subconsciously from innumerable sources since birth.
More creative, artistic, mystical, etc. personalities may
let their SUs run even more freely, to the point where the
OU is of only occasional and necessary relevance to them.
If some such persons reach a stage where their SUs have
completely replaced the OU, they may be called “insane”;
in this sense “sanity” is a measure of an individual’s
suppression of his SU within socially-sanctioned
boundaries.
D. Subjective/Objective Interaction
Once the simultaneous and permanent existence of
the OU and SU is recognized, much of the mystery of
human history and behavior is no longer mysterious. It
just requires examination of each such individual, group,
and/or event to identify the applicable OU forces and the
various individual SUs through which they are being
perceived and influenced, both subconsciously and
consciously.
At the subconscious level, for instance, an individual
may assume that everyone else “sees the same reality”
that he does, when in fact this is never completely the
case.
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At the conscious level the SU can be both easier and
more problematic to handle. Easier to the extent that the
individual is making willful decisions about how much of
his SU he can successfully apply. More problematic
insofar as others with their differing subconscious and
conscious SUs may be present and involved.
E. Collective Subjective Universes
When more than one SU is present and involved in
any society or problem situation, it should be obvious
that no two of them will coincide, both in terms of
subconscious “reality perception” and conscious values,
desires, and actions applied.
Hence both human society and human history is most
accurately understood as attempts by the involved
humans to reconcile their conflicting SUs into one or
more community-approved Collective SUs (hereafter
“CSU”). Sometimes this is possible through peaceful
means such as education, reasoning, or argument. In
other instances where conscious SUs are too passionate,
or when subconscious SUs are too inflexible and
intolerant, the individuals/groups may resort to coercion
- aggressive and intensive indoctrination, conditioning,
and reinforcement, along with the suppression or
extermination of the offending “competitors” - to achieve
the desired “reality”.
In modern society, unsurprisingly, such coercion and
intolerance are invariably attributed to “the enemy”,
domestic outlaws, insurgents, revolutionaries, or other
“alien” individuals or groups. It is assumed, without any
need for argument or justification, that the community
CSU into which its members have been conditioned since
birth, is not just one among many options, but is
“reality”. Questioning it thus goes beyond acceptable
curiosity to “heresy”, “treason”, or “insanity”.
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This was most famously caricatured in George
Orwell’s novel 1984, in which failure to accept the Party’s
CSU not just at the conscious but at the subconscious
“reality” level was condemned as the worst of all possible
sins: “thoughtcrime” - correspondingly requiring not just
punishment but “curing” by destroying the offender’s
ability to see “reality” other than through the Party’s CSU.
F. The Universal Course of MindStar
As foretold, the above keys to the age-old “mystery” of
human behavior are not the least bewildering once one
knows to look for and apply them.
MindStar, however, is not merely a guide to the study
of human rational and irrational behavior. It is not
enough [nor is it reassuring!] just to realize that one is
surrounded by a world of humanity which is trapped in a
g e n e r a l l y - u n r e c o g n i z e d p r i s o n o f c o n f l i c t i n g
subconscious and conscious SUs. From the smallest
social unit to worldwide ideologies and wars, helpless and
hapless people are flailing around with the “disease”
without even recognizing it for what it is, much less
the companion book to MindStar: MindWar. Unlike
MindStar, MindWar is a practical manual for the
diagnosis and constructive correction of social violence
from the community to the international scale. It is
intentionally exoteric and unintrospective. It does not
seek to expose ordinary minds to the metaphysics of
consciousness. It is a prescription for the many, for the
polis, not the individual.
MindStar is quite the other thing: a guide exclusively
for the individual, which never compromises with group
influences, needs, perceptions, or pressures. It is a map to
the Grail Castle, which journey and adventure are
essentially and inescapably unique to each individual.
