I Created the Egodeath Theory Because No Writers Properly Explain Transcendent Knowledge
Dates of Incorporating the Block Universe into the Egodeath Core Theory
Dates of Mapping the Block Universe to Mythology
Searching for Intellectual Autobiography Dates
1997 Temporary Fallback Strategy: Publish an Outline Theory-Spec
Amanita Photos 10:10 a.m. 10/10/2010
About Mythemes
I Created the Egodeath Theory Because No Writers Properly Explain Transcendent Knowledge
All books that tried to explain mystic knowledge, were and are wholly inadequate, irrelevant, and unhelpful. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have created the Egodeath theory, starting in 1985.
In 1985, I read the field of spiritual self-help and enlightenment books, and it was all too clear, that none of the explanations came anywhere near to what they should have been.
No writers on enlightenment were holding relevant, correct objectives or approaches. That was true in 1985 and remains true in 2021 (aside from my 1988 Cybernetic theory and my 2003 Mytheme theory).
That is why I rolled up my sleeves and said:
“Step aside; I need this knowledge.
“I’m sure Transcendent Knowledge exists to be found and figured out and explained clearly and properly, per modern, direct scientific and engineering explanation, with clear systematization.
“I’ll have to figure out Transcendent Knowledge myself.
“Afterwards, I’ll have to formulate Transcendent Knowledge myself, for everyone.
“I will figure out Transcendent Knowledge and then explain it properly.”
To figure out Transcendent Knowledge, starting in 1986, I read Ken Wilber and Alan Watts.
The Wilber & Watts books were given to me by my father, around 1985.
I also read a handful of other books that my father gave me, or that I got from the university bookstore.
In late 1987 and early 1988, I corrected the malformed explanations provided by Ken Wilber and Alan Watts.
Dates of Incorporating the Block Universe into the Egodeath Core Theory
In October 1985, I started theorizing about the mystic state, and studied how the mind works according to meditation and enlightenment, to try to gain non-self-defeating personal self-control across time. I read Ken Wilber’s early books, at my father’s recommendation, because Wilber covers many subjects.
I learned about the block universe in a Modern Physics university course in Spring 1987, 79 years after Minkowski’s 1908 article Space and Time. (I knew the Physics professor since high school, from a Greek Dance college class.)
In April 1987, I changed my approach to idea development about cross-time self-control: I used bigger ruled sheets of paper, and formed topically optimized terms such as mental construct processing, with acronyms for efficiency.
My father died during that Modern Physics class, and so I signed up to retake the course in Spring 1988.
During the second half of 1987, I read Alan Watts’ book The Way of Zen intensively and repeatedly, demanding to make sense of his loose poetic wording. Around December, I succeeded, as if properly re-wording his book, by using a kind of “determinism” that’s implied by the block universe “ground of being”.
On January 11, 1988, before retaking the Modern Physics course, I had my great breakthrough: that ego transcendence was not as Ken Wilber or the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology conceptualized it, but rather, more specifically and potently and forcefully, ego death and ego transcendence is actually a matter of changing the mental model of self-control and time, in the mystic state, to the no-free-will, block universe model.
As a simplified outline of the diverse conceptual resources and influences I had by January 1988, I combined concepts such as: o Block universe from the Modern Physics university course. o Ground of Being from Ken Wilber. o Sudden mental model transformation from Alan Watts (his term is ‘satori’, in The Way of Zen). o The cognitive approach from Marvin Minsky (Society of Mind) and self-help & the Human Potential movement.
Ramesh Balsekar in the 1990s, in discussions with Ken Wilber, similarly asserted that ego transcendence = no-free-will.
In my great breakthrough in January 1988, I mapped the block universe to the loose cognitive state experiencing of frozen spacetime and non-control. During my 1988 drafts, I settled on the theory-name The Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence.
I re-took the Modern Physics course in Spring 1988, now with my newly discovered Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence in hand.
My highly engaged retaking of the Modern Physics course, after discovering the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence, enabled me to go deep on studying Minkowski spacetime.
Retaking the course, so-equipped, also enabled me to get the highest score on the “Spacetime & Special Relativity” exam that any of the professsor’s students had ever gotten.
Later in the course, I challenged the professor; I rejected the Copenhagenism interpretation of Quantum Physics, and I read supplementary books, leading to David Bohm and nonlocal hidden variables “determinism”, and later to James Cushing’s books.
I have formal university graduation photos showing me holding an article draft of The Theory of Ego Transcendence.
Dates of Mapping the Block Universe to Mythology
All of my writings from early 2001 to 2020 have dates at the Egodeath Yahoo Group, and later posts have links to the the first posts in which I formulated various of my discoveries and developments. Hundreds of people have emails with these postings and dates.
I don’t have the exact posting dates handy at this time. The usual pattern is that I try to pinpoint a date at which I first posted an idea, but there are always earlier roots when I had the idea but less clearly, with fewer connections.
So it’s somewhat of a judgment call, of the date on which I first posted and announced an idea, such as the Maximal Entheogen Theory of Religion. Usually, when researching the date of a discovery, I exclaim “Wow, I discovered and posted about that several years earlier than I’d guess!”
For example, I have a circa 1996 ink-brush drawing of a block universe with a snake protruding, with speech bubble of the snake saying “Liberte!”, but I didn’t have full understanding then, of the complete November 26, 2013 discovery that “tree vs. snake = Possibilism vs. Eternalism“. That idea developed and gestated traceably over some 17 years. This is the topic of how idea development works, in the theory of knowledge.
During 1999-2006, I mapped Minkowski’s block universe idea to experiential religious mythology, such as rock and snake.
In November 2011 and finally during Thanksgiving week of 2013, I contrasted tree vs. snake; I contrasted the mundane-state experiencing of “steering through possibilities branching”, vs. the mystic-state experiencing of “being helplessly frozen into a non-branching block universe”.
I thus discovered the meaning of the most archaic mytheme-contrast, of tree vs. snake. This November 2013 breakthrough was through looking at two paintings side-by-side while studying mushrooms in religious art:
1. A black-and-white copy of half of a painting of Eve and the serpent/snake, and a deer with branching antlers, Eve holding an apple and a branch, at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Joseph Campbell’s book The Power of Myth. I had been fairly dismissive of Campbell, and was not well-read in his work, but this particular page of his book, showing a quarter of the data from the painting, was the greatest jackpot of all time, and so the book more than earned its title.
2. A mythology book cover showing a painting from a kylix saucer-“cup”. The kylix (mixed-wine mushroom-wine drinking cup) shows Jason dead, coming forth from a dragon-serpent guarding the non-branching ivy “tree” with the ram’s Golden Fleece hanging on it (sacrificed on a rock altar), in the garden of the Hesperides with Athena and her owl, spear, gorgon-medusa death-head breastplate and its snake-fringe.
Searching for Intellectual Autobiography Dates
For more info, search for key dates, among my writings, including in this Egodeaththeory WordPress weblog & the Egodeath Yahoo Group posts from around 2010-2018.
Egodeath Yahoo Group posts are currently unavailable since Yahoo is about to discontinue the groups on Dec. 15, 2020. Update: December 26, 2020: I have now uploaded a representative subset of the Digests of the Egodeath Yahoo Group to this WordPress site.
Thread title, to search for the long thread of my Egodeath Yahoo Group posts: “Intellectual autobiography”.
The Egodeath Yahoo Group has a long, major thread centered on the tree vs. snake breakthrough, like “the meaning of snake/serpent”.
January 1988; January 11, 1988 – 1st peak breakthrough: block universe non-control, experienced and conceptualized in the loose cognitive state, = ego transcendence.
November 2013; November 26, 2013 – 2nd peak breakthrough: {tree} vs. {snake} = Possibilism vs. Eternalism. You could minimize this as “merely” collapsing my 2006 main article’s mythology decoding for greater efficiency, but it felt extremely major, a week of shaking; involving massive reconnections of associations in my explanatory framework, as Paul Thagard’s anti-mysterious theoretical model of paradigm transformation would describe it.
1997 Temporary Fallback Strategy: Publish an Outline Theory-Spec
Self-control Cybernetics, Dissociative Cognition, & Mystic Ego Death Titles: – Self-control cybernetics, dissociative cognition, & mystic ego death – The Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence 1997 Core theory summary/specification posted at the Principia Cybernetica website
I posted the above, partly as proof of Priority of Discovery; and partly because I just needed to get something published, as explained below. I couldn’t manage to compose a viable article; every time I tried, it exploded in length and ambition.
So instead, in 1997, I took an alternative approach: only design/ compose/ publish an outline/ theory-specification, as such!
Ever since my Jan 88 breakthrough discovery of block-universe loose-cognition non-control ego-transcendence, I was attempting to write an article for the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, showing what ego transcendence is really about.
But it was hard to write-up adequately the so innovative, so revolutionary Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence; so this outline posting was a stop-gap to get something published while continuing work on the article.
Then in my distinct, Phase 2 theory-work (1998-2006), I added whole giant other half of the Egodeath theory: the Mytheme theory.
I ended up publishing the result in 2006, as my Main article at Egodeath.com, helped to focus, by the specific scnario of working with the Editor of a Salvia magazine:
That 2006 article, at last, took from 1988 to 2006 to write, finally fulfilled my January 1988 intention to publish my great breakthrough of January 11, 1988 — now, with its “other half”, its “started in 1998”, co-corroboration theory, the Mytheme theory.
The first time I came across Amanita, it was a bright bunch, all around, and those are my best photos, and my best photo perfectly matches decoding the leopard drinking fountain as upturned Amanita chalice containing water, including rippling in the rain, a pair of drinking water chalices for Dionysus’ spotted leopard.
I remembered to log a datetimestamp, so I looked at my phone. The display read: 10:10 a.m. October 10, 2010
I got my best patch proliferation view at that point, and my best photos, and my best photo matches perfectly to indisputably be a strong, full, complete match.
[todo: clarify date “yesterday”, ~November 14, 2020 then December 14, 2020:]
This patch at this 10 10 datetime was perfect for yesterday completing beyond expected, my photos showing the rim and fountain water collectiion of a pair of specimens, exactly as I had been wishing for, “the rim problem” b/c Heinrich’s full-upturned photo had a mis-match: the art shows a rim (Heinrich’s photo shows no rim, thus failing to match the mosaic).
