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What Magic Shalt Ravish Mephistopheles?
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 → by Danieru
Philosophy is odious and obscure,The Mephistophelian Deception:
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible and vile,
'Tis magic, magic that hath ravished Mephistopheles...
- Sc. I of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Reality is a consensus superseded by a subjective framework which becomes a hyper-real representation of itself via semantically governed reference.
A Faustian Resolution:
- Do you agree that there may exist a 'Fourth Wall' in the framework of this simulacrum we label 'reality'?
- If so, what ravishing magic will breach it in futures we have yet to realise? and finally...
- What devilish delights await us on the other side?
Categories: Science, Religion, Weird, Reality, Human, Magic, Future, Consciousness, Occult, Ideas, Philosophy, Simulacrum, Links, Books, Quotes
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February 27, 2006 2:04 PM
It is well-recorded that certain doses of the substances
DXM and LSD (but two examples) allow a person to experience a state known as ‘ego loss’ or ‘ego death’, whereby all perception of the self literally evaporates and one is left to explore a world shaped by the deepest realm of ones subconscious – utter disassociation. How can we dispel such experiences as ‘mere drug-induced nonsense’ when we ourselves are, right now, questioning the truth of our own reality? If there is a state wherein one can dislodge his or herself from basic truths of their existence, from their perception of the universe, should we not be researching this far more thoroughly?
I return now to the fusion of the psychological, the spiritual and the scientific. First of all, we must recognize the importance of the basic experience in itself, and the secondly we must seek to enhance it. Can we learn more about reality by synthesizing newer, cleaner, stronger substances, which, in combination with spiritual method (trance-induced states, exploration of the mind) and psychological theory and philosophy, we may be able to access new realms of understanding, a.k.a. the Fourth Wall?
Just some thoughts.
February 28, 2006 3:17 PM
February 28, 2006 3:31 PM
The perceptual valves of your consciousness are in league with Mephistopheles!
I definitely believe that some forms of hallucinogenic substance grant us access to alternate views on reality, whether they knock down that fourth wall is debateable. In that bundle of cells we call a brain there exists evidence of the machinery built up in countless past species by the processes of evolution. Could it be that LSD etc. can grant us access to past vistas since made innaplicable by our gradual evolution to our present state of consciousness? In this perspective though drug use has no possibility of opening doors onto realities that had not existed in a previous form. i.e. drugs cannot push us beyond the boundaries of our evolved capacity, they just shake things up a bit.
My personal belief on this is to do with infinity. If reality is truly infinite then this means all things within it are also infinite and they can be deconstructed infinitely by an infinite consciousness. So consciousness itself is somehow infinite but our self, our personally developed understanding of the universe, is very much a finite entity. Drugs then might throw open a few doors which under normal circumstances have remained firmly closed. This is the way Aldous Huxley ala. 'Door of Perception' would have put it. The brain closes off infinity very well. Check out the quite astounding book 'The Mind of a Mnemonist' for a view into the mind of a man for whom infinity was a daily occurence...
So. Forms of magic so far:
1. The Singularity (since when was technology not indistinguishable from black-magic anyway?)
2. Psychadelic Drugs + Consciousness = One step closer to infinity?
Guig:
Cheers for reading. Let's drink again soon. Love the design of your site by the way. You got a whole New Wave thing going on in some of those self portraits. Ever thought about becoming the next Gary Newman?
March 01, 2006 1:25 AM
to trully escape ourselves and retain a consciousness or a method with which to analyze the reality which exists beyond us is contradictory to any definition of self... and so I don't really think there is anything there... It would be like existing in our most basic particles and wavelengths, it would be the creation of matter, the decomposition of the electron and all its forces. I don't think even a technological singularity could really ever achieve this (then again i am generally skeptical of techonology yielding infinity).
so i guess my answer is NOTHING, then... and maybe in that sense, it is infinite.
March 01, 2006 5:59 AM
Excellent site! I just stumbled upon it.
I don't mean to be dense, but this 4th wall you talk about... isn't this just another way of parsing the real and the supernatural the way any other religious or spiritual person might? For example, a Christian might believe that the material world is, in a sense, an illusion or perhaps a trial he is passing through to arrive at the real spiritual world. Is this Mephistopheles' world as well? Everything traditionally thought of as real is illusory and everything illusory is what is real?
If this is the case, I see all sorts of real things after a few beers! Saw Vince Vaughn in a bar once. Really tall!
March 03, 2006 10:03 PM
Thanks for reading!
I definitely agree that the metaphors I have drawn here resemble an appeal to mysticism. I suppose I offered these questions in this form to get people imaginations bubbling a little more wildly. Where you posit that 'Fourth Wall' says a lot about how you answer. For instance my personal belief in the incompleteness of the world as composed by human consciousness. The fourth wall in this context need only be a deeper understading of the workings of the human brain. But this need not be all. If the idea of the simulacrum is followed to its full conclusion reality itself is surrounded by perceptual fourth walls. Breaking them is just a case of searching for them.
As for Mephistopheles, I couldn't help myself. Dr. Faustus turned his back on all matters of logic, of scientific enquiry and most tellingly of religion to uncover the mysteries of the universe in one beautiful instance. The appeal of this metaphor is several-fold, but I suppose for me ascribes a certain degree of wonder I find in technology. In no sense am I a utopian, a transhumanist, but in speculation, in extended thought experiments perhaps perspectives can be shifted. Faustus chose to sell his very soul to gain perceptions never before attained by any human entity...
What equivalents exist for you?
March 04, 2006 12:56 AM
As far as Freud's ideas about the greatest scientific revolutions, I'm not sure. I guess I take a more populist viewpoint, so to me the greatest scientific revolutions were the greatest technological ones. Thus, I don't see Copernicus, Darwin or Freud as being very important at all. Probably agriculture and nuclear fission were the greatest scientific discoveries. The next one will be nuclear fusion which renders net energy in a sustainable way.
I guess when I think paradigm shifts I'm thinking more of social and/or more pragmatic ones. I have never encountered anything which ever made me think I am not real or reality is not real or that there is anything more than reality. Certainly does not mean that that is the way it is.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I will chime in if I think I have anything worthwhile to add or there is another Vince Vaughan sighting.
March 04, 2006 4:50 AM
The universe has been wielding its tools for many billions of years. Energy twixt the atom twixt the elements twixt amino acids, RNA, DNA twixt the cell twixt biological symbiosis twixt the human...
Of course what we do, what our brains do, is simply an extension of this, but in denying the absolute wonder inherent in the conceptual abilities our technologically evolved brains are capable of, the progress the universe made to get us to the point where we can even debate this kind of stuff is undermined.
Technological revolutions are a consequence of conceptual ones. Maybe it's time the universe conceived itself a new view on reality. I'd like to suggest that the Technological Singularity has been taking place at least since the energy of the big-bang first coalesced into hydrogen and - without meaning to sound like a mental case - a long 'time' before this too...
...Technological Singularities ain't nothing special...
..the wall is still standing.
March 07, 2006 4:06 PM
February 11, 2007 10:38 PM
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