Sufi Stories about Mullah Nasrudin

The great and venerable Sufi sage, Mullah Nasrudin, once raced through Bagdad on his donkey, galloping as fast as the poor beast could travel. Everybody got excited and people rushed into the streets to find out why the philosopher was in such a great hurry.
"What are you looking for, Mullah?" somebody shouted.
"I'm looking for my donkey!" Nasrudin answered.

Mullah Nasrudin pnce entered a store and asked the the proprietor, "Have you seen me before?"
"No," was the prompt answer.
"Then," cried Nasrudin, "how do you know it is me?"

How to Increase Your Intelligence

1. Continually expand the scope, source, intensinty of the information you receive.
2. Constantly revise your reality maps, and seek new metaphors about the future to understanding what's happening now.
3. Develop external networks for increasing intelligence. In particular, spend all your time with people as smart or smarter than you. We assume that you are the Intelligence Agent from your gene-pool, so you will seek Intelligence Agents from other gene-pools who will stimulate you to get smarter.

from The Intelligence Agents by Timothy Leary

TOO NEW INTELLIGENCE TESTS

1. stupid: This is where you are passively taking everything in without associating, interpreting or thinking about it.
2. bright: This is where you begin seeing the associations and relationships of whatever you are taking in.
3. clever: After seeing the associations between things, this is where you begin to predict outcomes by combining those associations in such a way as to get the desired results. Here we have "figured it out". (Most people stay here.)
4. silly: When you are bored enough with being "smart" it is possible to be silly. This is where you start seeing the relationships between apparently incongruous elements in your inner and outer enviroments in such a way as to be utterly delighted.
5. Brilliant: Whereupon you begin combining incongrous juxtopositions towards unpredictable yet illuminating outcomes without necessarily knowing why or needing to know.
6. Simple: Taking in, understanding and communicating what is obvious to all.

Intelligence TEST #2 is more subjectively based thab TEST #1, in that it depends entirely upon your capacity to register your own experience. It goes like this:

If your world feels like it's getting:

1. Smaller and slower;
2. More grim and less fun;
3. Less sexy and more fun;
4. Impersonal and scary;
5. Petty and predictable;

	F
	  a
	     l
	       l
	         i
	           n
	             g

1. Brighter and exciting;
2. Funnier, instructive and creative;
3. Sexier and more attractive;
4. Personal, loving and warm;
5. Expanded, free and open-ended;

	          g
	        n
	      i
	    s
	  i
	R

"The great snare of thought is uncritical acceptance of irrational assumptions."

Will Durant

Sitting Meditation

1. Sit in aposition that is comfortable and with your spine erect.
2. Watch your breathing. Keep your eyes open or half shut but not shut.
3. Remain motionless. First for 10 minutes, then 20, then 40 ...
4. Everytime you detect a thought, say, "thinking." Remain consistent.
5. Sustain awareness of all previous four guidelnes, simultaneously.

Gordon Allport

Daily Exercise

Breathing Meditation

With your body in position and your eyes in position and your eyes still closed, focus your attention on your breathing. Notice the air flowing through the nose, down the throught and into the lungs. Feel the chest expand and the muscles below the rib cage rise. Notice the instant of stillness as the inhale reaches equilibrium before becoming exhale. Feel the air flowing out of the lungs, through the throat and out of the nose. Feel the chest contract and the muscles below the rib cage fall.Notice the instant of stillness as the exhale reaches equilibrium before becoming inhale. The total poise at the top and the bottom of the breathing cycle is you.

In order to keep your mind on breathing, let all thoughts that come to your mind float away like the outgoing breath. Count each breath silently as you inhale and then exhale without counting. Visualise the number if that aids in keeping your attention on the breath. Each time you reach the count of ten, start start counting over. If your attention has wandered, bring it back to your breathing. Ifyou have lost count, start counting over.

This meditation can teach you to focus attention and to develop calmness. It can be done any time during the day for a period of twenty to thirty minutes. Once a day is the usual way. After several weeks of breathing meditation, the results should be sufficient to tell you whether or not you should continue breathing meditation.

Moving Meditation

Centered, stand still for a moment. Then allow the muscle to move as they release their tension. Instead of sending commands to the body requiring movements, let feedback from the body be the moving message - line the adjustment moves that are made with little or no conscious attention when preparing for sleep or finding a comdortable position on furniture.

Neither block nor encourage thought during the moving meditation. Because the emphasis is on letting any tension in the body work its way out, the exercise of the brain is not important during the movements. Relax into whatever motion seems to be what the body wants. Any movement made consciously, such as walking or turning, is appropriate provided it doesn't interfere with removing the tension indicated by feedback.

Relaxing the conscious control of muscles, let the body assume any position that is comfortable. Permit the vocal cords to relax and let any tension-reducing sounds emerge. Occasionally, let the head loll on the shoulders to loosen the neck muscles.

During the meditation, any movement that feels right may be repeated while waiting for muscular feedback to generate. Moving from standing and walking to sitting or lying should be accomplished on a feeling basis. The emphasis remains on spontaineous movement.

By practicing moving meditation twice a week for a period of twenty to thirty minutes, most individuals lessen their muscular tensions and become more at home with their bodies. It can also be used as an aid in overcoming mental and physical discomforts produced by stressful situations.

The benefits of moving meditation will be reflected in a greater awareness of the body and eventually a greater acceptance of the physical structure that houses the spirit. Those who continue the practice will notice that the subjective value of this meditation changes from time to time. The practice should be continued as long as the meditator finds dividends returning from the investment of time and energy.

Walking Meditation

A you become one with your walking, the relationship between your steps and your breathing will become a familiar rhythm. The lenthening and shortening of muscles can be experienced as movements in the cosmic dance while your awareness moves through everything like a recurring theme.

See each walk as a process instead of a space between destinations. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the physical actions - the movements, the change in balance, the point at which the inhale becomes the exhale.

Becomeing one with the experience of walking makes every step more satisfying. If you walk a thousand miled, each step should be as the first.

Candle Exercise

Every minute or two, at random, the other person will break the silence to ask, "where are you?" Don't give a verbal response. Just notice where your conscious attention is. If it has wandered away from the flame, bring it back. Repitition of this exercise will help you learn to focus the attention of your mind.

from ZEN without Zen Masters by Camden Benares

"Self-hate is a form of mental slavery that reults in poverty, ignorance, and crime."