My own photo, of a less extreme upturned chalice, plus my watter pools, unlike his dry upturned Amanita.
I outdid his photo, by showing water gathered, with ripples in the rain, my first encounter, perfectly achieves a near 100% anatomical morphological morphology form-match with the specimen I saw firsthand and photographed here showing the complete match to support further corroborating evidence that the Greco-Roman art mosaic of Dionysus’ triumph with 4, then 5 clear mushrooms, and the grape-basket shapes, and now solidly proven the Amanita proof in my own best photo on 10/10.
best patch seen
best photos taken
best photo solves “the rim problem” mismatch with the Heinrich photo, along with also
proving by water collection
proving by color-match in the gold/orange not red
proving by spottedness of leopard & toadstool fountain.
providing solid corroboration of identifying the 4 mushroom-tigers + 1 left garment hem
demonstrates concept of “degrees of match”, which is useful for confirming as deliberately mushroom-shaped, the grape-basket arrangements:
{mushroom-shaped grape-basket} is an Art Mytheme; an Arttheme
About Mythemes
A Mytheme is the story of flying ram rescuing bro but not sis (king’s children with cloud goddess of rain, who is jeolous of other affair from sacrifice soap opera of the gods of myth, mythic-scale gods, mythic-scale soap opera.
{mushroom-shaped grape-basket} – as always, I decoded this mytheme by attack vectors of Greek + Christian myth, specifically those two. Not one of them, not World Mythology is purely a backdrop of expertise, not core-crucial knowledge. Look at specifically Greek myth + Christian myth, and the problems of decoding are solved. The two are necessary, and sufficient.
Then, 2013, a major breakthrough to further Complete & expand the Mytheme theory (not really changing the 1988/1997 Core theory, the Cybernetic theory, though!)
An excerpt from a talk around when the book Strange Fire came out. He mentions possible book titles midway.
Since then, MacArthur has become a superstar in 2020 due to keeping his church open – I doubt he could have such a small room now; he’d be using the large megachurch room. This talk was closer to 2013 than 2020.
John MacArthur is an exoteric Christian doubting a late-Modern, Charismatic attempt at esoteric Christianity. There are actually 3 positions in play here: o exoteric Christianity o esoteric Christianity as attempted by Charismatic Christianity o esoteric Christianity per the Egodeath theory
Book: Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship John F. MacArthur November 19, 2013 (the start of the week of my tree vs. snake breakthrough) http://amzn.com/1400205174
November 19, 2013 — the start of the week of my tree vs. snake breakthrough, which I immediately published explicitly on the World-Wide Web December 2013; secret = hidden and then revealed.
In the Egodeath theory, text successfully describes the dynamics to everyone regardless of their mystic state firsthand experience. My public text references public bible texts.
The following highlighted phrases are mentions of “the Eighth” and “the Ninth”, and mystic-state religious mythemes relevant to the intense mystic altered state, in the Hermetic document “Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth”.
“My father, yesterday you promised me that you would bring my mind into the eighth and afterwards you would bring me into the ninth. You said that this is the order of the tradition.”
“I had received the spirit through the power … the understanding dwells in you; in me (it is) as though the power were pregnant. For when I conceived from the fountain that flowed to me, I gave birth.”
“My son, they are spiritual ones. For they exist as forces that grow other souls. Therefore I say that they are immortal.”
My father, begin the discourse on the eighth and the ninth
“Let us pray, my son, to the father of the universe, with your brothers who are my sons, that he may give the spirit of eloquence.”
… But it is not […]. Nor is it a […]. But he is satisfied with her […] him […]. And it is right for you to remember the progress that came to you as wisdom in the books, my son.
“My father, the progress that has come to me now, and the foreknowledge, according to the books, that has come to me, exceeding the deficiency – these things are foremost in me.” “My son, when you understand the truth of your statement, you will find your brothers, who are my sons, praying with you.”
“My father, I understand nothing else except the beauty that came to me in the books.” “This is what you call the beauty of the soul, the edification that came to you in stages. May the understanding come to you, and you will teach.”
“I have understood, my father, each one of the books. And especially the …
“My father, from you I will receive the power of the discourse that you will give. As it was told to both (of us), let us pray, my father.”
“My son, what is fitting is to pray to God with all our mind and all our heart and our soul, and to ask him that the gift of the eighth extend to us, and that each one receive from him what is his. Your part, then, is to understand; my own is to be able to deliver the discourse from the fountain that flows to me.”
I call upon you, who rules over the kingdom of power, whose word comes as (a) birth of light. And his words are immortal. They are eternal and unchanging. He is the one whose will begets life for the forms in every place. His nature gives form to substance. By him, the souls of the eighth and the angels are moved …
… those that exist. His providence extends to everyone […] begets everyone. He is the one who […] the aeon among spirits. He created everything. He who is self-contained cares for everything. He is perfect, the invisible God to whom one speaks in silence – his image is moved when it is directed, and it governs – the one mighty power, who is exalted above majesty, who is better than the honored (ones),
“Lord, grant us a wisdom from your power that reaches us, so that we may describe to ourselves the vision of the eighth and the ninth. We have already advanced to the seventh, since we are pious and walk in your law. And your will we fulfill always. For we have walked in your way, and we have renounced […], so that your vision may come. Lord, grant us the truth in the image. Allow us through the spirit to see the form of the image that has no deficiency, and receive the reflection of the pleroma from us through our praise.
“And acknowledge the spirit that is in us. For from you the universe received soul. For from you, the unbegotten one, the begotten one came into being. The birth of the self-begotten one is through you, the birth of all begotten things that exist. Receive from us these spiritual sacrifices, which we send to you with all our heart and our soul and all our strength. Save that which is in us and grant us the immortal wisdom.”
“Let us embrace each other affectionately, my son. Rejoice over this! For already from them the power, which is light, is coming to us. For I see! I see indescribable depths. How shall I tell you, my son? […] from the […] the places. How shall I describe the universe?I am Mind, and I see another Mind, the one that moves the soul!I see the one that moves me from pure forgetfulness. You give me power!I see myself! I want to speak! Fear restrains me. I have found the beginning of the power that is above all powers, the one that has no beginning. I see a fountain bubbling with life. … Language is not able to reveal this. For the entire eighth, my son, and the souls that are in it, and the angels, sing a hymn in silence. And I, Mind, understand.”
“I understand Mind, Hermes, who cannot be interpreted, because he keeps within himself. And I rejoice, my father, because I see you smiling. And the universe rejoices. Therefore, there is no creature that will lack your life. For you are the lord of the citizens in every place. Your providence protects. I call you ‘father’, ‘aeon of the aeons’, ‘great divine spirit‘. And by a spirit he gives rain upon everyone. What do you say to me, my father, Hermes?”
“Concerning these things, I do not say anything, my son. For it is right before God that we keep silent about what is hidden.”
“Trismegistus, let not my soul be deprived of the great divine vision. For everything is possible for you as master of the universe.”
What he had finished praising, he shouted, “Father Trismegistus! What shall I say? We have received this light. And I myself see this same vision in you. And I see the eighth, and the souls that are in it, and the angels singing a hymn to the ninth and its powers. And I see him who has the power of them all, creating those in the spirit.”
“It is advantageous from now on, that we keep silence in a reverent posture. Do not speak about the vision from now on. It is proper to sing a hymn to the father until the day to quit (the) body.”
“I am singing a hymn within myself. While you rest yourself, be active in praise. For you have found what you seek.”
“What is proper is your praise that you will sing to God, so that it might be written in this imperishable book.”
“I will offer up the praise in my heart, as I pray to the end of the universe and the beginning of the beginning, to the object of man’s quest, the immortaldiscovery, the begetter of light and truth, the sower of reason, the love of immortal life. … I am the instrument of your spirit; Mind is your plectrum. And your counsel plucks me. I see myself! I have received power from you. For your love has reached us.”
“Grace! After these things, I give thanks by singing a hymn to you. For I have received life from you, when you made me wise. I praise you. I call your name that is hidden within me:
You are the one who exists with the spirit. I sing a hymn to you reverently.”
“My son, write this book for the temple at Diospolis in hieroglyphic characters, entitling it ‘The Eighth Reveals the Ninth.'”
“My , write the language of the book on steles of turquoise. My son, it is properto write this book on steles of turquoise, in hieroglyphic characters. For Mind himself has become overseer of these. Therefore, I command that this teaching be carved on stone, and that you place it in my sanctuary. Eight guardians guard it with […] of the Sun. … And put a square milk-stone at the base of the turquoise tablets, and write the name on the azure stone tablet in hieroglyphic characters.
“And write an oath in the book, lest those who read the book bring the language into abuse, and not (use it) to oppose the acts of fate. Rather, they should submit to the law of God, without having transgressed at all, but in purityasking God for wisdom and knowledge. And he who will not be begotten at the start by God comes to be by the general and guiding discourses. He will not be able to read the things written in this book, although his conscience is pure within him, since he does not do anything shameful, nor does he consent to it. Rather, by stages he advances and enters into the way of immortality. And thus he enters into the understanding of the eighth that reveals the ninth.”
“This is the oath: I make him who will read this holy book swear … that he will guard the things that Hermes has said. And those who keep the oath, God will be reconciled with them and everyone whom we have named. But wrath will come to each one of those who violate the oath. This is the perfect one who is, my son.”
This article includes an aside in which I trace my series of thoughts and findings during idea-development.
When looking at religious mythology art, instead of “seeing mushrooms everywhere”, we have to force ourselves to reject all literalist readings, and aggressively read all elements of the picture as descriptions, by analogies, of the dynamics of experiential mental model transformation during the intense mystic altered state.
In mythology art, wheat definitely does not mean wheat; we must vigorously, wholesale reject that interpretive lens.
The mytheme {wheat} definitely means some aspect of mental model transformation in the series of intense altered-state “initiation” sessions.
The question is, what aspect of intense initiation experience does {wheat} or {harvesting} represent?
