liquid light

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

while writing a meditation on a friends painting project yesterday - 080202 - in the early hours, i received the following:

“Awake!”, the voice said, “from the great sleep of certainty.”

this could partly be explained by the intense study of robert anton wilson’s writings that forms my current reading trajectory. in the 10 odd years since i first discovered his work, i have increasingly come to suspect that in him, i have found a profoundly

synergistic

alchemical

shamanic

generalist

skeptic

optimistic

paradoxical teacher and fellow human being.

when i was back in cape town last, i was having a wonderful meal with some friends when we got on to the topic of spirituality, quantum physics etc? i started talking about RAW - as he’s often referred to in print - and went on to say that i suspect he will be seen as one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century. i received a couple of confused looks, followed by the question: “don’t you mean the 20th century?”. we were only 6.5 years into the new century, so i can understand the confusion.

such is the esteem in which i hold Bob’s life’s work - not that i agree with everything in it.

he upgraded
from his monkey suite
on 11th january 2007
and continues via his life
and work
to assist others
in breaking out of narrow
reality tunnels
and into new
& richlywide
vistas.

with thanks
i dedicate my clarion call to my Self, to his memory:

AWAKE! FROM THE GREAT SLEEP OF CERTAINTY!

*this is in no way intended to forget or otherwise underestimate the profound person that went by the name of Werner Heisenberg, the honoury Alphameric Bishop of the FirstLast Church of Uncertainty.

upwards and inwards.

/r…

while i would like to finally come out as a post-evangelical gnostic christian, i can’t find a grey hooded robe that doesn’t make my ass look fat.

really though, is withholding a from-the-hip expression of one’s beliefs about the spiritual quest and one’s identity as a spiritual being, justifiable in order to not upset someone you care about?

i can only guess at how difficult it must be for a lot of gay people to come out. however, i suspect there are a lot of similarities with my experience with my more orthodox evangelical friends and family.

while i would like to exercise the same level of freedom of expression, i’m currently trying to decide whether my reticence to do so is an act of love or fear or a mix of both.

for future galactic time-travellers, i write this post as large numbers of christians brace themselves for what they see as the latest atheistic & satanic movie, “the golden compass” - after harry potter and da vinci code - to hit the screens. i can’t help wondering why they feel so threatened or why they think G-d needs bodyguards to protect the truth of His/Her existence.

maybe dogmas are simply not as good as catma’s at looking after themselves while their owner is away.

based on self-observation, observing wider human relations and drinking too much taylors italian blend coffee, i am exploring the validity of the following hypothesis:

the level & intensity of dogma held by an individual/group/organisation directly reflects their ability to embrace uncertainty within the area covered by the dogma.

simply put: dogma is a defence against uncertainty.

therefore, to the extent that Life -both physical & metaphysical - is chaotic, uncertain, dynamic, non-linear & unfathomable, dogma is a defence against Life.

dogma = newtonian, binary, linear, exclusive. key word = “IS!” loved by politicians, organised religion, dictators and myself.

catma  = quantum, multi-valued, non-linear, paradoxical, inclusive. favourite word = “maybe”. loved by quantum physicists, spiritual seekers who are often outside organised religious fold, robert anton wilson and myself.