SUMMER FEAST FOR THE SOUL: Being Spiritual in the Age of the Cyborg

( sk8rrbol )

There is a message

on this blog,

on which I am consistent,

and it is a message about change

-- the dramatic change that I do feel we are all facing --

and an appropriate way to face it.

Humanity is changing so rapidly

right now,

we're going crazy.

Reality is shifting faster

than I can type this posting,

and faster

than you can read it.

Technology is overtaking us;

we can do with technology now things that

our bodies could not do in a lifetime;

we can use technology

to fix our bodies. 

We are living in the age of the cyborg.

( danpankraz )

Furthermore,
we are in
The Age of The Grid:

this is

a time when we can all be

in the same place, at the same time:

the same place,

(as long as we redefine "place"

as where we are in our minds)

at the same time.

Bottom line.

You know it and I know it.

People can play in Second Life

with folks on the other side of the world,

just as long as we agree to be there

at the same time;

people can blog about the problems they have

with their cars

as long as they agree to be on a car blog

at the same time;

people can do a number of things,

both licit and illicit,

with strangers,

all at the same time,

if we all agree to be here at the same time.

All you have to do is make sure you turn on your computer

at the same time I do, 

and I'm there,  as are you

along with

 several other hundreds of thousands of people

in the world.

Therefore,

the internet could be used

to unite humans

under one purpose--

All we'd have to do

is agree

to turn it on

and let it dictate where our mind is at

at the same time.

And humanity would be joined

in one spirit,

in whatever spirit

the people who commandeer the computers

put us in.

Isn't that funky?

Isn't that scary and wonderful?

This would be most wonderful if the spirit

we joined in were to be one

of cooperation and love.

This would also be wonderful if the spirit

we joined in were to be one

of spiritual growth and harmony.

Crazy right?

Well, here's a link to a group that is trying to do

precisely that:

I'm going to do it.

How about you?

Prophecy: A Channelling Inspired By a Brilliant Coupling

 ( earnmydegree )

OK,

so it's true,

I'm trying to establish with you

that I have some goofy gift

of prophecy.

ME?

Me:

Makropoulis,

a 424 year old woman

who hasn't aged much

until recently,

when she turned

425.

~ ~

And since I'm aging slowly,

I can tell you

exactly what aging

is all about:

the aging strikes 

certain places first,

because

 those are the parts 

of our Avatar,

our machine,

that we use the most:

( cosmeticsurgeryspecialists )

1.  

My eyes -- my eyes

your eyes

we use them a lot

to look both outwardly

and inwardly.

They receive signals, the data

then transmitted
to the brain,

the master terminal

of this fabulous machine

called the body;

they work
day in and day out.

Is it no surprise

that they begin to go first?

(Think of it this way,

and I've talked about this before:

your body 

is nothing

but an avatar

an earthly machine

designed

to best contain the parts

of God

that it's our duty

to bear)

-##-

because

as Inayat Khan says,
and I say elsewhere,

Creation

is the manifestation

of totality

of the 

All (that is God),
borne of its desire
to reproduce itself

However,

in general,

All

cannot

represent itself,

except

in its constituent parts

--

Get it?

God cannot represent himself

as One

because God 

is All,

and to create

ALL²,

would be nigh impossible

because

no matter how many times

you duplicate

All,

it's never duplicated,

it's always just

ALL,

just more of it.

So,

in the duplication of Itself

God discovered
He had to divide

His parts

into parts,

which in and of itself 

was a fairly artificial act

-- 

kind of like colonization,

and the way

the

 Treaty of Sèvres

created the nations

of Iraq and Iran:

(Sèvres ) 

those national lines

are some of the most

unnatural lines

on the planet;
in fact,

they are

the most flagrantly proud

of man's acts,

as man
has continued to blindly
attempt
to imitate
God

imitating God, 

who had to divide

the undividable
in order
to do see Himself:

with that Treaty,

we created

man-made lines,

that put together a few groups of people

who didn't really belong

together,

and called them

a nation,

Anywhooooo,

yeah,

likewise,

that's how some of the divisions

that God created

when he divided himself

had to be:

uncomfortable,

and unnatural,

but necessary,

and every

material object

that he created to reflect

the All

in its constituent parts

contains

a three-some

of those parts

as well.

He tried to combine these
three elements

in ways that were

negotiable,

in ways that would help

the material manifestation

of God

sustain itself;

it has just been

our job

to sustain ourselves and not

let one aspect

dominate

another.

