Author Archives: quackenbush

For Maybe Day 2023, check out my Eight Circuit essay “Unplugging from the Matrix,” and my past Maybe Day writing projects on the Eight Circuit model: “Freud, Jung and a Platypus get an MRI” and “Two’s Company, Eight’s a Fnord” and/or follow this link tree to see all my stuff in one place. -Mike Gathers (quackenbush)

Member of the NEW TRAJECTORIES WEBRING

I’ve recently noticed “as if for the first time” that when people pray they always look “upward” — i.e. perpendicular to whatever place they’re standing — or kneeling or groveling. I deduce that they conceive of their “god” as topologically isomorphic to a huge donut, about a thousand miles wider than Earth.

[Of course, if people ever pray at the north or south poles, this would have to change; then “god” would become isomorphic to a hollow sphere.]

When I raised this issue in a blog recently, Paul Krasner asked “Does this mean that the pledge of allegiance should be changed to ‘one nation inside god’?”

Not necessarily. Although the Bible and Koran always speak of their god as “above,” Christians, Jews and Moslems can either accept what their rituals imply — a donut god — or return to a flat Earth….

Giambatista Vico, “the father of sociology”, suggested in The New Science that Thunder historically underlies the “god” idea; the Noisy Thing roaring in the sky , seemingly in rage, had to be appeased. Sometimes lightning came from that roaring monster, and sometimes lightning killed somebody. Hence Zeus bronnton [Zeus the thunderer], Jupiter, another thunder god; Thor, Donner, whose very name means thunder; etc…. and Yahweh….. and Allah…… Joyce uses this god=thunder equation repeatedly in Finnegans Wake [which drove me to read Vico…]

I have also observed that thunder on the sound-track — signalling oncoming tragedy or horror — appears in films as diverse as those of Orson Welles, James Whale, Howard Hawks, Wes Craven, Monty Python etc etc…. Listen for it and note how bloody often it pops up…… especially in thrillers….

The monotheistic idea implies a cruel and grumpy old electric donut surrounding Earth and ever threatening it.

I think this explains the “structural unconscious” or inarticulate neurosemantics of Bozo, Ariel Sharon and Osama bin Laden equally. They’re all heaping up human sacrifices, as at Stonehenge, to Him Who Thunders From On High.        

Welcome. Together we will explore Maybe Logic and Quantum Psychology with the goal of teaching us to know a great deal less and suspect a great deal more, as we move from unreal certitudes to existential uncertainty.

Week One

THE DEATH OF TSARISM: Faith-based vs. research-based orientations

The end of certitude as indicated by physics, pragmatism, existentialism, ethnmomethodology, general semantics, instrumentalism, and transactional psychology. In the Course Discussion Forum, practise in writing e-prime instead of English.

Do some online research into the schools of thought listed above and discuss your findings and observations in the Quantum Board.

Readings:
Quantum Psychology: Fore-Words pg. 11-21; E and E-Prime pg. 97-110

We only have one rule in this area of cyberspace —
If you can’t achieve tolerance, at least attempt courtesy.

Open your neurons, take a deep breath, and come on in.

–Robert Anton Wilson

Week Two

Read BLACK MAGICK AND CURSES
and discuss in Board

Read chapters 1-3 of Quant Psych & do the exercizes

Skip exercizes at end of chapter 3. Replace with:

For 5 minutes Monday try to sense all experience as
occuring within yr pineal gland [“third eye”]
Increase to 6 minutes Tuesday & Wednesday
increase to 10 minutes Thursday Friday Saturday
If panic or anxiety result, STOP at once

Discuss exercizes in Quantum Board

Week 3

First of all, consider the notion that you don’t really
have a head. Use the method of Radical Empiricism
pioneered by the Scots philosopher David Hume [whom this method led
to doubt the existence of David Hume.]

Most people will tell you that you do have
a head, but empiricism condemns that as hearsay.

You can see your head in a mirror? You can see dozens
— scores — hundreds of heads, in various sizes
and colors, in various kinds of mirrors,
including “distorting” mirrors in Fun Houses. How do you know
which mirrors “distort” the most? Such “evidence” creates
confusion, not conviction. Or will you go back to majority
opinion [hearsay]?

You can reach up and feel your head? You can only grope
around a nonverbal event, lumpy in front and usually hairy
in back which opinion and hearsay dub a “head.”
Opinion and hearsay once pictured Earth as flat.

