by Cybermonk, January 15, 2023
Contents:
- Citation
- Table of Contents
- Commentary
- Customer Comments
- Quote from Bricklin’s Book
- Not Confirmed James Wrote “iron block universe”
- Quote of Portions of Phrase “Iron Block Universe”
- The Psilocybin Revelation of No Possibility-Branching
- Search Links
- My Original Page Sections About Bricklin’s Book
- Motivation for this page
- Oxford Philosophy Book Hypnotized by “Determinism” Fails to Grasp Concept of Timeless Block Universe, Though Even a News Site Gets It
Citation
The Illusion of Will, Self, and Time: William James’s Reluctant Guide to Enlightenment
Jonathan Bricklin
January 2, 2016
http://amzn.com/143845628X
SUNY Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology
This book and author has ties among:
- Philosophy of Eternalism
- Enlightenment from altered-state revelation
- The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
- The Journal of Consciousness Studies
- Consciousness Studies
- Psychedelics in late 20th C. spirituality
- Altered states
- Ramesh Balsekar (no-free-will)
- Benny Shanon (Cognitive Phenomenology of Ayahuasca)
Table of Contents
Commentary
Jonathan Bricklin equates “Enlightenment” with the altered-state revelation of eternalism.
Bricklin uses terms including “monism, Parmenides, eternalism”, vs. “Pluriverse”.
I purchased this book on Dec. 30, 2015 before it was available on Jan. 2, 2016.
Bricklin’s book is part of Consciousness Studies, the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, & Journal of Consciousness Studies, and was reviewed in draft by Benny Shanon & Ramesh Balsekar.
This book has the key topics, like mystic experiencing of eternalism, but nothing about experience of the threat of control loss.
Anything that this book has about control cancellation that drives transformation of the mental worldmodel from possibilism to eternalism, is faintly expressed, compared to in the Egodeath theory.
Bricklin’s book The Illusion of Will, Self, and Time: William James’s Reluctant Guide to Enlightenment (SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology), equates “enlightenment” with eternalism.
Balsekar asserted no-free-will as enlightenment, among the Ken Wilber Integral Theory crowd.
Benny Shanon = Ayahuasca from a Psychedelics Cognitive Phenomenology approach like the Egodeath theory.
This book covers various peripheral topics, and doesn’t go into the key topics deeply like the Egodeath theory does.
Such books by Sam Harris, Balsekar, Shanon, Campbell, and Bricklin don’t bring the ideas together tightly and simply, as the Egodeath theory does.
The book is keyed to Indian religious philosophy; Bricklin makes India the origin of Greece’s eternalism.
p 337 cites 1999 Kingsley’s book, for the Eastern roots of Eleatic spirituality.
I note that Dionysus’ victory parade returns “from India”.
Customer Comments
- “Most neuroscientists don’t believe in free will.
- The Buddha did not believe in self.
- Einstein [what of Minkowski?] did not believe in time.
“Separately, these beliefs foster forlornness. But as Bricklin shows here with exceptional clarity, when they are woven together, the opposite occurs: the illusion of will, self, and time is a coherent context for the most profound spiritual experiences from ancient times to our own.”
“assembles from James hints of a reality stranger than most of us have likely ever imagined. very-readable …
“lays out a path through timelessness … a path well worth walking, not just for what it may reveal of reality, but for what it reveals about the deepest questions asked by one of humanity’s best minds, fully contextualized by cross-connections to his contemporaries, and other thinkers and researchers from ancient to present.”
Quote from Bricklin’s Book
Page 333: notes for the Eternalism chapter (15). McTaggart, 1908, 457:
“Time is unreal … in all ages the belief in the unreality of time has proved singularly attractive.
“In the philosophy and religion of the East, this doctrine is of cardinal importance.
“And in the West, the same doctrine continually recurs, both among philosophers and among theologians.
“Theology never holds itself apart from mysticism for any long period, and almost all mysticism denies the reality of time.”
Not Confirmed James Wrote “iron block universe”
It is understandable why Kafei thought that my use of the word ‘determinism’ in my main 2006 article defining the Egodeath theory is opposed to(!) eternalism and asserts specifically causal-chain, in-time domino-chain determinism — even though the article explains clearly otherwise:
http://egodeath.com/EntheogenTheoryOfReligion.htm#_Toc177337624
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/the-entheogen-theory-of-religion-and-ego-death-2006-main-article/#Time-as-a-Space-like-Dimension
I took note (around 1988) that William James added his word ‘iron’. Yet I’ve had surprising trouble getting simple easy confirmation of this famous usage. This Oxford encyclopedia entry doesn’t quite have the whole phrase “iron block universe”.
I finally found a tiny bit of partial confirmation, but I thought (the past few years) it would be trivially easy to confirm James’ disparaging distinctive catch phrase casting shade on the “iron block universe”.
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
2nd Edition
Ted Honderich (Editor), 2005
Entry: determinism
https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-Philosophy-New/dp/0199264791 –
The ‘determinism’ article is poor: zilch conception, at least on p. 1, of eternalism, despite mentioning James’ “iron block universe”.
A fault is that even William James, as quoted in this article, defines the “iron block universe” in not eternalism terms, but merely in domino-chain sequential causality terms.
Article: Faithful excerpts condensed by Cybermonk (removed words only); see book for exact quotes:
(I need to create a page defining how I condense; define several levels of accuracy.)
Oxford wrote:
“earlier events, a prior series of effects, a causal chain, causal connection”
“future events are fixed and unalterable”
Fails to say “already exist”!
Causal-chain determinism is still rooted in egoic possibilism open-future thinking, where you have the power to create your future control-thoughts; you just don’t have the power to create them any other way than you are determined.
The key question and distinction is: How is the future caused and created?