I effectively reversed the direction of valuation. Instead of following mythographers who treat mystery initiation as being for the purpose of grain fertility, tonight I instead saw grain harvesting as being valued insofar as it serves to describe initiation.
Instead of “initiation helps the grain harvest”, rather, “harvesting grain helps describe initiation”.
Grow (a series of initiations), then harvest (advanced initiation), then eat (consummation of the mature, ripe sacrifice, and then using the new mental model).
In the context of initiation, what is of supreme value is the initiation (ego harvest), not the grain or grain-harvest.
In the context of initiation, appears: o Ears of wheat held by Triptolemus in his winged serpent-drawn chariot. o Ears of wheat held by Saturn in his dragon-drawn chariot. o Wheat sprouting from Mithras’ bull’s tail when the bull is sacrificed by Mithras’ knife or short sword.
In the context of advanced initiation in a series of initiations, the central item of value is not literal wheat, but rather, the now within-reach, transformed mental model.
At this stage, the mind has built-up experience and connection-revisions, enough to take-hold permanently and in a more thoroughgoing way, the new, Eternalism mental world model of time and control.
The Eternalism mental model was previously glimpsed or grasped, but was then lost hold of, as the Possibilism mental world model exclusively re-asserted itself during the ordinary state of consciousness.
Saturn with Blade Sacrificing the Child in Mythology, Serpent-Drawn Chariot
In some images, Saturn holds not only a {harvesting-scythe}, but also {ears of wheat}, which means, the egoic Possibility-thinking at this advanced, 7th-level (in a series) intense mystic altered state, loose cognitive initiation session, is now ready to harvest the ego, to reap the reward, the prize, the jewel, the gold: permanent, secured, stable Eternalism-thinking.
This means I should slightly revise and reword my writings about Mithras’ dagger: Mithras’ bull has grain sprouting. I now complete the set of connections & connotations regarding grain-showing in religious mythology. I previously had a weaker notion from the clueless mythographers, that religion is “to get a good harvest of fertility of wheat food grain to eat”. That misses the key, mythology analogy point: literal food and literal crop fertility is secondary/minor.
8:00 P.M., November 9, 2020 (after writing the content which is above and below the following couple paragraphs):
The major, primary meaning, the mythological meaning proper, is:
EGO DEATH IS LIKE HARVESTING A CROP THAT IS RIPE AND READY TO HARVEST, TO GET THE FRUIT, THE PAYOUT, WHICH IS: PERMANENT, SECURED, ETERNALISM-THINKING.
As always, there are previous connections I made, as far back, long ago, as you choose to look. But these particular idea-connections are new, strengthened, bolstered, with closure, with systemic Completion, regarding this general mytheme of “harvest”.
Saturn reaps the harvest payout; now you pass through the gate to the garden of heaven with the Elect and the gods.
Immediate Post-Breakthrough Recounting of the Train of Thought That Led to this Breakthrough
This is a case-study for how theory-revision, or theory-development, works.
8:29 PM Nov 9 2020:
At this point, I could recall my train of thought for this moderate, topical breakthrough.
How many idea-connections were revised in my mind this past hour, per Paul Thagaard’s model of paradigm change?
First I felt like writing-up the series of planets & levels in the Ptolemaic cosmology because someone streamed The Planets music and there was a chat, starting around 1:30 PM.
People in chat praised Latin, and I promised to translate Ptolemaic diagrams of the levels above the Fixed Stars.
Then maybe 90 minutes ago I started building-up the weblog page about Ptolemaic Astral Ascent Mysticism.
I focused on why the hell are the 4 levels redundant: Saturn, Fixed Stars, Prime Mover, Empyrium.
I had some 9 tabs open, including Latin-to-English translation, to translate allcaps Latin on Ptolemaic cosmology diagrams.
Upon translation in the translation tab of the browser, I was happy to discover that the Elect are in the Empyrium level, which is outside all the spheres, with God.
Then I started adding more and more Saturn images research to the Ptolemy page, focusing on ‘sacrifice’ of the child, because I think that both the Fixed Stars level is a sacrifice, redundant with the Saturn level below it.
So I wanted to see pics of the Saturn sacrificing the child.
First, I tried a bad search, on “saturn chariot” (without quotes). I got awful, even bad satanic images, of accursed modern art, because it showed Saturn not sacrificing but rather eating, or “devouring” the child. Failure. Dead End. Modern art sucks.
I adjusted my web search terms to “saturn chariot” instead of the awful “saturn sacrifice” search. Payoff.
After adding a couple links/images to the Saturn chariot, and viewing some 4-5 images carefully, it was striking, the posture and attitude of the child, shown in this page. At that time, before 8pm, I wrote up the paragraphs about “consider the attitude shown by the prayerful child, and by Saturn”.
Then I continued looking at 1 or 2 more images of Saturn’s chariot, I was starting to try to look for the theme of the dragons biting their own tails [new idea now, 9:01PM: dragons biting their own tail = Saturn eating his own child!(in the theory of knowledge-discovery, this is an example of “jackpot” reconnections for an hour, as happened after Nov. 26, 2013 tree vs. snake)] – and I saw something that I was not aware of, attribute shown in some Saturn-chariot images: HOLDING WHEAT EARS in one hand, along with the familiar SCYTHE.
I’m only finding one image of Saturn in chariot holding wheat, 2 renderings, such as that led to the breakthrough. Snake-wrapped egg image (Mithraic theme) suggests that an egg, too, takes time — a series of initiations — to hatch, like Jesus takes days in the tomb, to be ready to be reborn.
Crop-gestation period = journey through the planetary spheres in an initiation series, which we can number like the Ptolemaic cosmology’s spheres, with Saturn being the 7th initiation, and the Elect with God in the Empyrian being the 10th initiation in a series of sacred meal-induced loose cognitive sessions.
The difference here in how I started seeing the scythe at 8:00, was that instead of seeing, negatively, ‘oh my god he’s going to kill the child”, I started seeing it, positively, as “the scythe FOR HARVESTING” (and “the ‘child’ is ready to be willing”), rather than seeing it as “the scythe of (destructive, regretful) DEATH/violence”.
Also during that Realization, I was thinking of — but too busy typing about Saturn — the famous images of “Demeter handing a wheat ear, in the underworld of Persephone“, and Triptolemus in winged serpent-drawn chariot holding wheat, which I have yet to write about and link to pictures of.
— end of post-breakthrough reconstruction/recounting, now: 8:53 P.M. Nov. 9, 2020.
The Maenads wield a “thyrsus spear”, a thyrsus used to spear the {king’s} cybernetic personal control vulnerability, the {wound} of death and rebirth.
Saturn’s chariot is drawn by serpents, dragons, or similar threatening beasts with coiling serpentine tails. {serpent, dragon} = block-universe worldline
Saturn sometimes drives a four-horse chariot (quadriga), a vehicle associated with rulers, triumphing generals, and sun gods.
Note carefully the attitude of the child. Saturn is you in the 7th (in a series) intense peak mystic-state window. And the child is you.
The child’s attitude is vulnerable, praying, consciously dependent, reverent, seeing clearly and correctly, pure, righteous, God-mode thinking, compliant, hopeful, wanting new life to continue but with clear, pure, coherent, mature understanding.
Saturn’s attitude is yours in that situation as well. Abraham soberly and determinedly raising the blade over the child like Isaac who will live to engender an entire prosperous God-fearing, God-conscious people.
How to sacrifice egoic control and live, unharmed, retaining enlightenement — Eternalism-thinking.
This is a picture of {Abraham sacrificing Isaac (via bush-caught substitute, God-given ram).}
This is a picture of {God sacrificing Jesus, taken down dead yet alive, and then reborn out from the rock tomb birth place}.
This is a picture of the advanced loosecog mind formally sacrificing Possibilism-thinking, to latch onto and retain Eternalism-thinking.
Now that I documented my “wheat” discovery, I continue the thought that got interrupted by the 8pm discovery: but that was developed while documenting that discovery: the dragons biting the own tails, which I now see as isomorphic with Saturn devouring his own child. I also see connections for Ouroborus, snake biting itself: you sacrifice yourself.
Solution: Move elect below God, merge sphere 9 + 10, The result = Davidson Sep 2024 video “What is Hermeticism?” picture at 12:42. In that diagram, 10 outside spheres = God, sphere 9 = transcend eternalism; spirit; integrated possibilism/eternalism. in this image w/ 10 spheres + outside, you can delete sphere 9 + 10 with no change. outside sphere 8 would be “transcend eternalism”.
Just noticed: God is within a sphere. clouds are higher than God. God is a helpless puppet controlled by the cloud gods, held captive prison slave kidnapped. So this image is actually has spheres 9, 10, & 11. level 12 outside spheres. Needless multiplication. argument from cosmos items: a 9-sphere model is best. even that has play, re: has a level 10 outside of sphere 9. I vote for a 10-level, 9-sphere sysetms, on the argument from physical cosmos: we are given:
7 planets sphere of the fixed stars implies outside fixed stars earth
by committing to a 9 -sphere, 10-level system, easy straigthfwd to write & name levels:
level 10) outside spheres, God, Source sphere 9) outside eternalism; hyper-eternalism; integrated possibilism/eternalism; transcend eternalism; qualified possibilism-thinking. eternalism model not only retained, but also integrated with Possibilism mental model of time, self, and control. 8) fixed stars = eternalism , eternalism model finally retained – but not integrated. 7) sphere 7 = Saturn 1) moon = 1st Psilocybin session = 1/8 eternalism model retained. 0) earth, elements: possibilism
7 spheres above the fixed stars. Region outside the spheres has {cut right trunk} & {right foot forward}. Bull faces right; POV outside the cosmos.
