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GASM: Invent Your Own Microreligion

Started by Cramulus, November 16, 2010, 02:57:59 PM

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Cramulus

I've been having a lot of fun working on my Fractal Cult. Yesterday I strung together the inklings of a pamphlet about it, printed it out, and left it in my bathroom, thereby making it REAL.

There's something very rewarding about generating a belief system that is really personalized to your own nervous system. I intend on developing my fractal cult idea until it's driven me totally crazy, and then maybe I'll write a pamphlet denouncing it.

I want MORE. More short-term religions. I want to go totally batshit believing something crazy, then in two weeks spin the wheel and believe something else entirely.


So here is my challenge to you:

Invent your own microreligion, something that can be described in 1-5 pages or less.


Here are some things you may or may not want to include:

  • Symbolism
  • Holidays, traditions, ceremonies
  • Holy Figures
  • What does a member of this religion do?
  • Mythological Framework which explains the relevant parts of the universe and how they work
  • How to Join

Tip: a good way to open is to describe a problem or tension that people may be having, and then introduce your idea as a means of resolving that tension.


Alright-- then what?

If we get a good collection of these we will release them as a booklet or issue of Intermittens.

One of the pitches that I've been mulling over is a call to Atheists. There are tons of Atheists these days, and I want to sell them the idea that it's okay to believe something, even if you know it's not literally true, as long as acting like its true is fun or beneficial. There's no reason to be hung up on being right, it's much more rewarding to be having more fun than other people.



for my part, I promise that if your religion sounds cool or intriguing or could springboard me into an interesting place, I'll subscribe to it for a while.

Don Coyote


Cramulus

also: you don't need to come to the table with a fully fleshed out idea.

200-500 words is more than enough to give us the gist of it, and we can hash out the details ITT

Gray Jester

I'll do a 'worship of memes' one.  Basic precepts revolve around the idea that memes are the key part of human perception of the world, and by creating, spreading, and modifying them, you can bend the world to your wishes and gain true ultimate power and all of that.  Expect a full writeup in the next few days once my plate is clear;  for now this is a placeholder and a declaration of intent.
I am a surrealist.  It makes me feel more knightly.

Cramulus

Quote from: Gray Jester on November 16, 2010, 05:52:25 PM
I'll do a 'worship of memes' one.  Basic precepts revolve around the idea that memes are the key part of human perception of the world, and by creating, spreading, and modifying them, you can bend the world to your wishes and gain true ultimate power and all of that.  Expect a full writeup in the next few days once my plate is clear;  for now this is a placeholder and a declaration of intent.

I'm digging it

I think I'm already in that cult to some extent

here's my spin:            (and this is just my take, you can use it however you want, or not, no foul either way)

human beings are essentially extremely complicated meme aggregators. We are the environment in which their natural selection takes place.

information is the real life on this planet, we are just the meat it uses to reproduce - this is not a purely related to humanity, it has been going on since amino acids first bumped into each other in the wild primordial ocean.

they are the paint and we are the canvas

Over time they have managed to transfer themselves into higher and higher levels of coherence

language was a giant jump for them, it allowed them to become more specialized and specific.

the written word was a gigantic jump, it allowed them to encapsulate themselves like dormant bacteria -- it allows them to survive for periods of time without a host, and make ridiculous amounts of high fidelity copies of themselves.


in this model, corporations and governments and religions are like gigantic superorganisms

meta biological organisms



anyway, that's my crackpot rambling on memes.


oh, & related thread: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=26428.0


Placid Dingo

#5
Woo, syncrisity!

I have another three weeks of work, but this is essentially what I'm working on in the Cressing Thread, in a way.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27369.0

I'm trying to develop a set of structures based on ideas of narrative, presented through the medium of narrative.

The spiel;
Cressing

We understand much of our life through the use of narratives. We develop stories about our lives that help us define who we are and what we do. 'The day I realised I was an atheist', 'the first time I felt fear', 'the reason I like tea', 'the day I met the one for me', 'I used to be a liberal until...' and so on, are examples of life events arranged in ways that represent narratives. They are stories we use to help explain elements of our personality. When a story is so repeatable and important to an aspect of our selves, ideologies or beliefs that it is indispensable to that element, we call it a mythology. These terms are not implicative of an absence of truth, just suggestive of truth arranged in specific patterns.

Cressing is a three pronged approach to using narratives in conscious life.

1: Synthesising. This is about making sense of your life by identifying the events that have brought you to where you are now. Cressing assumes all patterns/narratives to be essentially constructions, so developing partially consciously fictional narratives is appropriate. For example, I help the poor to pay off the kindness my late friend showed to me when I was poor, before he died. These elements (the friend etc) may be true, but there may be assumptions or constructions made about the particular significance of these events that is conciously engineered to develop a narrative.