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Chapter 2: Conscious Existence
We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of
the speed that fueled that 60s. That was the fatal
flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America
selling “consciousness expansion” without ever
giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that
were lying in wait for all the people who took him
seriously: all those pathetically eager acid freaks who
thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for
three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours
too. What Leary took down with him was the central
illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create: a
generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers,
who never understood the essential old-mystic
fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption
that somebody, or at least some force, is tending the
light at the end of the tunnel. - Hunter S. Thompson
A. Consciousness
Having in Chapter #1 established and defined the
environment in which existence occurs, it is next
necessary to discuss who or what exists to perceive and
interact with this environment. A phenomenon of
distinction from that environment is essential, and it
must be aware of itself to recognize and appreciate that
distinction. It is inherently a function, not a thing,
traditionally called “consciousness”. [The question of the
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“thing that is conscious” is addressed in subsequent
chapters.]
Consciousness is both easy and difficult to establish -
easy because its presence is obvious: the mere awareness
[of self and/or anything else] characteristic of a living,
sentient being. Having achieved this realization, the
possessors of consciousness have found its constitution
maddeningly elusive.
Over the centuries theologians, philosophers, and
scientists have sought to portray and advocate
&
nbsp; consciousness as something either supporting or refuting
the existence of what is really their concern: the “soul”.
B. Metaphysics: Consciousness as an Entity
Since conventional theology regards consciousness as
“the soul in action”, it has generally been happy to just
blur the two concepts into a single, nothing-further-
needed axiom of religious faith.
Philosophers seeking to escape the label of such mere
faith found that the moment they strayed from the simple
act of self-awareness, they were actually addressing other
issues, such as whether physical sensory input is/was
occurring, whether such input is reliable, and indeed
whether the mental processing of concepts and
information (e.g. “thought”) should somehow be either a
requirement or evidence of awareness. René Descartes’
famous “cogito ergo sum” (= I think, therefore I am) is an
example of such off-the-mark confusion; arguments both
pro and con this maxim have all focused on the act of
thinking rather than mere self-awareness.
C. Physics: Consciousness as an Illusion
Modern physical science is adamantly materialistic;
any hint of a metaphysical presence or activity is
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tantamount to heresy. If consciousness exists, therefore,
it must be explainable [away] as the physical brain
generating some form of illusory self-imagery.
In support of this theory, scientists note that if the
brain is anæsthetized, the individual “blacks out”. Also
when the body and brain sleep, consciousness either
blacks out or becomes merely a spectator to hallucination
(e.g. dreaming).
Upon examination both of these scientific claims fail
to be conclusive. As ordinary consciousness is
accustomed to being reactive to physical sensory input,
the sudden muting of all such input by anæsthesia throws
the consciousness into a sudden non-sensory mode with
which it has no experience. The result is temporary
inactivity, though below the level of sensory imagery it
continues to receive stimulus signals from the physical
body.
In certain anæsthesia applications, moreover, the
body’s transmissions to the consciousness are muted
w h i l e t h a t c o n s c i o u s n e s s r e m a i n s a l e r t a n d
communicative. If it were merely a function of the body’s
normal physical sensory processes, this would not occur.
Where sleep and dreaming are concerned, it has
already been established that the quality and coherence
of the act of thinking is an entirely different concern than
self-awareness per se.
Where ordinary sleep and dreaming are concerned,
once again awareness must not be confused with
thinking. In short, the random imagination characteristic
of dreams, or the absence of such experiences if the
resting brain has so lowered its sensory transmissions,
has no relevance to awareness. Being self-aware does not
require this to be continuous.
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D. Inconsequence
The phenomenon of self-awareness is as a simple
incident essential to validating the distinction between
the individual and the OU. Beyond this, however, it is not
a component of either a “soul” or the physical brain/body
which can be used to verify either premise. Indeed in the
search for the “soul” awareness is something of a red
herring, being confused with the thinking process by
agenda-advocates.
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Chapter 3: Egypt
Poor men, most admirable, most pitiable,
With all their changes all their great Creeds change
For Man, this alien in my family,
Is alien most in this, to cherish dreams
And brood on visions of eternity,
And build religions in his brooding brain
And in the dark depths awe-full of his soul.
My other children live their little lives,
Are born and reach their prime and slowly fail,
And all their little lives are self-fulfilled;
They die and are no more, content with age
And weary with infirmity. But Man
Has fear and hope and phantasy and awe,
And wistful yearnings and unsated loves,
That strain beyond the limits of his life,
And therefore Gods and Demons, Heaven and Hell:
This Man, the admirable, the pitiable.
