also becoming determined in his/her continuation of self-discovery has brought strong meaningful significance in to his/her being.
Our brothers made of Geometry heed the Mythic Call.   The hero recognizes that what was considered to be the outer forms of the world are actually akin to him/her and are now responding to the transformation/discovery of his/her identity.
They’re sending out cartography of a holographic landscape. The hero realizes what was his external environment was really an illusion (what was seen in three dimensions really only has two).
Their mosaics made of spiral time, reset out compass to what is required now. What was once external helps the hero guide himself though this new insights and self-discoveries.
What appears to be absolute crumbles before us. Coincidence is swallowed by synchronicity. All certainty is lost for the hero. All events seem to become meaningful and related for the hero.
Matter prepares to accommodate what is not only happing to us, but through us. This signifies how what is happing is not limited to the hero, but is apart of a much larger process that involves him/herself and the external surroundings.
Song Summery: The lyrics in this song point to how the hero is coming to terms with his/her identity merging with the external environment becoming one and the same thing with all other things. The title of the song refers to the assimilating of the paradoxical knowledge that you and your surroundings are one and the same thing/event.
　
Noosphere Rising
Light ends the Jaguar’s hunt. The hero personifying him/herself as a Jaguar understands s/he is at the conclusion of their journey of unearthing the ground of being or identity.
Some swallowed lightning before being devoured. Some on this journey worked harder then they had to in order to reach the inevitable end.
The abyss, incapable of victory. The victor only capable of mercy. The journey is not about winning or losing, but humbling oneself in the face of it (the) all.
Man makes myth in his image. Humans shape the world according to their own fantasies and aspirations.
The presence of the past in our future sharpens the sword of the word. In a timeless state the hero’s sense of mental presence is heightened.
The cold inner core melts. Space-time turns inside out. The fabric of existence/experience dissolves into itself, all previous boundaries are lost.
Angelic-animal-alien-astronaut. All these seemingly different terms are all the same thing, yet shown at different points in time. An alien is an animal which can also be an astronaut as well as an divine angelic being.
Ordeal brings us together. The mystery of pain’s purpose does not lie in the pain itself, but how the pain brings people together in empathy, thereby dissolving feelings of separateness between “us and them”.
What is good-is true-is beautiful. Seamless connection to (the) source. The hero feels at complete harmony/joy with all that there is.
To pay attention is to set intention. The mystery of being is that consciousness manifests all that there is through awareness, thus all patterns have their root in consciousness and not outside of it.
There is shade under the tree of light. The hero, not bothered by the everlasting mysteries of life and satisfied with what s/he discovered along the way, has come to absolute peace and acceptance with his/her journey.
Song Summery: At the end of this tale the hero finally starts to harmonize all previously learned insights and it manifests as complete and utter serenity, peace, and acceptance for all that there is. The title of the song signifies that the mind has become fully manifested and has added another layer on to the earth called the noosphere, where which the self can inhabit free from the density and limits of matter.

Finally the perfect place for Ranting

I just want to take this time to take to thank the internet with its various forms of media for allow ranting moments to find their perfect outlet.

HOORAY!!

As Above So Below

From neurons to super clusters....

There is an intro couch scene of the Simpson's where the family sits down and the perspective pans out showing the earth, planets, and galaxies only to turn into electrons, atoms, molecules, and then finally the hair on Homer's head.

The top are neurons and the bottom are super clusters of galaxies

The ancient hermetic saying "As Above So Below"

Isn't existence weird?

What else would it be!?