Susan L. Taylor

The Calf-Path

One day through the primeval wood,

A calf walked home as good calves should.

But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as calves will do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,

And I infer the calf is dead.

But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day,

By a lone dog that passed that way.

And then a wise bellwether sheep,

Pursued the trail over vale and steep.

And drew the flock behind him too,

As good bellwethers always do.

And from that day, over hill and glade,

Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,

And dodged and turned and bent about.

And uttered words of righteous wrath,

Because it was such a crooked path.

But still they followed - do not laugh,

The first migration of that calf.

This forest path became a lane,

That bent and turned and turned again.

This crooked lane became a road,

Where many a poor horse with his load,

Toiled on beneath the burning sun,

And traveled some three miles in one.

And thus a century and a half,

They trod in the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,

The road became a village street.

And this before men were aware,

A city's crowded thoroughfare.

And soon the central street was this,

A renowned metropolis.

And men two centuries and a half,

Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

A hundred thousand men were led,

By one calf near three centuries dead.

For men are prone to go it blind,

Along the calf-paths of the mind.

And work away from sun to sun,

To do what other men have done.

They follow the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back.

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,

Along which all their lives they move.

And how the wise old wood gods laugh,

Who saw the first primeval Calf......

Sam Walter Foss, NH (1858-1911)

Come to the edge, He said.
They said, we are afraid.
Come to the edge, He said.
They came.
He pushed them ... and they flew.

Duillaume Apollinare

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Prisons are built with bricks of Law;
Brothels, with bricks of Religion

-- William Blake

If a copy of Hustler were left out in the forest and nobody was around to see it, would it be obscene?

Let us consider a piece of cheese. We say that this has certain qualities, shape, structure, color, solidity, weight, taste, smell, consistency and the rest; but investigation has shown that this is all illusory. Where are these qualities? Not in the cheese, for different observers give quite different accounts of it. Not in ourselves, for we do not perceive them in the absence of the cheese... What then are these qualities of which we are so sure? They would not exist without our brains; They would not exist without the cheese. They are the results of the union, that is of the Yoga, of the seer and seen, of subject and object.

Of course, some of you (with your dirty minds) read "The 23" and immediately thought of "The 69". This comparison is not incaccurate. This is the principle behind Tantric sex and other sexual spiritual practices.

SEX MAGICK?

Could all this be part of the secret that the anti-sex people are trying to hide from us for the last several millennia?

	    ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
		by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
     My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
     One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
     But being too happy in thy happiness,---
          That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
               In some melodious plot
     Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
          Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O for a draught of vintage, that hath been
     Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
     Dance, and Provencal song, and sun-burnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
     Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
          With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
               And purple-stained mouth;
     That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
          And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
     What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
     Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
     Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
          Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
               And leaden-eyed despairs;
     Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
          Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
     Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
     Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
     And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
          Clustered around by all her starry fays;
               But here there is no light,
     Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
          Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
     Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
     Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
     White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
          Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves;
               And mid-May's eldest child,
     The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
          The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and for many a time
     I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
     To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
     To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
          While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
               In such an ecstasy!
     Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain---
          To thy high requiem become a sod

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
     No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
     In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
     Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
          She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
               The same that oft-times hath
     Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
          Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
     To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
     As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
     Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
          Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
               In the next valley-glades:
     Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
          Fled is that music:---do I wake or sleep?

_____________________________________________________________

		ODE TO AUTUMN
		by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
     Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
     With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
     And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
          To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
     With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
     For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
     Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
     Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
     Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
          Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
     Steady thy laden head across a brook;
     Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
          Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
     Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
     And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
     Among the river sallows, borne aloft
          Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
     Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
     The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
          And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

These Cults capture our Imagination.

• Preaching of extreme and unrealistic Dogma.
• Brainwashing - they convince members they couldn't survive without their leaders.
• Controlling Technique - making dissent socially unacceptable.
• Abuse of Members - especially emotional abuse.
• Promoting poverty as a way of life while appropriating their funds.
• Severe penalties for those who don't toe the line.
• Members reduced to a childlike state where all decisions have to be made for them.
• Mass suicides.

Sects and Death
William S. Burroughs

I postulate that the function of art and all creative thought is to make us aware of what we know and don't know that we know. You can't tell anybody anything he doesn't know already. Like those folks living on the sea coast in the Middle Ages, watching those ships come in mast-first year after year - then Galileo wises them up and they are ready to bum him as an egghead deviant. But they cool it out over the years and finally have to admit: "It's round, boys, it's round. We knew it all along." Cezanne showed the viewer objects seen from a certain angle in a certain light and they attacked his canvases with umbrellas at the first exhibition. Well, that doesn't happen any more and any child would recognize the objects in a Cezanne canvas. Joyce made readers aware of their own stream of consciousness and was accused of promulgating a cult of unintelligibility.

If the function of art is to make us aware of what we know and don't know we know, the function of the Christian Church and all its metastases has been and still is to keep us in ignorance of what we know. People living on the sea coast knew the earth was round. They believed it was flat because the Church said so. And hardcore Synanon members still believe the media put that rattlesnake in Paul Morantz' mail box to discredit Synanon. Is there any limit to brainwashing? Apparently not. Such cults as Synanon, Scientology, the Peoples Temple derive from the same infected source as Christianity. In fact they recapitulate the story of Christianity word for word, like the inevitable course of some unsightly disease: criminal ignorance, brutish stupidity, self-righteous bigotry, paranoid fear of outsiders. For the cultist, psychiatrists, the media, Govemment agencies have become Satan incamate. Like the fundamental Christians, they have to be right.

Now Christianity sounded good at first to the naive convert. Love, peace and charity - what's wrong with that? I'll tell you what's wrong - a series of unprecedented horrors perpetrated by so-called Christians: The Inquisition, the Conquistadores, the American Indian wars, slavery, Hiroshima and the present-day Bible Belt. That poisonous old-time religion they brew up down there constitutes a menace to all passengers on spacecraft Earth. Why did this happen, and why does it happen with the sects that stem from Christianity? What was so wrong with Christianity in the beginning? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.