I prefer this elegant, least-confusion, 9-sphere, 10-level model: it fits well w/ heremetic texts, and fits pretty well with the renaissance elaborated model. Also the scientists say each sphere has 4 spheres, so, we’re always talking – in such diagrams — in terms of a simplification. So, let us simplify! Not add unhelpful spheres that don’t map to the actual physical cosmos bodies. Put precession of equi precession of the equinoxes in sphere 9, put God outside that sphere. Mithraism system is the result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_Mobile#Spherical_variations – “Spherical variations – The total number of celestial spheres was not fixed. In this 16th-century illustration, the firmament (sphere of fixed stars) is eighth, a “crystalline” sphere (posited to account for the reference to “waters … above the firmament” in Genesis 1:7) is ninth, and the Primum Mobile is tenth. Outside all is the Empyrean, the “habitation of God and all the elect”.”
Spheres or levels 9-11 are the most indeterminate/ redundant/ undifferentiated/ conjectural/ artificial.
What seems most useful for Egodeath theory is a 10-level model with two sphere or levels that are higher than fixed stars / eternalism: the highest level of consciousness = 9, outside of fixed stars, ie, integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking; and then God, above that. ie, I’d place the Elect in sphere 9, and God in sphere 10.
I really like the elegance of that picture from Paul Davidson video. 10, outside the spheres, can be God, Source. 9, outside fixed stars, can be transcendence of heimarmene/ eternalism. 8, fixed stars, is clear-cut in all systems, = Fate – nevermind Davidson’s confusion, and Hanegraaff’s, and fellow scholars.
The confused scholars fixate on just one vague text, Poimandres, that gives them the impression that the highest level of fate is 7, Saturn – while at the same time, they know, from all other texts and models, fixed stars = Fate = Demiurge, thus the highest level of Fate is sphere 8, fixed stars. Their confused and contradictory, waffling, and THE REASON THEY AVOID SAYING “FIXED STARS” AND “SPHERE 8” AND “FATE” TOGETHER, IS, THEY KNOW THEY CARRY TWO CONTRADICTORY SYSTEMS.
The Unresolved Two Contradictory Cosmos Models from Hanegraaff & Davidson etc
is comparable to the inconsistent number of levels beyond sphere of the fixed stars:
The bane of autists is the AWFUL Poimandres phrase:
“the 7 planetary spheres of Fate”
— AS IF sphere 8 fixed stars is NOT Fate!
That is the source of the confusion that causes Hanegraaff to write:
“Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.” – p. 294, footnote 114, Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, by Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022
The Key Lack & Problem: Hermetic Texts Don’t Explicitly Say “Fixed Stars = Fate”
Model 1 (Poimandres): Highest Fate Level is Saturn
Sphere 7 (Saturn) – permitted or possibly implied by vague Poimandres, but generally rejected by ancients & scholars.
Solving this problem is important enough to mention in footnote 114, but is more important than that.
Resolving this disparity is so important, there should have been a chapter in Hanegraaff w/ ramifications of holding fixed stars as being Above Fate vs. = Fate.
Hanegraaff throughout book outright asserts “the Ogdoad above the heimarmene” – p. 258, Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, by Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022 oah
Is is possible to quote hermetic texts to prove Hanegraaff is wrong? also quote Hanegraaff in same book, asserting that fixed stars are heimarmene! as if Ogdoad != sphere of the fixed stars! the infamous Y split of his arg’n:
Summarizing the contradiction warranting a clear definite pick of model:
Hanegraaff makes these 3 assertions (page numbers available):
fixed stars = Fate
Ogdoad = above Fate
Ogdoad = sphere of fixed stars
Thus footnote 114: “Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.”
Fate = fixed stars
fixed stars = sphere 8
sphere 8 = Ogdoad
Ogdoad = above Fate
DOES NOT ADD UP – DOES NOT COMPUTE – CONTRADICTION
IF the writer of Poimanders or “8 reveals 9” thinks fixed stars = above fate, that author CANNOT hold that fixed stars = Fate or that rising higher than Saturn puts you above Fate.
Model 2 (everyone else): Highest Fate Level is Fixed Stars
Though Scholars Know and Say That’s Standard – The Result in Practice Is Two Contradictory Models: Fixed Stars = Above Fate, vs. Fixed Stars = Fate
Given that I cannot quote hermetic texts to prove that fixed stars = Fate, I have to fall back to quoting the inconsistent scholars when, during discussing heremtic texts, teh scholars randomly & inconsistently (but correctly) mention and asssert that “fixed stars = Fate”.
Hanegraaff & Davidson say: following Poimandres,
“Fate = the 7 planets, then you rise above planets THEREFORE ABOVE FATE to read magically labelled vague hazy “the Ogdoad” (they ALWAYS go silent here and avoid saying “fixed stars”, b/c that would reveal their inconsistency & confusion – confusion from ancient writers & confusion from these scholars).
Like the ancient tradition of over-hyping Amanita causes 1st-generation entheogen scholarship to overhype magic-realm mythic Amanita as the uber super-psychedelic, WAY better than Psilocybin.
BUT, Also Hanegraaff & Davidson:
“Everyone knows Fate = fixed stars = sphere 8”.
— contradicting the BAD WRITING OF THE ANCIENTS in Poimandres that caused Justin Sledge to remark, what a bad unphilosophical MESS the Hermetica are, compared to proper Philosophy.
11) Empyrean – God & Elect 10) Primum Mobile 9) crystalline – waters above the firmament – 8) fixed stars – firmament
Simple 10-level model per Egodeath theory:
10) God; Source; the hidden, uncontrollable source of control-thoughts. above your spirit. either a sphere or, region outside sphere. 9) outside fixed stars – integrated possibilism/eternalism – prime mover, Pleroma. your spirit rises to here. 8) fixed stars – firmament
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Primum+Mobile – “Outermost moving sphere: Primum Mobile is the outermost moving sphere in classical, medieval, and Renaissance astronomy. Causes rotation of all inner spheres in the geocentric model. The ninth heaven in the Ptolemaic universe. Beyond the sphere of fixed stars. Moves the underlying spheres in a rapid rotation. In Dante, the physical origin of life, motion, and time. Enclosed by the Empyrean, the mind of God.”
August 1, 2022 Updated Model
April 7, 2025 revision
Basic Astral Ascent Mysticism Cosmology
The Standard Reference Model per the Egodeath Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism
The goal is to simply and usefully relate, by defining a standard reference model:
mental model transformation re: eternalism
cosmos model of Hermetism, Gnosticism, Christian, renaissance, Mithraic, neoplatonic.
the art genre of mushroom-trees (Left/ possibilism/ branching/ unstable vs. Right/ eternalism/ non-branching/ stable)
* and {the sphere of Saturn}, which highlights the moment/function of sacrifice when switching to eternalism-thinking. That’s a dynamic, but the above is meant to depict a static view.
For some more detail, picture development of “basic eternalism-thinking” (and in the late phase of that, {sacrifice child}), as spread across the series of peak windows (or a series of celestial spheres/gates).
Eternalism-thinking is developed in the tightcog state in between peak windows too.
Commentary/Design Reasons
Baseline General Purpose Simplified Ptolemaic astral ascent mysticism model.
Designed to be in between complicated models and the Egodeath theory; it can readily converse with diverse complex models and with a suitable expression of the Egodeath theory.
Needs to have a slot for God (source of control thoughts)
Needs to have a region above fixed stars, for ppl who transcended no-free-will / eternalism; ie: Returned to possibilism-thinking consciousness experiential SoC after returning to baseline, remembering/ comprehending the eternalism experiential realization. All specific instances of this model are too complex; to speak coherently to them without taking on unneeded arb complexity, here is my abstracted model that can readily map to any particular such cosmology while also readily usefully mapping to the Egodeath theory (the 3 actual mental worldmodels sequence that’s the real cognitive phen’y referent):
The goal in this scheme is to emphasize the different “lived” experiential modes instead of only focusing on underlying metaphysical epistemological model. “foo-thinking” here doesn’t mean theoretical metaphysical model (“I believe in eternalism block universe with no-free-will”);
rather, it means practical utilizing and (cog phen’y) experiencing of of egoic mental structures at arm’s length while dis-identified from those intact, preserved structures, a la Ken Wilber, even while theoretically/ metaphysically/ philosophically believing in no-free-will / eternalism / block universe/ uncontrollable source of personal control-thoughts.
Even if metaphysically there are only two worldmodels (possibilism vs eternalism), re: experiential cog pheny, there are three mental worldmodels, when you consider the relevant thing, the combination of stage+state:
3) transcendent stage, tightcog state 2) transcendent stage, loosecog state 1) egoic stage, tightcog state
sum that up by “three experiential worldmodels”. naive inexperienced egoic mental worldmodel; that sequence proceeds:
4) transcendent worldmodel, tightcog state (long-term) 3) transcendent worldmodel, loosecog state (restored to stable) 2) egoic worldmodel, loosecog state (unstable/transient/mortal/perishable) 1) egoic worldmodel, tightcog state
Sometimes use the simplest, 2-level model (1st-order model):
2) eternalism 1) possibilism
It’s just less detail. More clarity, less precision. Interesting to start there then double each to form 4-level sequential scheme: (2nd-order model):
qualified possibilism-thinking = my Feb 1988 after finding limits of control and why; now that enlightenment = block universe preexisting control thoughts, “How then are we to live??”
How do I act as a controller king now that I’ve seen the true king?
How do I practically (on the surface) act as a control agent, now that I know about the (underlying) uncontrollable source of control thoughts?
Arriving at that problem = entering the era of “qualified possibilism-thinking”.
In contrast, arriving at era/short phase of discovering eternalism-thinking = learning to restore stable control in the loose cognition state/ peak window (across a series of sessions).
“basic eternalism-thinking” is not for ever-after mundane practical life as an exposed controller; it’s for during the peak window.
Ever-after life is conducting mundane daily life after transforming to restore stable control during the peak window of experiencing eternalism.
After returning to baseline (tight cog) SoC, you no longer experience eternalism; you merely remember experiencing eternalism but you experience possibilism (now knowing it’s illusory or just a perspectival overlay).
You experience possibilism while remembering experiencing eternalism. That’s the mental model “qualified possibilism-thinking”.
Update/Cleaned up: Cleaned Up Scheme After Critiquing Hanegraaff Hermetic Spirituality Book
Luther Martin’s book is on its way, to confirm this updated model. He writes about cosmology and Heimarmene/Fate in late antiquity.