If you haven’t lost faith in your “head” yet, recall the
exercize in which we found all impressions seemed
to reduce to tingling sensations in the pineal gland. Or read
ON HAVING NO HEAD: ZEN AND THE REDISCOVERY OF
THE OBVIOUS by Douglas Harding, Inner Directions, 2002

Now read chapters 4, 5 and 6 and do such exercizes
as do not require thee group to meet in one room in
geospace. I strongly recommend adapting Exercize 4 in
Chapter 4, using 13 items found around the house

For those with the fortitude to attempt 2 books in 8
weeks, read pp 1-50 of THE EARTH WILL SHAKE
and try to list ALL the unquestioned assumptions
that inspired Sigismundo Celine’s decision to murder
Carlo Maldonado. When [and only when]
totally convinced that the
list runs to infinity, you may stop.
If quantum theory has not profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it.
–Niels Bohr

Your theory sounds crazy, but I don’t think it’s crazy enough to be true.
–Niels Bohr

Week 4

Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Quantum Reality by Nick Herbert

Read Chapters 7-10 of Quantum Psychology

Do exercizes: chapter 7 Exercize 11; chap 8, all; 9, all; 10,1.
Cuss and/or discuss in Quantum Board

Other questions for discussion:

Which of Dr Herbert’s 8 models makes more sense to you?
Why?

Which of his 8 models seems craziest?
Why?
Whatever you say a thing “is,” it is not.
–Alfred Korzybski

Thee menu is not the meal.
–Alan Wilson Watts

Week 5

Read & discuss chapters 11 to 13 of Quantum Psychology.
Try whatever exercizes appeal to you

Read & discuss THE DEADLY DONUT

For those who want more work:

Continue THE EARTH WILL SHAKE to page 233
and discuss how the Spanish, English & French reality-tunnels expand Sigismundo beyond the Neapolitan reality-tunnnel into a “quantum” reality-labyrinth.

Week 6: BUT I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES

This week I want to emphasize why I call this course Quantum PSYCHOLOGY, not Quantum Philosophy.
I suggest — no, I urge and implore — that you all re-read my essay on blessings and curses, before going ahead and then reading Chapters 14 to 17 of Quantum Psychology.

Contemplate these questions:
Do all perceptions contain conceptions?

Nietzsche considered us all artists; how about considering us all magicians?

Do ideas, emotions and perceptions exist in different “worlds”

[as they do in traditional occidental neurosemantics]

or do they function as seamless parts of one circular feedback system of the organism-as-a-whole?

Discuss these perspectives and whatever exercizes in QP 14-17 seem worth your time.

Think of analogs to the farmer and the thief in your own experience, or in books or movies.

Week 7: INFINITY IN A GRAIN OF BRAIN

The Door of the Law conceals Schrodinger’s Cat?!
And Einstein’s Mouse??!
And even Wigner’s Friend!!!!??

Read text and do Exercizes in chapters 18-20 of Quantum Psych.
ESPECIALLY the exercize for Chapter 19

read pp 1-50 of INFO-PSYCHOLOGY.
Cuss and/or discuss.

WEEK 8: Subtracting from the Universe

First, I’d like to thank you all. This has seemed the brightest class so far, and I’ve enjoyed you and your contributions.

This week finish Quantum Psychology and discuss the last chapters. Also, feel free to discuss anything else from the text or course.

Consider if two or more of the quantum models might work better than one of them alone. I myself find it easy to combine the Non-local model with the Copenhagen Interpretation, in the sense that the Non-local model seems the best right now but, I still remain a Copenhagenist in the sense that the best model as of 2005 will probably not seem the best model in 2010, in 2050 or 2100.

My last sentence in Quantum Psychology [from Crowley] defining Dao as the result of subtracting the Universe from itself now appears to me less useful than defining Dao as the result of subtracting the hardware of the Universe from the Software. What do think? And how does this apply to Info-Psychology?

For those of you who would like to finish Info-Psychology and The Earth Will Shake, please do so and discuss as you see fit in the Forum.

I love you guys and gals –
Uncle Bob

WEEK 1: Introduction

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law

Welcome all.

Before diving into Uncle Al himself we will begin with an alternative view of the Great Beast:

http://www.mt.net/~watcher/crowleyalienlam.html

Do you think it most useful to consider Magickal critters as angels, bodhisattvas, Egyptian gods, demons, Secret Chiefs of the Illuminati, pookahs, archetypes of the unconscious, extraterrestrials, all of the above, none of the above?

Why?
Cuss and discuss….
-RAW

WEEK 2: Hunchback and Soldier

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

Ponder DEEPLY the first 2 chapters of THE BOOK OF LIES

Chap 1 ‘the hunchback’ [?] represents doubt, uncertainty and search

Chap 2 ‘the soldier’ [!] represents insight, illumination, dis-covery

Do you think Crowley’s path leads to more and more hunchbacks [? ? ? ? ? ? ? etc]

or to more and more soldiers [! ! ! ! ! etc]

or to an accelerating dialectic of hunchbacks and soldiers [? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? !?!? etc]

Cuss and discuss

For those who want more work, why does Crowley’s CONFESSIONS contain 96 chapters, 3 in the third person and 93 in the first?