There's an interesting book entitled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. The author, Julian Jaynes, postulates that the awe in which the ancient priest-king was held derived from his ability to produce his voice in the brains of his loyal subjects. This is the voice of god, which funnels through the non-dominant brain hemisphere. Jaynes cites clinical evidence; stimulation of the non-dominant hemisphere causes experimental subjects to hear voices. An attempted suicide who was rescued from drowning stated that a voice in his head told him to kill himself, and that for some reason he had to obey that voice. If you want to start a cult, the first step is to get your voice into the non-dominant brain hemisphere of your soon-to-be devoted followers. The Scientology course involves listening to hours of L. Ron Hubbard's voice on tape. The voice of Dederich, founder of Synanon, was said to drift from the air conditioning system, and Reverend Jim Jones had tapes of his voice continually broadcast over loudspeakers at Jonestown.

The second step: make enemies. If there is one thing a cult leader needs, it is enemies - real or imagined -from which to deliver his flock. Having postulated fiendish enemies, the leader then sets up commando squads to deal with this self-created emergency: the Sea Org of Scientology, the Imperial Marines of Synanon, the armed guards of the Peoples Temple. Aggressive acts by these protectors then produce counter-actions from outside. After all, what can you expect when you break into Govemment offices, put rattlesnakes in people's mail boxes, and murder a Congressman? These counterattacks, which the cultists bring on themselves, lead to escalating paranoia and more and more extreme measures.

Given the ability to project your voice into others' minds, here is a how-to blueprint:

ACT, the Anti-Cancer Temple, was founded by Tobias Antony Crump, a self-styled minister of the Radiant Church of Regenerate Christ. He leased an abandoned resort hotel in upstate New York where he offered for a reasonable fee to cure people of the smoking habit in seven days. The cure was effected by suggestions implanted in what he called "the other mind". The suggestions were administered through headphones which his parishioners were required to wear day and night throughout the seven days of the cure. At the end of this time all the reborn parishioners decided to stay on at the Temple and work for ACT. In return for the privilege of becoming ACTers they were required to turn over ten percent of their assets to ACT.

Crump prospered and expanded his facilities. More and more pressure was put on cured parishioners to stay on after completing the nosmoking course. They were told that the cure was not yet complete. If they returned to their old haunts they would inevitably relapse and die of cancer in a few years. Besides they had a sacred duty to help others. Cancer, he taught, was a Venusian plot to take over the planet. Aliens were landing in cancerous tissues as invisible parasites who were invading minds and bodies in all walks of life. Reverend Crump published a weekly tabloid in which he launched preposterous charges against all the enemies of ACT, a list that now included the tobacco companies, the drug companies, the FDA, the World Health Organization, the Cancer Research Society, the FBI, the CIA, the media, Interpol, the I.R.S., the Communist Party. A typical cartoon showed Uncle Sam hit in the face by a mass of cancerous putrescence like a custard pie: "From Russia With Love".

When a bomb partially destroyed an out-building of the Temple, Crump declared a state of absolute emergency. His followers must now turn over half their worldly goods and all their time to ACT. He declared all-out war on his Satanic adversaries. When an investigative reporter, sent to get the story on ACT, disappeared under mysterious circumstances, the founder proclaimed that the subsequent investigation "clearly and unequivocally proves a ten-year conspiracy on the part of Government agencies acting in concert with the media to suppress a Church."

Reverend Crump was involved in countless lawsuits bringing action against any critics of ACT. The resulting expenses were more than compensated by the constant influx of money with which he bought real estate. He now owned huge tracts of land in Florida, New Hampshire, East Texas and Montana where he set up Temples for his followers, who now numbered in the hundreds of thousands. He taught that they must all merge into one organism through what he called biologic fusion. Only in this way could they counter the Venusian virus which was taking over the rest of the world. To foster biologic fusion there were bizarre mass sex orgies and nudity fests to break down residual resistance and let in the radiant light of Christ. He instituted Black Broadcasts, in which his followers gathered at synchronized times to concentrate in silent malevolence on the enemies of the week, whose names, addresses and pictures appeared on a screen. His followers were now required to turn over all their possessions to ACT, and were told that they must be ready to offer their life-blood if necessary. Desertion was made a crime punishable by death. There was continual practice in the martial arts, and the bestial howls and grunts and snarls could be heard for miles around. Any neighbor who complained was put on the enemy list. Crump boasted that he had only to lift his hand to dispatch his followers as one man on kamikaze missions of assassination and sabotage. He was rumored to have in readiness nuclear devices and enough nerve gas to blanket the East Coast. "He could knock the government of this country down like a house of cards," a highly-placed official stated flatly.

Richard Nixon exploded the Presidential image at Watergate. I think he will go down in history as a folk hero. The Reverend Jones has, by his example, called into question the leadership principle which is the very basis of authority. What else are churches, armies, nations built upon, but leaders and the belief that these leaders know what they are doing and that the citizen owes them unquestioning obedience?

Anyone who believes he owns all the answers is a lunatic. And lunatics are dangerous to themselves and others. Spacecraft Earth is too small and too overcrowded to accommodate lunatic sects. The answer is very simple: instead of being tax-free, churches should be taxed double. They should be taxed right out of existence.

SEMIOTEXT[E] USA

     I wandered lonely as a cloud
	By William Wordsworth

    I wandered lonely as a cloud 
    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
    When all at once I saw a crowd,
    A host, of golden daffodils;
    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

    Continuous as the stars that shine
    And twinkle on the milky way,
    They stretched in never-ending line
   Along the margin of a bay:
   Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
   Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

   The waves beside them danced; but they
   Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
   A poet could not but be gay,
   In such a jocund company:
   I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
   What wealth the show to me had brought:

   For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
   They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
   And then my heart with pleasure fills,
   And dances with the daffodils.

_______________________________________________________________________
	THE TYGER
     by William Blake
 
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 
 
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
 
And what shoulder, and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
 
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 
 
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see? 
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
 
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 
 

	Sonnets from the Portuguese
       by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

          XLIII

How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life !--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

THE 8-CIRCUIT MODEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS- A LURKER'S GUIDE

        Timothy Leary came up with this theory- or I guess model or map would
be better terms- for human consciousness. I get the impression he started
working on it early in his LSD involvement, though I haven't yet been able
to find where he first started talking about the ideas ( I suspect there may
be a reference in 'High Priest', but I haven't waded all the way through yet).

        His book on the subject was called 'Exo-Psychology', and has been
republished with additional material in recent years under the title
'Info-Psychology' (New Falcon Publishing). This is a good book, and it's
especially valuable because it's original source material on the whole idea,
but it really is out there- it's hard to make sense of it unless you already
know what he's talking about. 