2.

My spine - my spine
Your Spine,
Our Spine:

The spine is the terminal,

the radio tower

of the apparatus we occupy,

the apparatus 

that communicates

by two means:

locally,

by language
and

long distance,

by signals,

frequencies:

the duty of our bodily apparatus

is to bear

the brain,

and 

the heart

of God --

those parts of God

that are the most fragile,

and the most powerful

=

We are here to contain 

God's

capacity to love.

+

we are here to contain

God's

capacity to know-better =

two abilities

that don't always work well

together,

and

they are also

two abilities

that just happen to be

eternal

//

yes,

which is why they had to be

put together:

our task is to contain

the elements

 that defy the elemental:

but at the same time,

we are here

to contain

God's capacity

to love himself,

which is our survival apparatus,

and it is that capacity

that has maintained us
in the material realm,

because when we see ourselves

in another,

we want to love ourselves

in the most perfect

of physical ways.

Yeah,
that's how we've maintained
a somewhat unbroken
existence of the eternal elements
of the All
that is God:
through the self-serving,
self-loving act
of copulation.

Our task all along has been to figure out all these pieces of the puzzle, and get our acts together, and imitate God as perfectly as possible.

You see, that's the idea

of the soul mate:

he/she's the one,

the other part

of the part of God

that you are here

to find,

to imitate,

but

if you do not find that partner

in this life,

just


love the one you're with

with

everything you have.

It's very likely you'll never
meet your soulmate
in this life,
because
if you did, 
chances are
you hate that person.

And do you know what's fabulous?

Often our soul - mates

aren't perfect,

and yet,

we can love them because

even with their earthly imperfections

we can still

recognize

some trace

of ourselves.

Yes,

the ones who are the hardest to love

are the ones

we are required

to love

in order to be able

to survive.

.

So the Creating Force
that is God,
that powerful
lust-ful
element
of SelfLove,
is the glue
to our physical
timebound cycle
is the glue
of the fragile parcel
(these time-bound bodies)

in which he packaged

the ability to love

with the ability to

know better

;

those two capacities,

combined

have the capability to save 

each other.

the heart can save the mind

by curbing it,

and making it feel;

and

the mind can save the heart

by stopping it,

and requiring it to think --

and 

Love,

Pure Love

is that impulse

we feel

when the heart and the mind are working

in harmony,

and

when we love and we KNOW it's right.

* # *

but anyway,

the spine

is another part of the apparatus

that wears out

relatively quickly,

not only because

it keeps us upright,

but because

it is our primary conductor,

it is

the conductor by which

we transmit our signals

from self to self,

from self to self,

from Self to Self,

to the greater Self.

3.

and my brain,
your brain,
the brain

is the decoder,

the master cylinder

that communicates

the message from

the larger central consciousness

to our own

individual

apparatus,

our vehicle.

( wikimedia )


if we lose the brain,
well,
we probably won't survive,
because
that cuts us off
from the primary signals
that make us a part
of the whole

~ ~

We all have the capacity to be conductors,

seers,

if we can free our

minds,

hearts,

and spines

of the burdens we bear

in our everyday lives.

( greatestsalesteam )

But for now,

the world is so occupied

with itself,

and most humans

only imitate

the popular consciousness,

so we need

seers,

those

with the gift to read the signs

that everyone else
cannot see,
due to temporary
blindness.

And hey,

that's me.

(sacredtexts - Brahan Seer )

Well, ya' know,

I actually started this entry

with one intent:

to tell you a prophecy

that I shared with my friends 

about three weeks ago:

I heard that

Elton John and Leon Russell

did a collaboration,

produced by T. Bone Burnett.

And I said,

hell,

that's the Album of the Year,

if not

the century.

You see,

I see

that T. Bone Burnett 

has a formula,

like a magical brew:

have two classic artists,

who admire each other terrifically,

who might even want to do nothing more

than make love to the other,

put them together,

and make an album.

And he makes things like this:

and now this:

My prophecy for today:

if you can buy stock

in 

this album,

or

T. Bone Burnett,

do it.

Grids, Maps & Second Life

The idea of 

The Grid

is a recurrent theme in this blog,

and this is because of a message

that I received about six years ago,

while I was sleeping. 