2: Following patterns. Cressing promotes the awareness of these synthesised patterns and using these patterns to inform choices in everyday life. This puts the 'narrator' in a position where they are actively constructing their own story. With our example; instead of just helping the poor we look at our role in the story as the protagonist. What aspects of our personality should we develop to maximise our success in this role? What opportunities should we look out for? What elements of my everyday life could be better expressed in a way that enhances my chosen narrative?

3: Using 'Narrative Tools'.
Cressing requires individuals to have a certain awareness of the choices in their lives. Most people can't move effortlessly between narrative strands because we don't all have a wealth of experience dealing with all situations. Personally, when I can back to the city, I had to talk to every person who tried to sign me up to a charity. Now, after being in the city, I can brush them off more easily. The narrative tools are intended to broaden ones life experiences and give opportunities of constructing real time narratives.

Some more information is developed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KPjMWHZm5tBJm6t_bc0olEBApSwxJ1NSz-ZpvYIeMhM/edit?hl=en&authkey=CL7JhJQK





Also, some of the ideas I've been playing with (and after Net's link, want to play with further) about Aesthetics.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27353.0
http://placiddingo.com/?p=138 (couldn't find where I posted it. The one in my IM)
Haven't paid rent since 2014 with ONE WEIRD TRICK.

Richter

Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion

TOTALLY different from Discordia, (SRSLY), this is actually a modern take on a gnostic sect, and method for becoming UNSTOPPABLE.  The central figure is the IDEA of the Virgin Mary, specifically, her state of mind in trying to wrap the brain around immaculate conception.  In fact, in this case, she's considered a representation of Eris.  Don't ask us how.  It's a metaphor, and is not required to make sense.  (If the rest of the church and the pagans can co-opt so can we damn it.)  We don't care if this actually happened as described or not, or if anyone New Testament existed or not, it's jsut a jumping off point of Holy WTF.  Being a re-thinking of a gnostic sect, this is more about the knowledge, contemplation, and discussion of the WTF that is considered good.

Sacrements:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot:  Any moment of head scratching bewilderment is a good and antural state.  In this state, we are CERTAIN we know nothing.  Given the sum total of knowledge, known and unknown, this is probably a safe bet.  The accepting and realizing of this state is the first part of this sacrement, as it accounts for our basically flawed meat-brainedness.  The annalysis and the realizing of something that might work this time is the second.  Success is the third part.  While not essential, we can't argue that results are snazzy, and lack of them MAY get you killed.

UNSTOPABILITY:  If you tell other people what you are doing, they can stop you.  They may not like it, or may just be a dick.  Even worse, you may be a defeatist, or have a horrible bastard sub conscious, so you may even self defeat!  Neither are good, they prevent sucess.  The simple answer is to have NO IDEA waht you are doing.  Nobody else knows, and you don't know.  They cannot stop you with any more certainty than you can stop yourself.  You are now UNDEFEATABLE.  Sister concepts are CYA (cover yo ass), and KYFMS.

Beer:  It's good.  Make some time to hang around with your buddies and drink some.  Play games and don't talk about anything heavy.

Doing Shit:  Exercising WTF and UNSTOPABILITY is worthless if you basement dwell and sockfuck.  Be active.

Don't be a Dick:  Don't fuckign split hairs about it, just don't.


Holidays:

12/24: Chreaster Eve: STAY OFF THE ROADS.  Everyone's crazy today, more than usual are heading to church.  Less a Holiday than a suggestion.
 
12/25:  Everyone Else is Out of Work Day:  High Holiday of the Sacrement of Beer, which lasts until New Years.

7/4: HOLY SHIT Day:  Someone gave the apes explosives!  Hit the deck!  High Holiday of UNSTOPABILITY, since you may need it to survive.

10/1: September's Over Day! : The weather MAY be nice.  High Holiday #2 of Doing Shit

3/15: Fucking enough already:  February's pretty much gone!  Practice Don't Be a Dick, since that month's a bummer.

End-ish of April: Chreaster Day:  Watch more people head to church than usual.

5/1:  May Day:  High Holiday #1 of Doing Shit, and the kickoff of summer in some hemispheres.  While note exclusive to this holiday, this should mark a period of being mindfulness to be commiting the sacrements of  Doing Shit and Beer.