We just added a Crowely Tarot reading to the site. We’ll focus more on tarot and The Book of Thoth later on, but for now just get acquainted with the cards and use the readings as you see fit.

Love is the law, love under will

WEEK 3: Agnostic Gnosticism

DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW

Can we learn to live with both the soldier and the hunchback or must we try to banish one of them?

Read Book of Lies Chapters 1-23

Why does Chapter 23 reveal more about the Tarot than the first 22 chapters keyed to the Tarot Trumps?

Why does 23 play such a key role?

What does Hexagram 23 in I CHING mean?

Read Innerview [this?]

and

Kennedy Bloodline [unknown]

Exercise: for the next 5 weeks try writing all posts for this class without ever using the verb “is.”

Try to decide why I consider this exercize very important.

LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL

WEEK 4: Do What Thou Wilt

DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW

All previous Teachers have taught “Do what I wilt” and slaves rushed forward to obey, crying “We are saved!’ Perdurabo told each of us “Do what thou wilt” and mosbunall fled screaming “Monster! Cannibal! Corruptor of youth! ” Do you see something remarkable in this?

Course Text Reading: Book of Lies Chapters 24-44

Additional Reading: Great Beast & T.S.O.G.

Discussion Topic 1: What did Wilhelm Reich consider the origin of Fascism?

Discussion Topic 2: list at least 10 parallels between Russian Tsarism, German Fascism and Geo W Bush’s “neo-conservatism”

Discussion Topic 3: If you’ve followed the Ashley Smith saga, comment and argufy, especially about the role of Christianity in the case.

Exercize: continue : for the next 4 weeks try writing all posts for this class without ever using the verb “is.” Try to decide why I consider this exercize very important.

[optional]

Read part one of THE WIDOW’S SON and try to keep track of the soldiers and hunchbacks

WEEK 5: Shall Be

Overview: In the mid-1970s a San Francisco press, now defunct, began printing Thelemic books bearing the mantra: Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.

Caliph Hymeneus Alpha protested vigorously and threatened a law suit. arguing that the “correct” version reads DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW

Cuss and discuss.

Course Text Readings: Book of Lies Chapter 51

Additional Readings:

Liber 77

http://www.official-lamp.org [dead site]

OPTIONAL: Read discussions of the 22 Tarot trumps in BOOK OF THOTH and discuss light this sheds on the more mind-bending paradoxes of THE BOOK OF LIES

Discussion Topic 1: Why did Washington and Adams consider the Second amendment vital?

Discussion Topic 2: I once called Crowley, with deliberate oxymoron, an anarcho-fascist. Which side do you think dominates his works?

Exercize: continue : for the next 4 weeks try writing all posts for this class without ever using the verb “is.”
Continue to try to decide why I consider this exercize very important.

Additional: [optional] Read part two of THE WIDOW’S SON [the tower] and continue to keep track of the soldiers and hunchbacks.

Have some of the soldiers mysteriously turned into hunchbacks???!!!

Week 6: HOW LONG,O LORD, HOW LONG?

WHEN will “Do what thou wilt” become the whole of the law?

How many centuries more into the aeon of Horus?

Or–could it prove only decades?!?!

Course Text Readings:

Book of Thoth: wands
Book of lies; Chapters 69, 70

Online Reading: the molecular biology of paradise

http://www.paradise-engineering.com/
http://www.medboardwatch.com/

Discussion Topic 1: continue practise in writing e-prime instead of English by talking about the death of the pope Discussion Topic 2:

To what “eye” does Crowley refer in BOL Chapter 70 paragraph 6?
WEEK 7: Black Magick & Curses
Crowley defined magick as the art of “causing change by act of will.”
His pupil Violet Wirth [a.k.a Dion Fortune] defined magick as the art of “causing change in consciousness by act of will.”
Did one of them over-simplify for the sake of slow learners?
Can you synthesize them?

Course Text Readings:

Book of Thoth: swords

Book of Lies: balance of book

Online Reading: black magick and curses

PARABLE

An American student asked a Zen roshi, “What happens after death?”
“I don’t know,” said the roshi.
“But you’re a Zen Master!” the student cried.
“Yes, but I’m not a dead Zen master.”

Discussion Topic 1: continue practise in writing e-prime instead of English. by talking about the 2.3 million AIDS deaths in Africa, partiallY caused by the pope’s opposition to condoms

Discussion Topic 2: Name the Great magician who makes the sky blue?

Discussion Topic 3: Name the Teacher more trustworthy than Crowley or RAW?

Optional

Read book 3 “The Living One” in THE WIDOW’S SON

WEEK 8: Open

This week YOU determine the navigation.

Post questions in the Week 8 Forum and I will answer as many of them as possible!

& don’t forget the Chat Room on Tuesday night!