November 10, 2020: Original Posting/ Research
10 – the Empyrean – God and the Elect 9 – the Prime Moving sphere (if omitted, Empyrean = 9) 8 – the sphere of the Fixed Stars – Heimarmene; fate 7 – the sphere of Saturn – sacrifice 6 – the sphere of Jupiter 5 – the sphere of Mars 4 – the sphere of the Sun 3 – the sphere of Venus 2 – the sphere of Mercury 1 – the sphere of the Moon the sublunary sphere; the Earth (Earth, Water, Air, then Fire)
The 2-level and 3-level schemes of Transcendent Knowledge are equivalent and interchangeable. First you have Possibilism, then you have both Possibilism and Eternalism as two distinct tools at your disposal.
3-Level Model of Ego Transcendence Mapped to 10-Level Geocentric Cosmological Ascent Mysticism
Summary of the mapping of the Egodeath theory’s Possibilism/Eternalism scheme mapped to geocentric ascent mysticism, expressed as a 3-level scheme/model:
3 – Transcending no-free-will Eternalism after repudiating dependence on Possibilism-premised control – the Prime Mover sphere (First Mover, Primum Mobile), and then the Empyrium of supreme power where God and the Elect dwell. That’s during the 2nd half of the peak initiation session after repudiating Possibilism-premised control, and during the ordinary state and altered state after that. Combines both of the distinct mental worldmodels and cognitive mental psychological structures: Egoic thinking and Transcendent Thinking; freewill and no-free-will; Possibilism and Eternalism. This is transcending the block-universe worldline snake.
2 – Experience of no-free-will Eternalism – sphere of Saturn (when/where Possibilism is sacrificed), sphere of the Fixed Stars. This is the block-universe worldline snake.
1 – Naive freewill Possibilism thinking – Earth, sphere of the moon, sphere of Mercury, sphere of Venus, sphere of the Sun, sphere of Mars, sphere of Jupiter.
2-Level Model of Ego Transcendence Mapped to 10-Level Geocentric Cosmological Ascent Mysticism
Summary of the mapping of the Egodeath theory’s Possibilism/Eternalism scheme mapped to geocentric ascent mysticism, expressed as a 2-level scheme/model:
2 – No-free-will Eternalism after repudiating dependence on Possibilism-premised control – sphere of Saturn (when/where Possibilism is sacrificed), sphere of the Fixed Stars, the Prime Mover sphere (First Mover, Primum Mobile), and then the Empyrium of supreme power where God and the Elect dwell. That’s during the 2nd half of the peak initiation session after repudiating Possibilism-premised control, and during the ordinary state and altered state after that. Combines both of the distinct mental worldmodels and cognitive mental psychological structures: Egoic thinking and Transcendent Thinking; freewill and no-free-will; Possibilism and Eternalism. This is the block-universe worldline snake and transcending the worldline snake.
1 – Naive freewill Possibilism thinking – Earth, sphere of the moon, sphere of Mercury, sphere of Venus, sphere of the Sun, sphere of Mars, sphere of Jupiter.
The label “Ptolemaic Astral Ascent Mysticism” focuses on ‘Astral’, indicating the sphere of the Fixed Stars (travelling up through Heimarmene; Eternalism).
Ptolemy was a bit late (150 A.D.); the system goes back to Hipparchus (150 B.C.), so it could be more broadly useful to label it, when not focusing on mathematical computations, as “the geocentric system” — a more direct label for this cosmology, that sidesteps or downplays the issue of mathematical computation.
Ptolemaic system (mathematical formulation: 150 A.D.; concepts: 150 B.C.) https://www.britannica.com/science/Ptolemaic-system — “Geocentric system/model – A mathematical model of the universe formulated by the Alexandrian astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy about 150 A.D., published in his Almagest and Planetary Hypotheses.
“A geocentric cosmology; assumes Earth is stationary and at the centre of the universe.
“The principles of this model were known to earlier Greek scientists, including the mathematician Hipparchus (c. 150 B.C.). The principles culminated in an accurate predictive model with Ptolemy.
“The resulting Ptolemaic system persisted until Earth was displaced from the centre of the universe in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Copernican system (1543 A.D.).
https://www.britannica.com/science/Copernican-system — “Copernican system – model of the solar system centred on the Sun, with Earth and other planets moving around it, formulated by Nicolaus Copernicus, published in 1543 A.D. as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”).“
The 2-Level Egodeath Cosmology
2 – Eternalism experiencing & the Eternalism mental model, while retaining, distinctly, the Possibilism mental model.
1 – Possibilism experiencing & the Possibilism mental model
The 3-Level Egodeath Cosmology
3 – The hidden uncontrollable controller & creator of all thoughts; Controller X; the Puppetmaster, and puppets who have both the Possibilism & Eternalism mental models.
2 – Eternalism experiencing & the Eternalism mental model
1 – Possibilism experiencing & the Possibilism mental model
The Ptolemaic Cosmology (Mystical Geocentric)
10 – the Empyrean the Empyrian the Empirium the Empirian Outside of the moving spheres. The highest part of heaven. HEAVEN EMPIRIUM – DWELLING PLACE OF GOD AND OF ALL THE ELECT Empyrium = supreme power CELUM EMPIRIVM HABITACVLVM DEI ET OMNIVM ELECTORVM CELUM EMPYRIUM HABITACULUM DEI ET OMNIUM ELECTORUM In the Hermetic doctrine of “the Eighth and Ninth”, ‘Ninth’ includes the Prime Mover sphere and the Empyrean, like treating Earth along with Moon as “step 1”.
9 – the Primum Mobile sphere the Prime Mover sphere the Prime Moving sphere the First Moved sphere the First Mover sphere the Ninth sphere Transcending no-free-will. Not Ancient, but Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance. The outermost moving sphere that moves around the earth in 24 hours, carrying the inner moving spheres with it. REVOLVCAO DO PRIMO MOBILE EM 24 ORAS REVOLUCAO DO PRIMO MOBILE EM 24 ORAS https://www.bing.com/search?q=Primum+Mobile
8 – the sphere of the Fixed Stars the moving sphere (orb) of the Fixed Stars the Eighth sphere Eternalism-thinking; no-free-will; Heimarmene-ruled.
7 – Saturn the sphere of Saturn; the moving sphere (orb) of Saturn Seems functionally equivalent to penetrating the Fixed Stars. Father Time. Sacrifices the child-self; repudiation of Possibilism-premised thinking.
6 – Jupiter the sphere of Jupiter; the moving sphere (orb) of Jupiter
5 – Mars
4 – Sun
3 – Venus
2 – Mercury
1 – Moon the sphere of the Moon The Lunar sphere; the moving sphere (orb) of the Moon; the sphere of Luna
“Gnostics hold that esoteric knowledge and self-control enable transcending the flawed creation of the demiourgos. The first, pre-cosmic creations of the demiourgos are the archons (rulers), which rule the seven Ptolemaic planets [Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn] and the sphere of fixed stars. The rule of the demiourgos and the archons is heimarmene (fate), which is cruel, tyrannical and oppressive.”
Ptolemaic geocentric system by Portuguese cosmographer and cartographer Bartolomeu Velho, 1568
“The cosmology I use is based on the system used by the Hermetic magicians of the first through third centuries AD as recorded in the Corpus Hermeticum, specifically the Divine Pymander.
“In this system, the Earth is the manifest physical realm and is at the center of a series of concentric spheres. Within the physical sphere are the four spheres of the elements. Closest to the Earth is the sphere of Earth, followed by Water, Air, and then Fire. These four elemental spheres combine to form the Sphere of Sensation, the physical realm.”
“The Celestial Spheres consist of: 1-7 The Seven Planetary Spheres, the Heavens. 8 The Sphere of the Fixed Stars. 9 The Sphere of the Prime Mover. [10 The Empyreum, outside the spheres. Not listed here – mh]
“Agrippa and the Hermetic authors of the Corpus Hermeticum began numbering the spheres at 1: the sphere of the Moon.”
The Eighth Reveals the Ninth (The Discourse on the Eighth & Ninth)
Update April 7, 2025: yesterday I read David Litwa’s new book, Hermetica I (Litwa, 2025).
The geocentric model here has ultimate levels of “the Eighth” and “the Ninth”. A key phrase in this document: “The Eighth reveals the Ninth.”
the Ninth = the hidden uncontrollable controller, invisible God the Creator and cloud-hidden Puppetmaster, the controller operating the hand which visibly protrudes from the cloud. That hand indirectly “reveals” the ever-hidden controller of the hand, hidden by the cloud. The Empyrean, dwelling place of God outside the spheres of the cosmos.
There is no intervening distinct “Primum Mobile” moving planetary sphere/orb in this system.
the Eighth = Heimarmene, the sphere of the Fixed Stars; fatedness; no-free-will
List of Levels in the Geocentric Cosmology per the Discourse on the 8th & 9th
the Ninth – the Empyrean – God. Indirectly visible from the Eighth. the Eighth – the sphere of the Fixed Stars – Heimarmene; fate the Seventh – the sphere of Saturn – sacrifice. Discourse starts here. the Sixth – the sphere of Jupiter the Fifth – the sphere of Mars the Fourth – the sphere of the Sun the Third – the sphere of Venus the Second – the sphere of Mercury the First – the sphere of the Moon the sublunary sphere; the Earth (Earth, Water, Air, then Fire)
“The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth is an account of a Hermetic initiation.
“The initiate first attains to the wisdom of the first seven spheres [Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn], that of the planets.
“The initiate is then instructed and then initiated by Hermes Trismegistus into the mysteries of the 8th sphere, that of the fixed stars or the Empyrean [sic? ‘Empyrean’ should be moved to the next step. -mh].
“The initiate is then instructed and then initiated by Hermes Trismegistus into the 9th sphere, the sphere of God[sic; the name of the sphere of God is the Empyrean, which the author wrongly placed above. -mh].”
Metaphor/Analogy for Altered-State Death and Rebirth
Ptolemaic Astral Ascent Mysticism is an ancient Western metaphor-system for altered-state death & rebirth.
In Ptolemaic Astral Ascent Mysticism, penetrating past the sphere of Saturn & fixed stars is the most important transformation.