- By horizontal causality; the earlier state causes the subsequent state.
- By vertical causality (term that I coined); all times are created at once, including all of your near-future control-thoughts.
This article like typical near-100% of philosophy, is not eternalism, but is a distinct in-between hybrid: the “possibilism” mental worldmodel, but add a “single-path” constraint.
Position 1) possibilism, an open, variable future that’s controlled/ created by you, the steersman agent.
Position 1.5) possibilism + causal-chain determinism, you are the creator of your future control thoughts but you are forced to create them in one inevitable way that’s caused by the past moving to the future. God created the world at the beginning of time, wound up the clockwork mechanism at t[0].
Position 2) eternalism; your future control-thoughts already timelessly are pre-existing and pre-created. God created all times at once, in an interlocked order, per Bricklin’s book. No linear temporal causal sequence. An earlier state doesn’t “cause” the subsequent state.
Oxford continues:
“what William James called ‘the iron block universe‘:
That confirms my expected-easy finding that confirms my certain recollection that James said “iron block universe” rather than “block universe”.
Quote of Portions of Phrase “Iron Block Universe”
William James wrote (exact quote from Oxford but paragraph breaks added):
“those parts of the universe already laid down appoint and decree what other parts shall be.
“The future has no ambiguous possibilities hidden in its womb: the part we call the present is compatible with only one totality.
“Any other future complement than the one fixed from eternity is impossible.
“The whole is in each and every parts, and welds it with the rest into an absolute unity, an iron block in which there can be no equivocation or shadow of turning.”
/ end of James quote
Oxford continues:
“only what actually happens could possibly have happened. There are no genuine alternatives to be realized.”
The Psilocybin Revelation of No Possibility-Branching
worldline snake frozen in block-universe rock
Photo credit: Julie M. Brown. Used by permission.
From Jerry Brown in March 2022 when he quoted from their 2019 article, fresco scholar woman’s book writing “youths in trees cutting away at the branches” with the 2019 article’s clearer highlighting than the Browns’ 2016 book.
Donkey’s left leg lifted, right leg relied on (a standard trope in this era/genre that I discovered and published/ announced in 2022).
The arrived/ epiphany of the higher-level controller/creator arrives in perception from Psilocybin, the revelation of non-branching; block-universe eternalism.
Oxford perpetuates the egoic, possibilism-thinking, in-time assumption.
“fates … having power over the future.”
“Many great philosophers have been determinists.”
Yeah but how many great philosophers were block-universe eternalists?
“whether we ourselves, persons, are subject to causal necessity.”
“Philosophers have cared less about whether or not the rest of the universe is determined — what they have cared more about is whether or not our lives are determined.”
“all our choices, decisions, intensions, other mental events, and our actions are effects of other [prior in time] equally necessitated events.”
“identical with the problem of freedom, or the free will problem.”
“our concept of moral responsibility. … attitudes such as resentment and gratitude.”
“Determinism puts in doubt all life-hopes, personal feelings, knowledge, moral responsibility, the rightness of actions, and the moral standing of persons.”
“Deliberation makes sense only if genuine alternatives are available to us. If determinism is true, only one course is genuinely open to me, so, my deliberation is irrational.”
Search Links
James wrote “iron block”; apparently not “iron block universe”.
“iron block” “william james”
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%22iron%20block%22%20%22william%20james%22
“block universe” “william james”
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%22block%20universe%22%20%22william%20james%22
“iron block universe”
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%22iron+block+universe%22
“william james” “iron block universe”
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%22william+james%22+%22iron+block+universe%22
My Original Page Sections About Bricklin’s Book
I mentioned this book in a posting to the Egodeath Yahoo Group in August 2016.
From Page “Ideas for Podcast Topics”
Page where I originally posted some Bricklin content but now points to present page:
Page title:
Ideas for Podcast Topics
Section heading:
Philosophy of Time, Causality, & Determinism, Including Half-Baked Hybrids
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/ideas-for-podcast-topics/#Philosophy-of-Time
From Page: Superseding the “Mysticism, Meditation, & Psychotherapy” Framework
Page where I originally posted some Bricklin content but now points to present page:
The Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism Provides a Scientific Basis for Mystic-State Experiencing, Superseding the “Mysticism, Meditation, & Psychotherapy” Framework
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/the-theory-of-psychedelic-eternalism-provides-a-scientific-explanatory-basis-for-mystic-state-experiencing/
Motivation for this page
This book, which I preordered in late 2015, is better than I assessed; I just have to keep expectations in check.
I posted a couple scattered subsections in pages, which required unmanageable many-to-many linking, which indicated I need to have a single dedicated page that all minor sections in other pages can link to.
Oxford Philosophy Book Hypnotized by “Determinism” Fails to Grasp Concept of Timeless Block Universe, Though Even a News Site Gets It
The block universe theory, where time travel is possible but time passing is an illusion
ABC Science / Dr. Kristie Miller, Sep. 1, 2018
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-09-02/block-universe-theory-time-past-present-future-travel/10178386
The winner here is Physicists.
The dull-minded Philosophers fail to grasp block-universe eternalism because they are ossified stuck in the “determinism” concept; causal-chain determinism even when they say “block universe”.
The field of Philosophy – in this book – is stupefied by the egoic, possibilism-thinking based, domino-chain misconception of the block universe.
Oxford gets the “block universe” concept all backwards & reversed, conflating “block universe” (frozen-time block-universe eternalism) with mere domino-chain, in-time, causal-chain “determinism“.
Event Snodfart’s Junior Academy gets it, though their challenge is on the art front: they are incapable of drawing a tree, as I was drawing in high school.
Possibilism vs. Eternalism: Two Models of Time and Control
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2020/11/12/possibilism-vs-eternalism-2-models-of-time-and-control/
The Egodeath theory 