I've had trouble 

ignoring that message ever since.
It went like this:

"Jesus will come as the Scholar in the Four Days of the Grid"

Yeah, that was the message.  

I detail the circumstances 

of its delivery

in earlier entries (especially here), so I'm not going to do that here.

At this point,

you can either decide

that this Makropoulos chick is just a little too nuts for you,

and move on to the next blog.

If you do, thanks for stopping by!

But the message may linger in your mind,

as it has in mine.

In fact, many of my entries here

fixate, either directly or remotely

on the challenge of untangling that message,

word for word,

and that's what this entry will do again,

with special attention

to the idea of The Grid

1.

The reason I'm thinking about Grids is because, last week, 

I dared to take a stroll in the world of Second Life.

As aggravating as I found Second Life to be, I also think 

its theory and potential are fascinating, and this

allure has been enhanced as I've come to understand,

this week, that the basis of all creation in Second Life

is the Second Life Grid:

~~

Now,

grids are the scaffolding upon which 

almost all acts of artistic representation and creation

are built.  How many of you learned to draw a person 

like this:

( drawsketchabout )

~~~

The other day, I was looking at some pictures of very early maps,

and I thought to myself: well look at that, we've been using 

grids for a heck of a long time to draw maps, as well:

(Yu Ji Tu Map of the tracks of Yu Gong, 1137 -

wikipedia on cartography )

( Tabula Rogeriana  by Muhammed al-Idrisi (1154) )

( 15th Century depiction of

Ptolemy's Geographia - 2 A.D. )

In fact, it was Ptolemy who, back in 2 A.D., came up with this

still very useful notion of latitude and longitude, and what is that but an

acknowledgement that we can perceive of the world by imagining it

as being embraced by a giant grid.  Ptolemy, by the way, knew that

the world was round (and still is).

It was actually some of the navel-gazing generations that followed him

that sort of lost sight of that fact.

So essentially, Ptolemy, in developing 

those elegant "l"s (latitude & longitude), developed an 

intellectual technology

to help in both perceiving and reproducing

an entity.

That intellectual technology works in conjunction

with the imagination to help us extend

the limited scope of our eyes.

2.

Forty years ago,  the city I was living in

was available,

in book form,

and each page of that book

focused on one section

of a grid in the map of my city.

I loved that book;

I would look at those different pages

for hours on end,

memorizing the streets 

in my neighborhood,

then turning the page to see

how they changed in the next neighborhood.

I learned my city that way.

( greatfallsmt )

In our lives, we can live in

one square of a grid

and get to know it very well

or we can get to know it

well enough,

and move to another square,

and ultimately

(and ideally)

look for the points of

connection

between the squares.

This is how we get the bigger picture.

Maps

rely on grids to help represent 

physically

the experience of hovering 

over and seeing

those interconnections:

( commondale )

The problem with maps like these is that
they exist on one dimension.
Map makers over time
have attempted to add
a second dimension
with drawings that indicated
either elevations in the land
or human monuments:

( pictoralmaps )

They still relied on grids!


3.
Perhaps the most
significant artistic development
in extending our perception of grids
while also refining our ability
to reproduce reality accurately
was the development of
perspective drawing, and the concept of the
vanishing point

( mathforum )

Fundamentally, the vanishing point
is the artistic expression
of the limitations of
a single glance.
 

Think about it this way:
it's as if the bird hovering over the one dimensional map
landed on one of those roads, and looked
down its length;
the vanishing point is the place where
the road disappears
on the horizon.

As the Wikipedia article I link to above explains,
you can suggest  a bit more complexity with
two-point perspective
(ie: with imagining there are two points
on the horizon, in two different places
where the line disappears.)

and produce depth with
three-point perspective:

(I must credit Wikipedia for these drawings;
please follow the link above for more details.)


~ ~ ~

Notably, when we get into the realm
of the three dimensions,
it's as if we're taking that flat,
one dimensional
map impression
and lifting it up,
adding grid upon grid above it
and acknowledging that those grids
extend in a limitless fashion
beyond the range of our vision;

we're using the
multiple grid layers
to provide
a scaffolding
for creating
a multi-dimensioned
representation:

This is ultimately
the logic
of the Second Life Grid.




4.
Now what on God's earth,
I suspect you're wondering,
is she going to do with this?

Why has she gone through
this rather elaborate contemplation
on grids, representation and maps?

Well, I'll tell ya' -
I do this partly because it kind of
amuses me.