I don’t much care for Modern astrology; it’s less mystical.
missing from Ptolemaic cosmology: o Asteroid belt Neptune – Invisible to the eye. The only planet found by math prediction. First viewed in 1846. o Uranus o Pluto
Antiquity knew of only 5 planets (in the modern sense of ‘planet’): Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn
Antiquity had 7 planets; 7 planetary moving spheres/orbs: Moon Mercury Venus Sun Mars Jupiter Saturn
Jesus from Outer Space
Book: Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ Richard Carrier http://amzn.com/1634311949 October 20, 2020
“The earliest Christians believed Jesus was an ancient celestial being who put on a bodysuit of flesh, died at the hands of dark forces, and then rose from the dead and ascended back into the heavens.
“But the writing we have today from that first generation of Christians never says where they thought he landed, where he lived, or where he died.
“The idea that Jesus toured Galilee and visited Jerusalem arose only a lifetime later, in unsourced legends written in a foreign land and language.
“Many sources repeat those legends, but none corroborate them. Why?
“What exactly was the original belief about Jesus, and how did this belief change over time?
“Richard Carrier is a philosopher and historian.
“Summarizes for a popular audience the scholarly research on these and related questions.
“Modern attempts to conceal, misrepresent, or avoid the actual evidence calls into question the entire field of Jesus studies–and present-day beliefs about how Christianity began.”
Mithraism – Where Was Astral Ascent Mysticism Incorporated
Mithraism was cosmological. Transcending Heimarmene (Saturn/fixed stars) led to moving the pole of the fixed stars.
“Astral ascent mysticism centers around the dangerous gateway or “fatal” boundary crossing – the sphere of the fixed stars – representing the apprehension of Heimarmene and its control of one’s thoughts. The stars wind around the world in a spiral pattern over time; this pattern is depicted by the Heimarmene-snake wrapped around the cosmos, cosmic egg, or Mithraic lion-headed gatekeeper figure.”
Modern Cosmology – A Different Potential for Mystic Altered State Mythemes
Traditional geocentric cosmology is much more interesting than the trendy meme, flat Earth.
Cygnus X-1 (Rush, 1977)
The modern cosmology has some cool potential, such as the excellent altered-state song, about the black hole journey:
“In the constellation of Cygnus There lurks a mysterious, invisible force [hidden source of control-thoughts] The black hole of Cygnus X-1 Six stars of the Northern Cross In mourning for their sister’s loss In a final flash of glory Nevermore to grace the night“
Invisible to telescopic eye Infinity, the star that would not die All who dare to cross her course [can’t look at the source of control thoughts and live, as monolithic, autonomous control agent] Are swallowed by a fearsome force Through the void to be destroyed Or is there something more? Atomized at the core [loose cognitive association binding dis-integrates the egoic personal control system] Or through the astral door [{transformation gate}] To soar
I set a course just east of Lyra And northwest of Pegasus Flew into the light of Deneb Sailed across the Milky Way On my ship, the Rocinante Wheeling through the galaxies Headed for the heart of Cygnus Headlong into mystery
The X-ray is her siren song, my ship cannot resist her long Nearer to my deadly goal, until the black hole Gains control [control is experientially removed from egoic personal control system upon perceiving the uncontrollable hidden source of control-thoughts]
Spinning, whirling, still descending Like a spiral sea, unending!
Sound and fury drowns my heart Every nerve is torn apart!
This page is only for announcing revisions of older WordPress articles, which appear further down the list of articles.
Incoming Quick Notes of Updates
Proof article: added subsection [2:30 a.m. January 20, 2021] Proof that the Canterbury Psalter’s Leg-Hanging Mushroom Tree Is Psilocybe New subsection: High While Passing the Exam, or After Banquet Afterwards? https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/proof-canterbury-psalters-mushroom-trees-are-psilocybe/#High-While-Exam I considered this problem over the past two days or so. Or, a better date to retrieve: When did I notice and screencap the lifted garment and add it to the Lifted Garment gallery page? A week ago or so.
Copied all Anti-Amanita Sections from “Idea Development page 9” to new page:
[9:41 p.m. January 11, 2021] I’m satisfied with my latest analysis of the two contradictory Kafei’s: He’s alternating between a normal, good methodology, and a bad methodology that has faulty assumptions and position-conflations around high dose. This latest analysis is spread between two cross-linked sections, including my commentary on Strange Loop’s podcast episode 25. Page: Commentary on “Transcendent Knowledge Podcast” Episode 25 (2020-07-05) Strange Loop Subsection: 1:04:30, Is ‘Determinism’ the Reason for Misunderstanding the Egodeath Theory? https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/commentary-on-transcendent-knowledge-podcast-episode-25/#1-04-30
Created a new WordPress website to contain all the 183 digests of the Egodeath Yahoo Group postings. https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com The sampling of digests at the present site will be deleted or suppressed. I need to be able to Search in recent WordPress pages without returning the Egodeath Yahoo Group postings.
Proof that the Canterbury Psalter’s Leg-Hanging Mushroom Tree Is Psilocybe
November 25, 2020 o Added section: Gentle {lamb}, {dove} and {Holy Spirit}, Contrasted with {ram}, {eagle}, and {frenzy} or {mania}
November 23, 2020 o Added important 2-page section, balancing out the Teacher/Guide Requirements section: Students Are Required to Fully Understand Eternalism First, Before Permitted to Become Initiates in Practice
December 23, 2020 o Added two quotes from John Lash: “Variations of the Wasson theory, including considerable departures from it” “associations between psychoactive mushrooms and the historical Jesus, famously argued by John Allegro”
December 5, 2020 o Changed title from “Dictionary of Egodeath & the Altered State” to “Egodeath Concepts“. o Added linked TOC. o Moved-out Concept-sections that are not Core Concepts, to a new page: Theorizing-Concepts https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2020/12/05/key-theorizing/
Previous titles of page
Egodeath Concepts Dictionary of Egodeath & the Altered State
December 18, 2020 o Finished re-outlining the Site Map. It is working well.
December 6, 2020 o Added section: “Repealing Prohibition of Psychedelics“ To reduce spaghetti-linking, leverage such sections in Site Map. Utilize dup entries across sections within the Site Map page.
Defining “Compelling Evidence” & “Criteria of Proof” for Mushrooms in Christian Art
November 27, 2020 o Added “six types of evidence”, short summary in the TOC at top, and near top of article, and I expanded the top of the section. o The section’s been cleaned up recently. TOC summary: Section 3: A Spectrum of Criteria of Proof, for Identifying Mushrooms in Art or Texts Six types of evidence: [text|art] x [literal|stylized|effects] 1. Literal depictions of mushrooms (in art & in texts) 2. Stylized depictions of mushrooms (in art & in texts) 3. Depictions of mushroom effects (in art & in texts)
November 18, 2020 o Added more content (images and analysis) to this flagship article, including high-resolution Canterbury Psalter images (hanging man, God, & banquet), legged snake poking head through branches on underside of Psilocybe cap. It is ready to read.
December 6, 2020 o Repurposed this entire page, to rightly emphasize firstly, creating great phrases; and only following after that, defining [acro]/keyboard shortcuts to make the great phrase rapidly usable.
Previous title of page
Keyboard Shortcuts – Key Phrases Embodying the Egodeath Theory
Key Mythemes
November 28, 2020 o Filled in some actual, good content.
December 5, 2020 o Added linked TOC. o Larger heading for each entry.
November 28, 2020 o Filled in some actual, good content.
November 26, 2020 – Thanksgiving Day o Added real content. o Added two hyperlinks for TOC, but, About page is very unstable! Need to move to separate page, maybe bottom of Summary page? Todo: Make About page short. Move out the content.
Theory of Mythemes: Decodings, Mappings, Referents, & Breakthroughs
November 19, 2020 o Added at top: Proof that the Canterbury Psalter’s Leg-Hanging Mushroom Tree Is Psilocybe https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2020/11/19/proof-that-the-canterbury-psalters-leg-hanging-mushroom-tree-is-psilocybe/ This top-tier illuminated manuscript depicts a trip guide at a sacred-food Psilocybe banquet, and a teacher who knows the highest wisdom teaching students about how to endure Psilocybe and become spiritually enlightened, with the controlled threat of loss-of-control that causes correctly re-aligning self-control to trust in the higher controller as the actual source of thoughts.
A trip guide is a dangerous, unqualified fool or fraud unless he knows this religious wisdom.
November 18, 2020 Finally got some real traction. Translate/invert question to “Why is being a lie (a false, contradictory ctrl agent, an imposter claimant to the throne/crown) the worst thing in the world?” o At bottom, worked up incoming idea, then copied to top.
November 13, 2020 o Improved flow around the ellipses that replaced mention of Brinckmann’s book. o Increased attention to the “two specimens” Panofsky included with his letter to Wasson. o Wrote up a Verdict section against Wasson. o Differentiated the 4 contentious assertions from Allegro.
November 12, 2020 o Added Brinckmann’s book.
November 11, 2020 o Added Bibliography at bottom.
November 10, 2020 o Moved sections around. o Added photos of Amanita-styled containers with a flat (straight edge) base. o Added photos of Amanita specimens with a distinctive serrated base. o At bottom, added links to Cyb’s weblog articles about Hatsis or Brown, & links to Egodeath webpages about Letcher’s Hatsis-like book Shroom. o Some cleanup (there’s still 2 outdated 1st-pass sections, marked as such).
November 11, 2020 o Added intro summary of Egodeath theory, optimized around block universe worldlines. o Moved history of Egodeath theory development to a dedicated article.
New for 2016/2020 per Brown & Brown: A {full-height spear held by the god} separates the scene into mortal vs. immortal.
That corroborates, and adds more decoding-connections to, my 2006 main article’s assertion that: {spear, sacrificial knife} = the mind’s cybernetic death-and-rebirth capacity
A mythology book cover (for my November 2013 tree vs. snake breakthrough) shows a painting from a kylix saucer-“cup”. The kylix (mixed-wine mushroom-wine drinking cup) shows Jason dead, coming forth from a dragon-serpent guarding the non-branching ivy “tree” with the ram’s Golden Fleece hanging on it, in the garden of the Hesperides with Athena and her owl, spear, gorgon-medusa death-head breastplate and its snake-fringe.