There are, however, two excellent books that introduce, explain, and
develop these ideas. Before describing their strong & weak points, let me
give a thumbnail sketch of the big picture:

        The 8-circuit model describes eight levels of function of human 
consciousness.  Different books call these by different names- 'circuits'
(like different circuits in a computer), 'gears' (like shifting gears on a
bicycle), 'grades' (like in elementary school)- you could call them 'burritos'
if you want- I like 'circuits'. 
        Anyhow, there are eight circuits. The lower four deal with normal
psychology, while the upper four deal with 'psychic', 'mystical',
'enlightened', or perhaps even 'tripped-out' consciousness. The strong point
of this system is that it integrates the two so well. Most theories deal with
one or the other, but not both- mundane psychology with no consideration of
transcendant experience, or mystical foo-fa-ra with octaves and rays and 
spiritual this or that but no grounding in nitty-gritty down-to-earth
surviving in the human jungle.

        The first four 'normal' circuits are influenced very much by modern
psychology, especially Adlerian developmental stuff. Part of the idea is that
as you grow up from infancy, the various circuits are activated and begin to
function, and you take an 'imprint' from the conditions at the time. 
        The most obvious example is when the sexual/social circuit kicks on
in adolesence, the imprint is taken when you have your first sexual experience.
Sometimes, if this happens in the back seat of a car, with the panic of 
wondering whether Mom or Dad will appear, later in life the same person will
discover that nothing turns them on quite as much as doing it in the back seat
of a car, and especially if they feel a bit panicked.


        Here's a rundown of the first four circuits:

1st circuit: Survival/security. Things are okay or they're not, or somewhere
        in between. This is connected to the first source of these things:
        nursing at Mom's nipple. People who take an imprint that things aren't
        safe all the time may compensate by eating, especially sweet things,
        pudding, 'nursery food' that makes them feel better for a while.
                This imprint is taken very early, in nursing. It's what's
        known in developmental psychology as 'oral'. Putting things in your
        mouth is always fun!

2nd circuit: Territorial/Emotional. This is a very particular definition of
        'emotional'- are you feeling up or down? Are you on top of the
        world or down in the dumps? This is related to basic primate pecking
        order stuff- who's the big tough dog and who's the little submissive
        dog? Later, when you get your own turf where you can be a little
        king, you can defend it against others by throwing shit at each other
        (in the form of words, lawsuits, horn honking, or however you prefer
        to 'dump on' people).   
                This one is full of stereotypes- all the examples I gave were
        kinda male, yet every female knows there's just as much game-playing
        between women. Women traditionally have been made submissive to men,
        but in many cases that's not the case, and in any case there's a lot
        of passive-agressive ways the tables are turned in each direction.
                This corresponds to the 'anal' stage, and the first imprints
        are taken during toilet training- this develops greatly when the kid
        starts playing with other kids and finding out where they stand- big
        kids are always telling little kids what to do.

3rd circuit: Conceptual. This kicks in even before school- kids are hungry
        to learn. This circuit is the ability to make mental models of 
        things, which help you 'figure things out' and 'be clever'. The
        imprint you take is whether you feel smart or stupid (which is 
        different from BEING smart or stupid!) 
                Sometimes people who have a bad time in other circuits
        compensate in 3rd circuit- actually, that can happen with any of
        them. Note also that there are different KINDS of intelligence-
        verbal, mathematical, visual/spatial, musical, etc, etc... but as
        Robert Anton Wilson says, "...the people with the verbal intelligence
        have control of the language, so they call themselves THE
        intellectuals." My father, who is a clinical psychologist, always 
        mentions a particular basketball player (I forget who) whom he
        claims is a genius in spatial/motor intelligence, regardless of the
        fact that the guy probably reads on a 7th grade level. 
        

  

4th circuit: Social/Sexual. Whereas 2nd circuit deals with who bosses who,
        4th deals with who is cool. What this comes down to is that depending
        on whether someone is cool or not, you'd let them get close to you or
        not, running a spectrum from not talking to someone at all (the snub)
        to having sex with them, with many subtle shades in between.
                It goes both ways- how cool are you? Are there people that
        you aren't cool enough to talk to? "Oh, I could never ask HER/HIM
        out..."
                The imprint you take here is how cool you feel, and how hard
        you have to work to feel that way.


        Everyone has these circuits, but some people get stuck on one or 
another of them, usually because they've got some problem to work out in
that area. Often one circuit gets to be a surrogate for another (especially
if the other is underdeveloped)- the classic example is the pathetic (i.e.
poor 2nd circuit imprint) nerd who tries to out-talk his buddies to show how
smart he is (3rd circuit), in order to be an authority to them (2nd circuit
dominance). 
        One of the ideas that came up in LSD research was the idea that you
reach a state of flux in which new imprints can be taken. This is very much
in agreement with ideas about set and setting, but as most people who have
taken LSD agree, while everything seems to change after the experience, 
after a while you slip back into the old patterns (witness all the flower
children who, unlike the few with real dedication, slipped back to become
businessmen of the 80's).
        Whether this slipback is really inherent in the function of the LSD
trip is not certain, though- it may be caused by going back into one's
regular environment, which has been shaped by everything one was before.
Under the pressure of conformity to the old status quo, one slips back. That's
my theory- the way to really find out would be to try the imprint process, and
then afterwards, step into an entirely new life in another place with different
people and things, and see whether the same slipback process happened. (I
haven't tried such a radical experiment myself- I'm too attached to my current
situation to change it just to try out a theory... rationalize, rationalize...)

        I think the people who have been changed for the better by their
psychedelic experiences are those who don't just get high all the time, but
who follow up their realizations with action to improve themselves and their
environment accordingly.

        Leary felt that the goal was to work out the circuits so that one had
imprints that led to a happy, healthy life, but without having to always have
things one way- people who have to always be on top never learn about service,
those who always have to feel secure never learn to take risks, etc.
        Ultimately, the circuits would be there to plug into and out of at
Will, while one navigated through the upper circuits:


        The upper circuits deal with mystical, psychic, or paranormal 
consciousness. They are built on the foundation of the lower circuits, almost
as 'overdriven' versions of them. Interestingly, they correspond well with 
ideas from many spritual traditions- I was reading a description by a woman
who was initiated into a Native American sweat lodge. She described a vision
in which the Great Spirit appeared and told her of the 'four gifts to mankind'.
These four corresponded exactly to the upper four circuits.
        It doesn't always work out so neatly, but the parallels are intersting.

