The Ghost in the Machine

We are the machine men; the ones without souls. Perhaps it’s that mankind has completely lost contact with the other part of his nature, and that is the reason for his current predicament. I won’t pretend to know the why, but I equally will not pretend that man’s destiny is to be a piece of meat. We are not spiritually prepared for the technology that we have become accustomed to using, and the results are quite monstrous. I think I’d rather never talk to another person than to have to deal with another egomonster. I don’t know what it is about social media, but it seems to turn people into automatons that seek only what will get them internet points and balloon their ego further.

Some have suggested that this is the result of something like an invasion by beings of another kind of awareness. Beings that our science has yet to recognize in the mainstream because they elude our perception, and thus they elude our tools of measuring as well. It is so subtle that all that can be perceived are the effects; under normal, everyday, circumstances. But we project these effects onto what we conceive of as being evil because we have not yet recognized our Shadow for what it is. Right now, if something cannot be observed by anyone, at any time, then it’s not real. If that’s not a sign of egomonsters then I don’t know what is. I genuinely cannot understand how man has reduced himself to an animal but believes that he is among the gods. I’ve spoken to the gods about this, not that you’d believe me, they’re concerned about us and these developments. They’re concerned about the way we get locked into perspectives that have nothing to do with reality. “We completely attach to our notions of how things are instead of seeing them as they really are; thus, we’re unable to act freely in any situation. We create our own fetters. Those fetters are our ideas; we refuse to let go of them.”

Right now, we are at one of the most crucial forks in the road of mankind’s history. We are something that is between physical reality and spiritual reality. The war is waging between which of our dual nature we should embrace and which we should deny. It has been for a long time, but I think the idea of denying your true nature is absurdity itself. You can deny our dual nature as long as you would like, but you know that mind and body are different worlds; one overt, the other subtle. “Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry” has been part of the instruction for creating the Philosopher’s Stone for as long as men have sought it. I do not see many that have succeeded in creating that which may turn “base metals” into “gold” in this age, so I will offer a hint. Understand what you actually are, and what this experience actually is, and you will have succeeded where so many have failed. In fact, most later alchemists did not even work with metals, but there still remains a legend of a red material that will literally turn base metals into gold and becomes more potent by being broken in half. I prefer to look at it metaphorically, but I am not foolish enough to deny that which I am unable to confirm.

Truth is that which transcends all because, in truth, it is all - as it is. In the west, the body is more-often observed in a biochemical way than an electromagnetic way; but both are valid means of expressing its physical nature. You can dissect an infinite amount of cadavers and learn as much as there is to learn about the physical nature of man, but you won’t be able to force your way into the sanctuary of his mind. People prefer to be fooled than to admit that they have been fooled; so consciousness remains a mystery to people. It is well accepted that consciousness requires a body, but those of us that have stepped outside the realms of the mind as a biologically efficient mechanism have made contact with those who cannot be said to have a body as we do. These inorganic beings are more often than not so subtle that they could be right next to you and you wouldn’t notice, because their existence is independent of your biological needs. Thousands of years of evolution have led to this mode of consciousness and it is extremely effective at keeping man alive, but that does not mean that it is the only mode of consciousness; or even that in all cases it is the best.

In the past, man would fall into predicaments that would reduce the biological efficiency of his mind and bring him into contact with aesthetic or spiritual stimuli on a regular basis. The availability of food, or even certain kinds of food, was enough to bring about this due to starvation or vitamin deficiency. Our advancement in medical science has also reduced the chance of man leaving the realm of everyday consciousness because we have all but conquered so many once life-threatening issues. These factors paired with our advancements in technology have led to a robotic man, but the fact remains that there is a Ghost in the Machine.

There is so much conditioned reaction and so little contemplation that I fear there may be no reaching some people that are completely convinced that reality is only a fraction of its whole.  How do you even go about expressing something that is as intangible as consciousness to people that believe that nothing exists but what their sense organs perceive? The ancient teachings have always spoken of a reality beyond what we can touch, see, smell, hear or feel but it has never been something you perceive in a day under normal circumstances. It takes a lot of continued work or a lucky accident, and this is why the Fool is the 0th Atu; the Path of the Magician is something either taught or stumbled upon unintentionally. The common man perceives the wise man to be the Fool as well, so it is indeed a perfect expression of the facts. There is a parable in the Vedas about a man who perceives a rope as being a poisonous snake whose meaning is essentially that the phenomenal world, perceived through our senses, is merely a poor reflection of noumenal reality.

I will leave you with a quotation from Swami Vivekananda’s Inspired Talks, and hope that some egomonsters will realize that the things they perceive and believe themselves to be are a poor reflection of their true nature: “The whole of the Vedanta philosophy is in this parable: Two birds of golden plumage sat on the same tree - the one above, serene, majestic, immersed in his own glory; the one below, restless and eating the fruits of the tree, now sweet, now bitter. Once the lower bird ate an exceptionally bitter fruit; then he paused and looked up at the majestic bird above. But he soon forgot about the other bird and went on eating the fruits of the tree as before. Again he ate a bitter fruit, and this time he hopped up a few boughs nearer to the bird at the top. This happened many times until at last the lower bird came to the place of the upper bird and lost himself in him. He found all at once that there had never been two birds, but that all the time he was that upper bird, serene, majestic, and immersed in his own glory.”

Author's Note

7/14/19