Brown & Brown’s book The Psychedelic Gospels adds insight, answers my question of how to interpret the full-height spear dividing the scene: A {full-height spear held by the god} separates the scene into mortal (Jason/snake on the left) vs. immortal (Athena on the right).
{spear in side} = {wound in side}, which becomes {vulnerable opening through which death & rebirth} = the mind’s capacity for cybernetic death & rebirth.
The Entheogen Theory of Religion and Ego Death Section: The Potential for Control Breakdown and Transformation http://www.egodeath.com/EntheogenTheoryOfReligion.htm#_Toc177337634 — “Julius Caesar was authorized for power by his seizures, and the bull in his military’s Mithraic mystery-cult was wounded in the side, so the figure of Jesus was shown as similarly authorized by the spear-wound in his side, and the figure of the apostle Paul was portrayed as suffering from seizures. The ability to make self-control seize or cancel itself dramatically is an afflicting thorn (2 Cor. 12:7-10), hole, or wound in our side, the innate cybernetic governance-failure through which the new, transformed life is born. The new transcendence-aware self is given birth through the pride-killing disproof-wound in the side.”
“Mithras overpowering and sacrificing the bull represents the delusion of self-originated control-power being given over to the transcendent level, with Mithras’ arm wielding the bull’s shoulder and his [the uncontrollable transcendent god’s] knifepiercing and fatally wounding it. The wound in the bull’s side indicates Mithras demonstrating his power over the bull’s control-power. Mithras wrestles and overpowers the initiate’s control of their will, reconfiguring their understanding of control-power to account for the transcendent givenness of one’s thoughts.”
During a breakthrough, I have a subjective sense of connections-transformation a la Paul Thagard’s model of explanatory-framework revision. However, it requires work, to identify and specify exactly what the connection-changes are, when I sense a breakthrough. And it requires work to assess how major a “breakthrough” is.
Similar (“new”) picture: https://classicalwisdom.com/mythology/heroes/jason-the-colchis-days/ Jason, tree, fleece, snake winding around the tree, snake drinking from kylix cup/saucer for mixed wine. “He had to combat a sleepless dragon guarding the sacred [ram’s] golden fleece. Medea came to the rescue with a potion from distilled herbs which put the beast to rest, enabling Jason to thieve the fleece. The quest had been achieved!“
The mind is designed to {sacrifice} (repudiate & qualify/transform), as described by Abraham’s sacrifice of child-thinking, which didn’t exactly directly put risk to a child, but, really did put risk for ctrl stability.
I recognize the sword in the Canterbury Hanging Above Sword picture — it’s the same blade that Abraham raised over his own child-thinking!
the {instructional threat to control-stability} that cuts down Possibilism-based thinking, wrecks it, breaks it, in order to drive creating new mental model incl revising BUT retaining the old mental model to stay usable, qualified as “illusion-premised”.
The mind has to grow by threatening itself, by demonstrating the vulnerability, by feeling alarmed at the vulnerability, to shift reliance from {idol} of Possibilism-thinking, to the {reality of God} ie the ever-real (albeit formery completely hidden) source of control, source of control-thoughts.
In Mithraism initiation, same as the bow-and-arrow threat that the Father does to the initiate, as practice and acting-out of the BLADE OF THE HIGHER MIND MAKING THE LOWER MIND’S STRUCTURE FAIL, for the purpose of driving a change of what the mind depends on: illusory freewill ego, or real, no-free-will/monopossibility, Source of Thoughts? The Blade of Sacrifice is the Blade of Threat, the mind threatening itself to learn and teach and build up new structure and transform — that is the odd System of Sacrifice/Threat/Transformation / Theory-Modification that is innately built into the mind, the highest religion aspect. We Are Control Agents – Transcendent Knowledge is the highest value because it has to do with Who We Are ie Quasi-Autonomous Control Agents. The best, most valuable thing in the world, is the mind’s ability to “blaade-threaten” itself, to drive mental model transformation.
Which chapter in Conceptual Revolutions covers how that blade works, the one they use on piles of rock altars in all mystic religion?
It is the same blade that is used in Jesus’ side, the blade of threatening the mind’s, the blade of the mind threatening the mind’s control power, in order to learn and “force” or “drive” or cause, mental model transformation.
Teach the mind about it’s vulnerability, the pine cone on the Maenad’s (she is the initiate guy wearing woman’s garment like leader Dionysus) thyrsus “spear”, the thyrsus “spear” pine cone blade penetrates – it demonstrates control vulnerability; that is how Scientific Discovery works, discovering self-control vulnerability to force/drive/cause the creation and adoption of a new mental model of time and control that is not subject to that failure, that’s not completely at sea, that knows how to receive trust in its own hidden source, ever the source, less hidden now that it previously was. But thinking was always profoundly dependent on that source.
In the Canterbury Psalter hanging-from-mushroom image, top row: The maiden will be placed by the angel precariously on the mushroom tree above the sword of God, to “almost fall on the blade”. {blade} = Abraham/Isaac, = all other standard examples ever.
In that article, see also the section “Blades to Transform Thinking“.
The mind is driven to transform and shift reliance from thin-air ego, to the real foundation/ source of ctrl, by the mind showing itself the threat/vulnerability, then saying “ok i get it I’ll consciously switch to what is ever (secretly) the case, that makes sense, hold off the demonstration/ showing me the opening/ vulnerability”.
Book: The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity
My Amazon Review of The Psychedelic Gospels
Videos
Article Link
Article: Entheogens in Christian art: Wasson, Allegro, and the Psychedelic Gospels Jerry Brown & Julie Brown https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/3/2/article-p142.xml Journal of Psychedelic Studies Volume/Issue: Volume 3: Issue 2 Pages 142–163 June 1, 2019; online pub. date: September 9, 2019
Article Abstract
Condensed excerpts
new historical evidence about Wasson’s correspondence with art historian [history artist -mh] Erwin Panofsky
analysis of entheogenic mushroom images in Christian art
controversy between Wasson and philologist John Marco Allegro
a Garden of Eden fresco in the 12th century Chapel of Plaincourault in France
a compelling financial motive for Wasson’s refusal to acknowledge that this fresco represents Amanita muscaria
Wasson’s reluctance to pursue his hypothesis regarding the entheogenic origins of religion into Christian art and artifacts
Wasson maintained that the presence of psychoactive mushrooms in the Near and Middle East ended around 1000 BCE.
Wasson’s view prevailed and stymied research on entheogens in Christianity for decades.
A new generation of 21st century researchers has documented growing evidence of A. muscaria and psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Christian art
Samorini’s typology of mushroom trees
original photographs, taken during fieldwork at churches and cathedrals throughout Europe and the Middle East, of entheogenic mushrooms in Christian art
frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, sculptures, and stained glass windows
a psychedelic gospels theory
Critiques of this theory by: o Art historians [Panofsky; history artists -mh] o Ardent advocates [Irvin/Rush] o Medieval historians [Hatsis] o Conservative Catholics
Establishing an Interdisciplinary Committee on the Psychedelic Gospels to independently evaluate the growing body of evidence of entheogenic mushrooms in Christian art in order to resolve a controversial question regarding the possible role of entheogens in the history and origins of Christianity.”
[“role”, “history”, “origins” is good & compact, broken-out well. I often summarize as “the extent to which visionary plants were present throughout Christian history” -mh]
Book: The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity
The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Jerry Brown, Julie Brown http://amzn.com/1620555026 2016
Customer Review Michael Hoffman 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2016 [the book became available on September 24, 2016. Mine appears to be the 3rd review posted.] Verified Purchase
The extent and meaning of psychedelics in Christianity
The Psychedelic Gospels accomplishes its stated goal, doesn’t make strategic mistakes, and brings additional evidence of mushrooms in Christian art, with intelligent, informed, broad discussion.
This book is ready for Wouter Hanegraaff to read. Hanegraaff is leading critical historical scholarship in Western esotericism, and he is calling for critical scholarship on the history of psychedelics in Western esotericism. Brown shows a Boehme woodcut with mushroom elements.
Brown provides valuable contributions to studying how religions come from psychedelics and then corporate religion tries to manage or compete against psychedelics, sometimes suppressing the very root inspiration of religion.
Brown raises the right questions about Wasson, and takes a critical, informed look at the Wasson/Allegro contention, so that’s no longer blocking research. That logjam has now been cleared.
This book is written as a travel adventure format. It is chatty and yet impressively broad and relatively well-informed on psychedelic history and latest research developments and controversies, including Irvin, Letcher, Hatsis, and Hoffman. Discusses the reception history of McKenna and Allegro, and gives balanced critical assessment of Wasson and of Allegro.
We must not let Wasson hold back any longer, research into psychedelic history within Christianity. We must not let Allegro hold back the psychedelic theory of religion.
Letcher and Hatsis have fixated on Allegro’s particular model of how to think about the mushrooms in Christianity, as if we must pick between only two, shallow explanatory-theory options, “there are no mushrooms in our own religion” vs. “secret fertility cult hiding their mushroom use in the figure of Jesus”.
Brown’s thinking doesn’t get stuck inside the over-specific John Allegro description of what mushrooms in Christianity meant in the cultural context.
Brown has contributed several useful mytheme decodings: {bones} = nondying {Purification of lips by ember} A {full-height spear held by the god} separates the scene into mortal vs. immortal
Brown points to the Egodeath site for discussion of the psychedelic theory of religion. The Egodeate site has content through 2007. The Egodeath Yahoo group covers through the present.
Brown considers ahistoricity and psychedelics, but doesn’t consider the Egodeath theory as a whole. There is a paragraph about consciousness, yet no mention of loose cognitive binding and metaperception per the Egodeath theory. No mention of Heimarmene or Eternalism or freewill.
Shallow pop sike treatment of the snake as being vaguely “identified with” psychedelics — but Eve sees and rightly blames the snake for bringing her the ingesting of mushrooms.