5th circuit: Bliss/Healing, Neurosomatic Feedback. When 1st circuit security
        gets great enough, it becomes bliss, as one becomes aware of one's
        sensation of pleasure and learns to generate those sensations at 
        the source. This is the SF brainbox that directly stimulates one's
        pleasure centers, only the box is also your brain! This feedback loop
        gets going, and one may remain in the state until kicked out for
        some reason (the world makes demands, or the chemical that boosted
        you into the state wears off). 
                Ever seen a picture of a meditating yogi in bliss? In this
        state, you realize you can make yourself feel bliss just as easily 
        as you can move your muscles or keep still.
                When this awareness is applied to others, the 5th circuit
        energy works to help their 1st circuit state- this is the principle
        of healing. Alli believes charisma is connected to 5th circuit,
        though I suspect it has to do with the others as well.

6th circuit: Psychic. This is awareness of the great information network
        in which we swim.
                The connection to 2nd circuit is not so obvious-
        I became aware of the connection following a series of dreams, in
        which certain traumatic events of my youth were replayed, but in
        ways that made it obvious that the real issues were current things
        that had nothing to do with the old stuff. The old stuff was stuff 
        I'd worked to uncover and work out, and I'm pretty certain there
        wasn't much undealt trauma left. Why was I dreaming about it?
                I realized that the current situation provided the flow
        of anxious energy, but when that flow arose, it followed the same 
        channel cut by the old trauma, just like a flash flood will 
        follow an old dry riverbed. 
                Emotions seem to run in channels in the mind, metaphorically
        speaking, and in the same way psychics speak of 'channeling' 
        material from outside. This is as far as I can put it into words-
        I'm no master of any of these upper four, I just offer this in 
        case it will help someone else's insight. 

7th circuit: Mythical Intelligence. This is the realm of the shaman, of 
        spirit animals, Gods and Goddesses. It is the Dreamtime. 
                3rd circuit draws models of specifics in the conscious
        world. 7th circuits draws models of the patterns of archetype that
        make up the unconscious world. It does this by telling stories 
        that illustrate the patterns that arise from these archetypes. When
        7th circuit awareness is working, one realizes how these patterns are
        being played out, and instead of just acting in the world, one is at
        the same time coming into direct contact with the archetypal.

8th circuit: Out-of-Body Experiences, Factor X, and ???? This is the far
        reaches, and not much is really understood about it. Since 4th 
        circuit has to do with letting others get close and even (especially
        in the case of sexuality) merging with them, it makes sense that 8th
        might have to do with overcoming the obtacle of one's physical
        boundaries.

        Wilson suggests how certain drugs may activate the various circuits,
something like the following:

1st circuit: Comfort foods- sugar, dairy products. Sedatives may deaden 
        alarm sensations and produce a sense of security- alcohol, for
        example.

2nd circuit: Stimulants in general, as well as alcohol in large amounts (the
        classic aggressive drunk)

3rd circuit: Stimulants, possibly, and no doubt 'Smart drugs' would fit here.

4th circuit: Ecstasy, as well as many others- generally any drug which 
        defeats social inadequacy programming.

5th circuit: Sex is the big one, when it goes from being mere satisfaction
        of physical drives and becomes oceanlike ecstasy.
        Otherwise, marijuana, and  most hallucinogens in moderate doses.

6th circuit: LSD

7th circuit: Psilocybin, Peyote, possibly LSD, many of the natural
        psychedelics.

8th circuit: Ketamine? Excessive doses of many drugs may produce this, as
        well as those which produce near-death experiences.

        Note that no drug is so narrow as to only affect one circuit, and
there are probably much better techniques of activating and developing the
various parts of the Self. Some people, however, suggest that they became
aware of these capacities in themselves through use of them. 


        Since the upper circuits are built on the foundation of the lower
ones, you have to have your shit together to deal with the high stuff. If
you don't, you can have what Alli calls 'Short Circuit', in which the energy
of the higher circuit over-amps and burns out the lower circuit. This can be
either a temporary or a permanent condition, apparently, depending on how
far you overdo it. 
        For instance, someone who has 2nd circuit aggression/submission
problems  may, if they take a large dose of LSD, may feel overwhelmed
by the influx of 6th circuit awareness- hearing voices in their head, 
feeling wide open to the flow of information and unable to turn it off. 
This may result in over-amping of the second circuit, in which they feel 
greatly threatened or even victimized by the Universe. Too much. If this
goes too far, they may continue to feel this even after the drug has worn
off.    

        Okay, on to the reviews, in the order I suggest reading them: 

Prometheus Rising, by Robert Anton Wilson. (New Falcon Publishing).
        This is a great introduction to the lower four circuits. Wilson
        uses cool literature (Joyce, Dickens) to illustrate them, and his
        sections on 2nd circuit (or Human Primate Psychology) is witty and
        insightful. When he gets to the upper circuits, though, he kind of
        peters out, although he offers some interesting ideas.
                RAW uses the 8-circuit model extensively in his novels,
        especially the Illuminatus Trilogy & Schroedinger's cat. If you
        liked them before, try reading them after you have this model
        figured out.

Angel Tech, a modern shaman's guide to reality selection, by Antero Alli.
        (New Falcon Publishing) This is by far the very best handbook on the
        8-circuit model. He gives very lucid descriptions of the lower
        circuits, what can go wrong with them, and what to do about it. If you
        lost the owner's manual that originally came with your Human Form,
        this aftermarket manual is a good maintainance guide.
                The upper circuits are dealt with tolerably well- I don't
        know if anyone could really do them justice. He suggests some
        exercises and techniques, but hey! We're all experimenting.

Info Psychology, by Timothy Leary (New Falcon Publishing). As mentioned 
        above, this is the source material, but it's not the best
        introduction. Leary added astrological correspondances which seem
        fairly off-base, he agrees. Otherwise, there is much depth to be
        dug out of this. It's not written really to be read linearly, either,
        but to be connected up with at whichever points are relevant to
        the user at the time. A classic for every bookcase!


        The 8-circuit model is just another map, and the map is not the
territory, just as the menu is not the meal (as many Falcon authors are fond
of quipping).  I've found this particular theory to be one of the more useful
ones when you are trying to figure out your head.