- James Thomson, A Voice from the Nile
A. Confronting Ancient Egypt
It is impossible to proceed further with this inquiry
without bringing to bear the wisdom of ancient Egypt. By
contrast, the efforts of later cultures have been little more
than ignorant fumbling in the dark.
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Before turning to the specifics of Egyptian knowledge
in this area, however, popular modern misperceptions
must be at least briefly corrected.
The topic of ancient Egypt generally has been one of
both exhaustive examination by and contentious debate
between conventional Egyptologists and independent
investigators.
The former group generally agree that Egypt was
simply an agricultural society comparable to that of other
Mediterranean/Near-Eastern cultures of the time-period.
It was notable for its enigmatic hieroglyphic writing
system, odd-looking formalized art, peculiar massive
building projects, and morbid, animal-totem religious
cultism.
The latter group, while differing in the details, see
Egypt rather as a remarkable, indeed startling exception
to its primitive neighbors. It was uniquely a civilization
and repository of great sophistication and wisdom - in
some respects so much so, indeed, that the very ability of
the Egyptians themselves to have generated such utopian
wonders is called into question in favor of Atlanteans,
extraterrestrial visitors, and/or incarnated gods.
Each camp routinely ridicules the other. The
conventionalists denounce the independents as
unscientific dreamers and “pyramidiots”. The latter are
equally contemptuous of the former, considering them as
merely a brittle academic self-protectorate afraid to
violate modern taboos.
And there are two taboos in particular which
institutional academia does not dare to transgress - or
even openly acknowledge as taboos.
First, modern [Western] civilization is assumed to be
at the zenith of human sophistication in all respects. It
has been steadily improving over the last five thousand
years (after recorded history officially began ca. 3000
BCE). Since the passage of time mandates social
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evolution and improvement, it is heresy to suggest that
an ancient civilization, particularly one at the very
beginning of this progression, could actually have been
superior to its successors, including those today, in some
if not all respects.
Secondly, the world today is divided into three major
monotheistic religions: Jud
aism, Christianity, and Islam.
All, even in countries where they have become largely
propaganda devices for the control of the lesser-
intelligent masses, are as exclusive and intolerant as
politically permitted. Despite their doctrinal differences,
however, they are all agreed that there exists but one
God - the Hebraic JHVH. Thus all polytheism, whether
new or old, is false and fictitious. It follows that any such
fiction cannot possibly be as, much less more
sophisticated than Hebraic monotheism [as triple-
modified]. Egyptian religion may be studied, exploited for
artistic purposes and horror movies, but never actually
believed in.
B. Egyptian History
Let us now review those aspects of ancient Egypt on
which most scholars, the academic and the arcane, might
be expected to find some common ground.
The earliest existing evidence of human culture in the
Nile valley dates to more than 250,000 BCE, as the
remnants of hand axes and other stone tools have been
uncovered 50-100’ below the Nile’s silt terrace.
Sometime between 10,000 and 7,000 BCE, according
to conventional archæology, a most important event took
place - the domestication of the wild African goat and the
subsequent freedom to begin cultivation of grain. This
effectively heralded the beginning of human civilization,
as for the first time primitive man was free to turn his
thoughts to matters other than a constant search for food.
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By the same consensus, it was in the pre-dynastic
Gerzean period (commencing about 3600 BCE) that the
first communities of the future Egyptian nation came into
existence. A great war of unification commenced in
approximately 3400 BCE. After more than two centuries
of intermittent conflict between Upper and Lower Egypt,
the land was finally united under Menes (or Narmer), the
first pharaoh of the I Dynasty. 6
Inhabiting a land characterized by the regularity of
the elements (behavior of the winds, the Nile, the climate,
the Sun, and the skies), the Egyptians sought perfection
in stability, harmony, symmetry, geometry, and a cyclical
[as opposed to progressive or linear] concept of time.
In modern culture we take progressive/linear time for
granted. It is as inevitable and inexorable as the hands of
the wristwatches to which we are gently, yet firmly