This book adheres to the typical scope, typical focus on shallow recognition of the sheer presence of mushrooms in Christianity, or psychedelics in religion. Gives lip service to cognitive approach and cites Benny Shanon, but doesn’t mention anything like the theory of loose cognitive association binding.
Brown makes the usual comments about meditation that the Moderate psychedelics “advocates” make, equating meditation with psychedelics. But meditation or contemplation comes from psychedelics; psilocybin (not meditation) is the authority and point of reference for religion. Functionally, meditation serves as a way of avoiding psychedelics, which are too effective.
Brown’s next step after this book is to gather and assess art evidence of mushrooms in Christianity. Even before we make additional important progress there, though, it is suddenly already time to ask: given the fact of mushrooms in Christianity, what of it?
The article _Wasson and Allegro on the Tree of Knowledge as Amanita_ advises to put aside the shallow argument about a single mushroom tree, and focus research instead on the question: To what extent are psychedelics in Christianity?
But moving on to the next phase after Brown’s next project, after books in this genre have piled up, and after piling up more than enough evidence of the sheer presence of psychedelics in all of our religions, then what? Brown doesn’t reach that far. Given that there are plentiful mushrooms in Christianity, what of it? Given that there are plentiful psychedelics throughout religion, what of it?
The Egodeath theory explains that once the esoteric psychedelic tradition is reinvigorated, this will lead to an eager and fearful uncovering and revelation, which delivers salvation and gnosis: Mushrooms in Christianity will lead to transformation from literalist ordinary-state Possibilism (possibility-branching-steering) to analogical psychedelic Eternalism (pre-existence/noncontrol; frozen spacetime block). Esoteric (inner) Christianity must be available, as well as exoteric (outer) Christianity.
Brown advocates amending the Controlled Substances Act to permit psychedelics for certain purposes, and centers where people legally ingest psychedelics under supervision. The Egodeath theory advocates full repeal of drug Prohibition back to the 1913 nonexistence of laws against psychoactives; eliminate the schedules.
Brown’s declared position on Jesus’ historicity is literalist; historicist: Brown asserts that Jesus *ingested* mushrooms, not that Jesus *means* mushrooms.
Allegro’s camp asserts that Jesus represents mushrooms.
Brown points to the Egodeath site. The Egodeath theory asserts: The Eucharist is psychoactive mushrooms, is Christ in the likeness of flesh, the only means by which the mind is transformed. The Jesus figure depicts by analogy, the experiential dynamics that result from mushrooms. Greek and Bible mythology describes transformation from Literalist Ordinary-state Possibilism to Analogical Psychedelic Eternalism.
— Michael Hoffman, the Egodeath theory 16 people found this helpful
Note: To annoy Cyberdisciple, retitle this page as “Benefits of Transcendent Knowledge”.
Innate Design of the Mind
The mind has a design such that exposure to loosecog causes transformation of the mental worldmodel from possibilism to eternalism.
Durability
Enables Cognitive Scientists to Use and Explore the Loose Cognitive State
There’s no way to get to Loosecog Land without going through the Egodeath theory, I am the narrow gate; analogical psychedelic eternalism.
Honesty & Integrity
The most valuable thing in the world is Transcendent Knowledge, because having Transcendent Knowledge makes you self-harmonious as a control-agent.
Why is knowledge of God’s power inside of one’s mind the most interesting and valuable thing in the world?
The goal of Transcendent Knowledge or gnosis is not “how to avoid self-control seizure”, but rather, how to understand and make use of the transformative dynamics involved in seeing this potential of the mind, being attracted and drawn toward it, to touch it, engage with it, know it, and become familiar with it —
this most transcendent and sacred potential of the mind, the potential of the personal self-control system to be brought to transcend itself, producing transformation of the mental model of self, time, possibility, and control — to {know and fear God}.
Why is being self-harmonious more valuable than anything else in the world?
Transcendent Knowledge is deepest, innermost self-knowledge, about what we are as control-agents.
What’s so bad about being a childish irrational self-battling chaos-enslaved demon-possessed control agent who worships idols of [control-based-on-thin-air causing no end of trouble] and is bedeviled by battling himself?
The most valuable thing in the world is Transcendent Knowledge, because it’s not self-battling.
The most valuable thing in the world is Transcendent Knowledge, because it’s being self-coherent as a control-agent.
The most valuable thing in the world is coherent self-control agency, because ___.
The most valuable thing in the world is non-contradictory self-control agency, because ___.
non self-battling.
I felt in 1986 that the most important thing in the world was to become non-self-contradictory; to gain control-integrity;
hell was, lacking self-integrity; hell was, contradicting and fighting against myself, battling against myself.
The most valuable thing in the world is Transcendent Knowledge, because ___.
Translate/invert question to:
Why is being a lie (a false, contradictory control-agent, an imposter claimant to the throne/crown) the worst thing in the world?
Why is usurping God’s throne the worst thing in the world, and becoming a God-compliant king the highest value in the world?
What’s so bad about usurping God’s throne and having no self-integrity, being in a state of deep animal-like dis-integrity?
Why is it more important than anything else, to stop lying to yourself about what you are? (egoic-premised ctrl agent)
Above all, stop sinning, stop lacking all coherence/integrity; stop contradicting yourself; stop being in a state of self-contradiction.
That’s the most important valuable thing.
Why is having integrity about being a control agent, more valuable than anything else?
Why is the most valuable thing of all, to stop being a lie? (a false-premised control agent).
Why is stopping being a lie built on a fiction, more valuable than anything else? That’s what the question amounts to.
Variation: Why is living a lie, worst than anything else?
Why is fundamental integrity worth anything at all?
Why have integrity about your basic nature as a control agent?
In Western Civilization and world religion, people have agreed that the highest value is metaphysical enlightenment, transforming the mental worldmodel from Possibilism to Eternalism.
Were they correct?
How is their position justified?
I articulated the question in Egodeath Yahoo Group posts and/or voice recordings announced in those posts, around Spring 2019.
(I have a text file of posts around 2018-2019.)
The most intense ultimate climactic peak experience is switching from Possibilism to Eternalism upon sacrificing the claim to autonomous control power.
Our ancestors held Transcendent Knowledge as of highest value, so we should too.
Our ancestors had values which proved to lead to survival, including an effective type of sacrifice upon seeing and experiencing high truth.
Like Abraham’s sacrificing the bush-caught ram in place of his son, through which he had many descendents.
Truth is better than illusion and falsehood.
Being able to withstand the altered state means the mind is more powerful and durable.
The highest, most developed state of mental development must include burning away transient, mortal aspects, leaving the most durable, integrated mental system.
Reference Ken Wilber’s developmental stages trajectory.
The mind has an inbuilt desire for this altered-state initiation self-transcendence, religious overcoming and maturation.
Tradition
The potential and ability of the mind to experience loose cognition and transform the mental model of time and control is, and has been considered, essential to high civilization and culture.
To make sense of Western religious history requires the Egodeath theory; analogical psychedelic eternalism.
November 18, 2020
Highest Conceptual Revolution = highest Science field = blade of threat & sacrifice/repudiation upon grasping the threat and false illusion and change to a Real basis for control.
In Mithraism initiation, same as the bow-and-arrow threat that the Father does to the initiate, as practice and acting-out of the BLADE OF THE HIGHER MIND MAKING THE LOWER MIND’S STRUCTURE FAIL, for the purpose of driving a change of what the mind depends on: illusory freewill ego, or real, no-free-will/monopossibility, Source of Thoughts?
The Blade of Sacrifice is the Blade of Threat, the mind threatening itself to learn and teach and build up new structure and transform —
that is the odd System of Sacrifice/Threat/Transformation / Theory-Modification that is innately built into the mind, the highest religion aspect. We Are Control Agents –
therefore; leading to the point about Ultimate Valuation:
Transcendent Knowledge is the highest value because it has to do with Who We Are ie Quasi-Autonomous Control Agents.
The best, most valuable thing in the world, is the mind’s ability to “blaade-threaten” itself, to drive mental model transformation.
Why is that a good thing, for the control agent to have a true, loose-cog-state durable , model of how control actually works (what we think is our very being, Control Agency) .
Else we live on a basis of a lie, the lie of personal self control Autonomy , has no intellectual integrity.
The child, the animal, Lacks Intellectual Integrity, but is Living a Lie.
That’s why Transcendent Knowledge is the highest value; the hanging initiate made to threaten himself, as part of mental Correction/{scourging] (Pompeii Villa of the Mysteri); {corrective scourging, the threatening angel’s sword}.
It is BAD to live life as a PERISHABLE LIE based on IDOL WORSHIP of thin air making FALSE CLAIMS to kingly autonomy.
The MOST VALUABLE THING IN THE WORLD is the scourge/threat/blade of correction to drive out the bedevilling false thinking.
Why is True thinking better than False?
Because this concerns thinking re: our very core idea of who we think we are, Control Agents.
My whole existence is, I’m a Control Agent — but, that concept is based on thin air, a complete idol-fantasy, you are above all, A LIE.
The highest value is STOP BEING A LIE.
Why is the most valuable thing of all, to stop being a lie?
Why is knowledge of God’s power inside of one’s mind the most interesting and valuable thing in the world?
5 stars of 5 Metaphors describing dissociative-state experiencing
This book is an organized inventory of the various metaphors that have been used to describe the phenomena encountered in the mystic dissociative state. Dissociative psychoactives are mentioned in an integrated manner throughout the book.
This is a revised edition of Opening to Inner Light: The Transformation of Human Nature and Consciousness. Benny Shanon’s book Antipodes of the Mind is a good companion volume similarly explaining dissociative-state cognitive phenomenology as the origin of mythic metaphor. 20 people found this helpful
My November 2020 comment on that review:
I want to dig out this book and read it more thoroughly. I ended up with both editions in my personal library.
I still recall Metzner’s book being outstanding as a survey of mythemes — religious mythology elements that describe by analogy, cognitive phenomenology. I don’t know of another book that hits this target so squarely: an inventory of religious mythemes describing the altered state, just as in the 2nd half of my Egodeath theory research.
The Egodeath theory 