        I asked Leary about the 8-circuit model during a lecture once, and he
picked up on it, but obviously he wasn't as interested in talking theory as he
was working the crowd like a sideshow huckster. He did a great job of that, by
the way, and I enjoyed him greatly. Too bad he gave up research for
marketing, though.

.    .    .         .    .    .    .    .         .    .    .          
      -Paul Clark      a-paulc@microsoft.com

As his heart raced he noticed a small jug with a cork at the top and a note scribbled on the side: "You have to prime the pump with water, my friend. P.S. And fill the jug again before you leave." He pulled out the cork and saw that the jug was full of water.

He weighed his options. Should he pour the water down the pump? What if it didn't work? All the water would be gone. If he drank the water from the jug, he could be sure he wouldn't die of thirst. But to pour it down the rusty pump on the flimsy instructions written on the outside of the jug?

Sweating profusely, he listened to his heart and chose the risky decision. He proceeded to pour the entire jug of water down the rusty old pump and furiously pumped up and down. Sure enough, the water gushed out! He had all he needed to drink. With a thankful heart he turned his thoughts upwards. He filled the jug again, corked it, and added his own testimony to the words on the bottle: Believe me, it really works. BUT YOU MUST HAVE FAITH!.

The people who really succeed are those who dare to risk, who challenge the status quo and push themselves beyond their normal limits. No person ever fully discoveres and develops all the potential within himself until he expresses his faith.

from Think and grow rich:A black choice by Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill

Why is the Moral Majority Like Susan Brownmiller

from Right where you are sitting now by Robert Anton Wilson

E and E-Prime

A few scientists have taken to writing in E-Prime (notable Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. E.W. Kellogg III). Bourland, in a recent (not-yet-published) paper tells of a few cases in which scientific reports, unsatisfactory to sombunall members of a research group, suddenly made sense and became acceptable when re-written in E-Prime. By and large, however, E-Prime has not yet caught on either in learned circles or in popular speech.

(Oddly, most physicists write in E-Prime a large part of the time, due to the influence of Operationalism -- the philosophy that tells us to define things by operations performed -- but few have any awareness of E-prime as a discipline and most of them lapse into "isness" statements all too frequently, thereby confusing themselves and their readers. )

Nonetheless, E-Prime seems to solve many problems that otherwise appear intractable, and it also serves as an antibiotic against what Korzybski called "demonological thinking." Most of this book employs E-Prime so the reader could begin to get acquainted with this new way of mapping the world; in a few instances I allowed normal English, and its "isness" to intrude again (how many of you noticed that?), while discussing some of the weird and superstitious thinking that exists throughout our society and always occurs when "is" creeps into our concepts. (As a clue or warning, I placed each "is" in dubious quotation marks, to highlight its central role in the confusions there discussed).

As everybody with a home computer knows, the software can change the functioning of the hardware in radical and sometimes startling ways. The first law of computers -- so ancient that some claim it dates back to dark, Cthulhoid aeons when giant saurians and Richard Nixons still dominated the earth -- tells us succinctly, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" (or GIGO for short).

The wrong software guarantees wrong answers, or total gibberish. Conversely, the correct software, if you find it, will often "miraculously" solve problems that had hitherto appeared intractable.

Since the brain does not receive raw data, but edits data as we receive it, we need to understand the software the brain uses. The case for using E-Prime rests on the simple proposition that "isness" sets the brain into a medieval Aristotelian framework and makes it impossible to understand modern problems and opportunities. A classic case of GIGO, in short. Removing "isness" and writing/thinking only and always in operational/existential language sets us, conversely, in a modern universe where we can successfully deal with modern issues.

To begin to get the hang of E-Prime, consider the following two columns, the first written in Standard English and the second in English Prime.

In the first example a "metaphysical" or Aristotelian formulation in Standard English becomes an operational or existential formulation when rewritten in English Prime. This may appear of interest only to philosophers and scientists of an operationalist/phenomenologist bias, but consider what happens when we move to the second example.

Clearly, written in Standard English, "The photon is a wave," and "The photon is a particle" contradict each other, just like the sentences "Robin is a boy" and "Robin is a girl." Nonetheless, all through the nineteenth century physicists found themselves debating about this and, by the early 1920s, it became obvious that the experimental evidence depended on the instruments or the instrumental set-up (design) of the total experiment. One type of experiment always showed light traveling in waves, and another type always showed light traveling as discrete particles.

This contradiction created considerable consternation. As noted earlier, some quantum theorists joked about "wavicles." Others proclaimed in despair that "the universe is not rational" (by which they meant to indicate that the universe does not follow Aristotelian logic. ) Still others looked hopefully for the definitive experiment (not yet attained in 1990) which would clearly prove whether photons "are" waves or particles.

If we look, again, at the translations into English Prime, we see that no contradiction now exists at all, no "paradox," no "irrationality" in the universe. We also find that we have constrained ourselves to talk about what actually happened in spacetime, whereas in Standard English we allowed ourselves to talk about something that has never been observed in spacetime at all -- the "isness" or "whatness" or Aristotelian "essence" of the photon. (Niels Bohr's Complementarity Principle and Copenhagen Interpretation, the technical resolutions of the wave/particle duality within physics, amount to telling physicists to adopt "the spirit of E-Prime" without quite articulating E-Prime itself.)

The weakness of Aristotelian "isness" or "whatness" statements lies in their assumption of indwelling "thingness" -- the assumption that every "object" contains what the cynical German philosopher Max Stirner called "spooks." Thus in Moliere's famous joke, an ignorant doctor tries to impress some even more ignorant lay persons by "explaining" that opium makes us sleepy because it has a "sleep-inducing property" in it. By contrast a scientific or operational statement would define precisely how the structure of the opium molecule chemically bonds to specific receptor structures in the brain, describing actual events in the spacetime continuum.

In simpler words, the Aristotelian universe assumes an assembly of "things" with "essences" or "spooks" inside of them, where the modern scientific (or existentialist) universe assumes a network of structural relationships. (Look at the first two samples of Standard English and English Prime again, to see this distinction more clearly.)

Moliere's physician does not seem nearly as comical as the theology promulgated by the Vatican. According to Thomist Aristotelianism (the official Vatican philosophy) "things" not only have indwelling "essences" or "spooks" but also have external "accidents" or appearances. This "explains" the Miracle of the Transubstantiation. In this astounding, marvelous, totally wonderful, even mind-boggling Miracle, a piece of bread changes into the body part of a Jew who lived 2000 years ago.