I love to take an idea and tease it out
and see where it might take me.

But also,
there is this matter of the
Grid
and the Four Days of the Grid

The only part of this message that I'm a little blurry on
is the word "days."  I am certain the voice said
"days," but I interpreted it as "age"
because "days" didn't make sense to me.
At that time.
More on that later.

But in any event, there is the number 4,
and the idea of the Grid,
and to me this suggests
stages of development
in the Grid
and in the technology
it has produced.

Whether we like it or not,
we live in
The Age of The Grid
right now.

I have contemplated elsewhere
how the Grid Ages
could very well have to do with
the various Ages of Artistic representation;

Second Life ups the ante on that idea.
Because Second Life
is a domain where humans have used the technology of the grid
to produce another living space,
a virtual living space
that we can traverse,
and actually, if we so desire,
create a better life than the one we have.


We could perhaps
correct the mistakes that we made on this domain
or fight the wars that would be better if fought
in a virtual domain.


Could Jesus come
in Second Life?
Or perhaps
via
Second Life?
Hmmmm
now that would be unexpected,
wouldn't it?

I guess it all comes down
to how you define
Jesus.

Another Thought on Second Life

Yo

Makropoulos again.

Yeah, the real one,

not the fake one.

~ ~ ~ ~

You see, the avatar that I occupy in this life

is actually channeling at least one other personality at

the same time. No, well, probably three*

Anyway, the reason why I have trouble getting my own time

on this blog lately

is because one of the other personalities she's channeling

has this book, see.

And she really wants to publish

this book, see.

And she's working on that,

and it takes a hell of a lot of time.

I'd love it if she'd just publish the damned thing,

'cause she's getting kind of interesting in this blog,

and she ain't a bad writer, so as soon as I can get her

on board, well, this blog may rock

a little more.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I spoke about Second Life

a day or two ago,

and all the reasons I don't like it.

Now I'm going to tell you

why I find it to be so fascinating.

I saw an episode of 

C.S.I. New York

where they were solving a murder

where the motivation,

and even the murderer, could be found

on Second Life.

Since I didn't know much

about Second Life at the time,

I thought it was

kind of cool

There was one scene,

where there was a fight

on Second Life.

Clearly, one can have a pretty wicked battle

under the disguise of
Second Life,

even get one's head cut off

a couple times,

and still walk away from it.

So I thought:

wouldn't it be cool if

nations could fight their wars

on Second Life

and live in peace

on the Planet Earth.

All the 

demented,

crazed,

warriors of the world

could just have it out

in internet land

and live

placid,

uneventful,

maybe even peaceful

lives

in our bodies.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you think about it that way,

Second Life

could be the absolute cure

of all the social ills of the earth:

we could just act out our naughtiness

virtually.

But honestly,

that's just crazy:

there will always be somebody

not happy to kill another in a Second Life;

they'll want to see what it's like to do it

in the Real, First Life, as well,

and so we'd have to be prepared and ready

to deal with that, in a civil way.

(That brings us back to the question of the Fall of Man,

and Reproduction, 

and how the Fall of Man

is actually linked with the compulsion

to reproduce (ie: see one's self

as if in a mirror.)  Please

read my other entries

on those topics to get my drift. . . . )

But, you see,

people who think they have to do something

in this Real Life are actually

people

who recognize that this Real Life

is just

a Second Life,

and therefore,

disposable.

There will always be people

like myself

not content to do it

in the Second Life,

and when those people have

murderous tendencies,

well, they're dangerous.

So anyway, 

that's why we still need

law and order

in this earthly life;

because that's

what we're here for,

to make sure we get it right

in the First Life, so we don't have to do
a Second Life.

However, let me propose:

the Second Life

can handle those times

when collectively,

a group (nation) wants to attack

another group  (nation).

Couldn't it?

If there was enough at stake

in the Second Life,

then,

it may suit us well

as a battle field.

It would appear,

after all,

that the next few generations

are best prepared

to fight on that terrain.

~~~~~~~~~

Who Needs A Second Life?

ok, Makropoulos is back,

and she is pissed.

( pantherfile.uwm )

Makropoulos, for those of you who don't know,

is the personality I channel

when I have time to channel.

Makropoulos is a woman who has been alive for 420 years,

or some ungodly period of time like that,

doomed to wander the earth

in a body that's say, roughly

24 years old

Though, I should tell you,

after this period of time

it's starting to show some age.