Every Day:  Watch Out for New Religions Day:  If you get an idea for a new church / religion, be careful with it.  Even a few casual mentions may get converts or t-shirts made up of it.
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 22, 2015, 03:00:53 AM
Anyone ever think about how Richter inhabits the same reality as you and just scream and scream and scream, but in a good way?   :lulz:

Friendly Neighborhood Mentat

President Television

I'm thinking of a trope-based religion, based on the idea that we're living in a fictional reality to which tropes apply. Not like the matrix or holographic reality or any of that, but the idea that everything we experience is a story and we fill in the blanks ourselves where reality isn't described, and can manipulate it by invoking tropes. I dunno, I'll elaborate on this when I'm not impaired by alcohol.
My shit list: Stephen Harper, anarchists that complain about taxes instead of institutionalized torture, those people walking, anyone who lets a single aspect of themselves define their entire personality, salesmen that don't smoke pipes, Fredericton New Brunswick, bigots, philosophy majors, my nemesis, pirates that don't do anything, criminals without class, sociopaths, narcissists, furries, juggalos, foes.

Cramulus

word - sounds cool, but very similar to both Gray Jester's meme worship and placid dingo's cressing

President Television

Quote from: Cramulus on November 19, 2010, 12:29:40 AM
word - sounds cool, but very similar to both Gray Jester's meme worship and placid dingo's cressing

:sad: I'll try to be more original when my brain cells have recovered.
My shit list: Stephen Harper, anarchists that complain about taxes instead of institutionalized torture, those people walking, anyone who lets a single aspect of themselves define their entire personality, salesmen that don't smoke pipes, Fredericton New Brunswick, bigots, philosophy majors, my nemesis, pirates that don't do anything, criminals without class, sociopaths, narcissists, furries, juggalos, foes.

Jasper

Cramulus:  Your meme religion might benefit from Blackmore's talk on memes and "temes".


link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html


Microreligion 548203:

The only thing that truly exists is comedy.  Laughter is the metaphysical basis of everything.  Death is merely when the deity tells you The Joke, and the ensuing humor singularity takes an eternity to finish laughing from.


Cramulus

Quote from: Sigmatic on November 19, 2010, 02:39:54 AM
Cramulus:  Your meme religion might benefit from Blackmore's talk on memes and "temes".


link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html

that's gray jester who's doing the meme religion but good link




QuoteMicroreligion 548203:

The only thing that truly exists is comedy.  Laughter is the metaphysical basis of everything.  Death is merely when the deity tells you The Joke, and the ensuing humor singularity takes an eternity to finish laughing from.

I dig

does it have a name?

in this quick one shot microreligion-- is shoving somebody down the stairs considered good (morally speaking) if it's funny?

Who is the deity?

If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to laugh at it, is it still funny?

If not, what was the joke before there were people?



Quote from: Unqualified on November 19, 2010, 01:27:01 AM
Quote from: Cramulus on November 19, 2010, 12:29:40 AM
word - sounds cool, but very similar to both Gray Jester's meme worship and placid dingo's cressing

:sad: I'll try to be more original when my brain cells have recovered.

it's all good

I don't mean to dissuade you if you've got a good kernel in your head
merely to draw your attention to the similarity so that you can develop the differences.

my fractal cult seems a little similar to all this too.

maybe we should just collage all these great ideas together until we've got some kind of neophilic irreligious stone soup

Cramulus

Quote from: Richter on November 18, 2010, 05:52:02 PM
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion

Richter, this is perfect.

There's already iconography for this, no? am i remembering suu making a t-shirt for this? do you have any related images you can post?

Jasper

Oh, duh.  Now I see.  Working on a netbook screen, hard to focus on who said what.  

In Microreligion 548203 (working title), humor is valued higher than truth, unless being true can enhance the humor of something (i.e. horrormirth).  Ethically, there are two camps:  That of the stand-ups and that of the sit-downs.  The sit downs say that it is justifiable to do any evil deed for the amusement of the self, because all exists for the entertainment of others.  They have no friends.  The Stand Ups argue that it creates the net highest amount of humor to amuse other people, preferably while they sit still (not Sit Down, mind you!) so that they can all be amused en masse.  

Microreligion 548203-ists take the stance that it is noble to adjust one's mind or envoronment so that even boring, serious, or depressing things are funny.  "Danes" (non-Microreligion 548203ists) often object to this sort of behavior.

Don Coyote

Quote from: Sigmatic on November 19, 2010, 03:19:06 AM
Oh, duh.  Now I see.  Working on a netbook screen, hard to focus on who said what.  

In Microreligion 548203 (working title), humor is valued higher than truth, unless being true can enhance the humor of something (i.e. horrormirth).  Ethically, there are two camps:  That of the stand-ups and that of the sit-downs.  The sit downs say that it is justifiable to do any evil deed for the amusement of the self, because all exists for the entertainment of others.  They have no friends.  The Stand Ups argue that it creates the net highest amount of humor to amuse other people, preferably while they sit still (not Sit Down, mind you!) so that they can all be amused en masse.  

Microreligion 548203-ists take the stance that it is noble to adjust one's mind or envoronment so that even boring, serious, or depressing things are funny.  "Danes" (non-Microreligion 548203ists) often object to this sort of behavior.
:lulz: cuz I get the at least one of the references.