Now the "accidents" -- which include everything you can observe about the bread, with your senses, or with the most subtle scientific instruments -- admittedly do not change. To your eyes or taste buds or electron microscopes the bread has undergone no change at all. It doesn't even weigh as much as a human body, but retains the weight of a small piece of bread. Nonetheless, to Catholics, after the Miracle (which any priest can perform) the bread "is" the body of the aforesaid dead Jew, one Yeshua ben Yusef, who the goys of the Vatican call Jesus Christ. In other words, the "essence" of the bread "is" the dead Jew.

It appears obvious that, within this framework, the "essence" of the bread can "be" anything, or can "be" asserted to "be" anything. It could "be" the essence of the Easter Bunny, or it could "be" Jesus and the Easter Bunny both, or it could "be" the Five Original Marx Brothers, or it could "be" a million other spooks happily co-existing in the realm outside spacetime where such metaphysical entities appear to reside.

Even more astounding, this Miracle can only happen if the priest has a Willy. Protestants, Jews, Zen Buddhists etc. have ordained many female clergy-persons in recent decades, but the Vatican remains firm in the principle that only a male -- a human with a Willy -- can transform the "essence" of bread into the "essence" of a dead body.

Like the cannibalism underlying this Rite, this phallus-worship dates back to Stone Age ideas about "essences" that can be transferred from one organism to another. Ritual homosexuality, as distinguished from homosexuality-for-fun, played a prominent role in many of the pagan fertility cults that got incorporated into the Catholic metaphysics. See Frazer's Golden Bough and Wright's Worship of the Generative Organs. It requires a phallus to transmute the bread into flesh because some of our early ancestors believed it requires a phallus to do any great work of Magick.)

In Standard English we may discuss all sorts of metaphysical and spooky matters, often without noticing that we have entered the realms of theology and demonology, whereas in English Prime we can only discuss actual experiences (or transactions) in the spacetime continuum. English Prime may not automatically transfer us into a scientific universe, in all cases, but it at least transfers us into existential or experiential modes, and it takes us out of medieval theology.

Now, those who enjoy theological and/or demonological speculations may continue to enjoy them, as far as I care. This book merely attempts to clarify the difference between theological speculations and actual experiences in spacetime, so that we do not wander into theology without realizing where we have gotten ourselves. The Supreme Court, for instance, wandered into theology (or demonology) when it proclaimes that "fuck" "is" an indecent word. The most one can say about that in scientific E-Prime would read: "The word 'fuck' appears indecent in the evaluations of x per cent of the population," X found by normal polling methods.

Turning next to the nigmatic John who "is" unhappy and grouchy yet also "is" bright and cheerful, we find a surprising parallel to the wave/particle duality. Remaining in the reality-tunnel of standard English, one might decide that John "really is" manic depressive. Or one speaker might decide that the other speaker hasn't "really" observed John carefully, or "is" an "untrustworthy witness." Again, the innocent-looking "is" causes us to populate the world with spooks, and may provoke us to heated debate, or violent quarrel. (That town in Northern Ireland mentioned earlier -- "is" it "really" Derry or Londonderry?)

Rewriting in English Prime we find "John appears unhappy and grouchy in the office" and "John appears bright and cheerful on holiday at the beach." We have left the realms of spooks and re-entered the existential or phenomenological world of actual experiences in spacetime. And, lo and behold, another metaphysical contradiction has disappeared in the process.

To say "John is" anything, incidentally, always opens the door to spooks and metaphysical debates. The historical logic of Aristotelian philosophy as embedded in Standard English always carries an association of stasis with every "is," unless the speaker or writer remembers to include a date, and even then linguistic habit will cause many to "not notice" the date and assume "is" means a stasis (an Aristotelian timeless essence or spook.)

For instance, "John is beardless" may deceive many people (but not trained police officers) if john becomes a wanted criminal and alters his appearance by growing a beard.

"John is a Protestant" or "John is a Catholic" may change any day, if John has developed a habit of philosophical speculation.

Even stranger, "John is a Jew" has at least five different meanings, some of which may change and some remain constant, and only one of which tells us anything about how John will behave in spacetime.....

"John is a plumber" also contains a fallacy. John may have quit plumbing since you saw him last and may work as a hair dresser now. Stranger things have happened. In E-Prime one would write "John had a job as a plumber last I knew."

Trivial? Overly pedantic? According to a recent article Professor Harry Weinberg -- curiously, an old acquaintance of mine -- once tried to emphasize these points to a class by trying to make them see the fallacy in the statement "John F. Kennedy is President of the United States." Dr. Weinberg pointed out that the inference, Nothing has changed since we came into this classroom, had not been checked by anybody who insisted the statement about Kennedy contained certainty. Weinberg, like his students, got the lesson driven home with more drama than anybody expected, because this class occurred on November 22, 1963, and everybody soon learned that during that class time John F. Kennedy had died of an assassin's bullet and Lyndon B. Johnson had taken the oath as President of the United States.

That makes the idea kind of hard to forget, doesn't it?

Looking at sample five -- "The car... was a blue Ford" we might again encounter Bertrand Russell's two-head paradox. It seems a blue Ford exists "in" the head of the witness, but whether the blue Ford also existed "outside" that head remains unsure. Even outside tricky psychology labs, ordinary perception has become problematical due to the whole sad history of eye-witness testimony frequently breaking down in court. Or does the "external universe" (including the blue Ford) exist in some super-Head somwhere? It seems that the translation into E-Prime -- "I recall the car... as a blue Ford" better accords with the experiential level of our existence in spacetime than the two heads and other paradoxes we might encounter in Standard English.

James Thurber tells us that he once saw an admiral, wearing a 19th Century naval uniform and old-fashioned side whiskers, peddling a unicycle down the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York. Fortunately, Thurber had broken his glasses and had not yet received replacements from the optometrist, so he did not worry seriously about his sanity. In the Castro section of San Francisco, a well-known homosexual area, I once saw a sign which said 'HALF GAY CLEANERS' -- but when I looked again, it said, 'HALF DAY CLEANERS'.

Even Aristotle, despite the abuse he has suffered in these pages, had enough common sense to point out, once, that "I see" always contains fallacy; we should say, "I have seen." Time always elapses between the impact of energy on the eye and the creation of an image (and associated name and ideas) in the brain, which explains why three eyewitnesses to a hit-and-run such as we postulate here may report, not just the blue Ford of the first speaker, but a blue VW or maybe even a green Toyota.