Anyway,

I'm back,

and I have to comment on this

phenomenon

called

Second Life

I went onto Second Life the other night--

I thought it would be a cool place to be

Makropoulos,

and perhaps it could be a cool place to be

Makropoulos,

but they wouldn't let me take that name!

So that was my first problem in Second Life --

I really dug the body I got to choose,

but I couldn't figure out how to change

my clothes.  My Second Life Self somehow got dressed in

this stupid flippy little teenaged dress

that I just wouldn't be caught dead in.

And I couldn't figure out how to change it,

but I did determine:

the options they offered me were,

well, not exactly the styles I would like to wear.

 

That was my Second Problem with Second Life --

and then I got stuck wandering through all these 

precontrived places, precontrived

in someone else's brain,

and not even half as interesting

as the rest of the real world really is.

I mean, honestly, gang,

I've lived in the rest of the world:

I've lived in London,

France,

Germany,

Greece,

Turkey, 

Thailand,

Canada,

India,

and most recently,

the United States of America,

and when you put the effect of living

in those places,

as well as travelling to many other places,

multiple times,

alongside the world of 

Second Life,

well, one of them pales,

and it isn't the planet we live on.

That's the truth.

So, that was my Third Problem with Second Life

But that also takes me to the thing

I really liked

about Second Life:

the first person I met was French.

I was being so lazy, using English - I mean,

that's been my primary language for 

over 100 years,

and when her first sentence was French,

I was at first quite surprised,

and then I realized,

that Second Life is a place

that requires

Second Languages,

not to mention

Third of Fourth

Languages.

Because

people in Second Life could be from

anywhere.

Second Life gets rid of those

geographical boundaries, and puts us

all together, in one

space without time and space.

Well, to say the least,

I struggled with my French.

I mean, I haven't used it for nearly

100 years.

And then I began thinking:

I'd better brush up on my German,

And my Spanish,

and my Turkish,

if I really want to get around

in Second Life.

(or even in blog life)

That is the First Good Thing,

and perhaps

THE BEST THING

about Second Life.

I was struggling with flying,

since I have a Mac,

and loving the idea of flying,

 but getting more and more frustrated

by a very essential feature of Second Life-

the avatar itself.

After I excused myself from the French

woman, who I must applaud

for struggling with English,

while I struggled with French,

(her parting statement to me 

was "kiss")

anyway, after that rather

sweet encounter, I found

myself catapulted from one

mediocre Second Life 

location to the next,

until I seemed to get stuck 

in one, where I finally

found other players who

spoke English, and one

dashing male avatar walked

up to me and said: did you see 

anyone around here?

There's some people

behind me, I said,

and he said: yeah,

I know them. But is

there anyone else?

(as if to say: I know 

them; they bore me;

I'm looking for the 

cool folks, and I said

"I don't know; I'm a stranger here myself."

And he said "yeah,

me too," then went

dashing away,

looking for someone

else, not me.

And I thought: 

crap, I could do that in my First Life.

This gets me to the Fourth Problem With Second Life,

and the Reason I Won't Do It Again, for awhile:

You see, I feel that I'm already

in an avatar. 

This body,

I live in,

is my earthly

avatar,

it's the form I chose

to use for 

this stretch of time

on this earthly domain.

I have enough trouble,

and enough fun,

negotiating this earthly

avatar,

why the hell would I need another?

Sure:

some people may act out

their wildest fantasies,

their real self,

in the Second

World, and 

(and perhaps because)

they actually believe

this Earth

is the First World,

when in actual

fact

Earth is the Second Life.

Second Life for me

is a Third Life

that I really don't need.

After all my time

on this Earthly Plane,

I've come to realize

that when you're damned

to eternal life on this Second Life Planet,

which I am,

you would be in torment,

if you did not always live it

as your true self.

So for me,

I am true to my fantasy self

-my real, Other self-

in this life,

 all the time,

knowing that THIS

is the Second Life.

THIS is the place

where we've been required

to get it right.

the first time,

the only time,

so when we head back

to the First Life,

the only life,

the eternal life,

we know the following things:

what it is to be good,

what it is to be bad,

and what it is to know the difference,

and what it is to say: "that's too bad" or

"that's too good."  The eternal life

that knows all these things,

is the perfect life,

and that's what I am 

striving for.

World Without End. 

(  freakingnews  )