I once astonished a friend by remarking, apropos of UFOs, that I see two or three of them a week. As a student of Transactional Psychology, this does not surprise or alarm me. I also see UNFOs, as noted earlier -- and I do not rush to identify them as raccoons or groundhogs, like some people we met earlier. Most people see UNFOs, without thinking about the implications of this, especially when driving rapidly, but sometimes even when walking. We only find UFOs impressive because some people claim they "are" alien spaceships. My UFOs remain Unidentified, since they did not hang around long enough for me to form even a guess about them, but I have found no grounds for classifying them as space-ships. Anybody who does not see UFOs frequently, I think, has not mastered perception psychology or current neuroscience. The sky contains numerous things that go by too quickly for anybody to identify them.

My own wife has appeared as an UNFO to me on occasion -- usually around two or three in the morning when I get out of bed to go to the john and then encounter a Mysterious and Unknown figure emerging from the dark at the other end of the hall. In those cases, fortunately, identification did not take long, and I never reached for a blunt instrument to defend myself. Whatever my critics may suspect, I never mistook her for a squirrel.

If you think about it from the perspective of E-Prime, the world consists mostly of UFOs and UNFOs. Very few "things" (spacetime events) in the air or on the ground give us the opportunity to "identify" them with certainty.

In example six -- "That is a fascist idea" versus "That seems like a fascist idea to me" -- Standard English implies an indwelling essence of the medieval sort, does not describe an operation in spacetime, and mentions no instrument used in measuring the alleged "fascism" in the idea. The English Prime translation does not assume essences or spooks, describes the operation as occurring in the brain of the speaker and, implicitly, identifies said brain as the instrument making the evaluation. Not accidentally, Standard English also assumes a sort of "glass wall" between observer and observed, while English Prime draws us back into the modern quantum world where observer and observed form a seamless unity.

In examples 7 and 8, Standard English again assumes indwelling spooks and continues to separate observer and observed; English Prime assumes no spooks and reminds us of QUIP (the QUantum Inseparability Principle, so named by Dr. Nick Herbert), namely, the impossibility of existentially separating observer and observed.

Meditating on example 9 will give you the answer to a famous Zen koan, "Who is the Master who makes the grass green?" It might also save you from frequent quarrels (mostly occurring between husbands and wives) about whether the new curtains "are really" green or blue.

Example 10 introduces new subtleties. No explicit "is" appears in the Standard English, so even those trained in E-Prime may see no problem here. However, if the observation refers to a famous (and treacherous) experiment, well-known to psychologists, the Standard English version contains a hilarious fallacy.

I refer to the experiment in which two men rush into a psychology class, struggle and shout, and then one makes a stabbing motion and the other falls. The majority of students, whenever that has been tried, report a knife in the hand of the man who made the stabbing (knife-wielding) motion. In fact, the man used no knife. He used a banana.

Look back at the re-translation into E-Prime. It seems likely that persons trained in E-Prime will grow more cautious about their perceptions and not "rush to judgement" in the manner of most of us throughout history. They might even see the banana, instead of hallucinating a knife.

Exercizes

• "The fetus is a person."
• "The zygote is a person."
• "Every sperm is sacred/Every sperm is great/If a sperm is wasted/God gets quite irate." (M. Python)
• "Pornography is murder." (A. Dworkin)
• "John is homosexual."
• "The table is four feet long."
• "The human brain is a computer."
• "When I took LSD, the whole universe was transformed."
• "Beethoven was paranoid, Mozart was manic-depressive, and Wagner was megalomaniac."
• "Today is Tuesday."
• "Lady Chatterly's Lover is a sexist novel."
• "Mice, voles and rabbits are all rodents."
• "The patient is resisting therapy."
• "Sin and redemption are theological fictions. The sense of sin and the sense of redemption are actual human experiences." (paraphrased from Ludwig Wittgenstein.)

from Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true within certain limits, to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are beliefs to be transcended.

Hidden from one's self is a covert set of beliefs that control one's thinking, one's actions, and one's feeling.

The covert set of hidden beliefs is the limiting set of beliefs to be transcended.

To transcend one's limiting set, one establishes an open ended set of beliefs about the unknown.

The unknown exists in one's goals for changing one's self, in the means for changing, in the use of others for the change, in one's capacity to change, in one's orientation towards change, in one's elimination of hindrances to change, in one's assimilation of the aids to change, in one's use of the impulse to change, in one's need for changing, in the possibilities of change, in the form of change itself, and in the substance of change and of changing.

The unknown exists in one's goals for changing one's self, in the means for changing, in the use of others for the change, in one's capacity to change, in one's orientation towards change, in one's elimination of hindrances to change, in one's assimilation of the aids to change, in one's use of the impulse to change, in one's need for changing, in the possibilities of change, in the form of change itself, and in the substance of change and of changing.

There are unknowns in my goals towards changing.There are unknowns in my means of changing. There are unknowns in my relations with others in changing. There are unknowns in my capacity for changing. There are unknowns in my orientation towards changing. There are unknowns in my assimilation of changes. There are unknowns in my needs for changing. There are unknowns in my possibilities of me changing. There are unknowns in the forms into which changing will put me. There are unknowns in the substance of the changes that I will undergo, in my substance after changes.

My disbelief in all these unknowns is a limiting belief, preventing my transcending my limits. My disbelief in all these unknowns is a belief, a limiting belief, preventing my transcending my limits.

By allowing, there are no limits; no limits to thinking, no limits to feeling, no limits to movement. By allowing, there are no limits. There are no limits to thinking, no limits to feeling, no limits to movement.

That which is not allowed is forbidden. That which is allowed exists. In allowing no limits, there are no limits. That which is forbidden is not allowed. That which is not allowed forbidden. That which exists is allowed. That which is allowed, exists. In allowing no limits, there are no limits. That which is not allowed is forbidden. That which is forbidden is not allowed. That which is allowed, exists. That which exists is allowed. To allow no limits, there are no limits. No limits allowed, no limits exist.

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true. In the province of the mind there are no limits. In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true. There are no limits.

(from The centre of the cyclone an autobiography of inner space by John C. Lilly,M.D.)

Six Phases of a Project

Lycurgus, Numa, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, all these great rogues, all these great thought-tyrants, knew how to associate the divinities they fabricated with their own boundless ambition."

Marquis de Sade