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If pot and LSD merely allow a shift in perspective for the user to contemplate different modes of thought, why then was RAW (and by idolatry, the Pinealists) so negative about other drugs such as coffee and alcohol?

I'm not sure why you think RAW was negative about Coffee or Alcohol. Indeed, according to the Old Man, Coffee, Irish Whiskey and Marijuana were the Discordian Trinity and a Cure-All for all sorts of ailments. Indeed, I myself partake of the wholly mix each day. The last piece of artwork that I was doing when Bob died was a pastel of a bottle of Jameson, a coffee mug and a small bong. I haven't had the heart to finish it, but it may make a good avatar... I think I'll try to finish it up now.

As for Pinealists ( I'm guessing thats a label for people that interpret RAW's stuff literally?), well RAW said that a disciple was just an asshole looking for a human to attach itself to... once dogma enters the brain, all rational thought leaves.

The only drug I ever heard Bob speak of in a negative sense were the ones that were known to occasionally kill people, or ones that may quickly become addictive. Even with those it was caution, not abstinence that he usually advocated, at least in my experiences with him.

Huh?

The illumination comes not from the outside, but from the inside; the experiences of the entity itself. Drugs come from the outside and therefore cannot provide illumination. However, the experience of drugs can provide the entity with a different perspective and this perspective, along with the other experiences of the entity can bring about enlightenment.

In the smoke alone, there is no enlightenment.

(This was originally posted at 23AE in 2005 and updated for this post, I've been asked to repost some of my other works and thus I am doing so... if this is not appropriate, please feel free to delete)
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"Hold your breath, make a wish, count to three...
Come with me and you'll be in a world of Pure Imagination.
Take a look and you'll see into your Imagination.
We'll begin with a spin, traveling in the world of my creation.
What we'll see will defy explanation.
If you want to view Paradise, simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to do is, want to change the world, there's nothing to it..."
- Willy Wonka

At some point in the quite distant past of my early childhood, I saw Willy Wonka. I don't remember watching the movie the first time, but I do remember that there was a defining moment in my consciousness that day. It was the scene right before Agustus Gloop fell into the Chocolate River and became a giant chocolaty spit wad. Willy Wonka had opened the door to the Chocolate Room. Everyone walked into a world that couldn't exist. The colors were too vibrant to be simple reflections of light frequencies, everything was edible and the power of a single man's imagination had changed reality. I don't know when it happened, but I will never forget the elation I felt as Gene Wilder sang the above words. Every one of them hit me like an arrow. I wanted to live in a world of Pure Imagination. I didn't want to live in the serious world around me. The world of school and the factory where my dad worked was far too much like Charley's hometown, all the color and cheer had washed away. People were serious and concerned about serious things....

Of course, being whatever age I was, my analytical skills weren't sophisticated enough to appreciate this. All I can remember is wishing that I was in the Chocolate Room. Some number of years passed between that memory and the first time I can recall actually watching "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory". The feeling I got when I heard the opening bars to "Marriage of Figaro" played on Wonka's locked door was a complete shift into that world of fantasy again.

I think that it was probably the first time I recall touching what Dr. Timothy Leary calls the 5th Circuit of Consciousness. That point where you can simply comprehend more of what is going on... at least maybe more of what you perceive to be going on. Colors do indeed appear brighter and the line between your reality and everyone else's becomes a shade less defined. Wilson and Leary both wrote that this level of consciousness was the 'next' evolution of the human experience. Circuits that are ready to use, just waiting to be plugged in. I'm not sure that they were right, but it makes a useful metaphor if nothing else.

I have only in the past few years been able to identify the place my imagination gets me to with the 5th level of Consciousness. I did this with specific neurotransmitters as well as other ways that have been in use for 4000 years to activate the fifth-brain. The ways that have been developed have been almost exclusively the domain of the shaman, the occultist and the alchemist. I have come to believe that the 'magic' associated with most occult figures may not a supernatural magic, but simply the engaging of higher circuits of consciousness. Perhaps that's all that Willy Wonka was, someone who had figured out how to engage all eight circuits of consciousness permanently. His hallucinations manifested in other people's reality model.

Marijuana has been proven to be a powerful neurotransmitter for the fifth-circuit. So has Tantra Magick, Sensory Deprivation and Free Fall. All of these are known to cause hallucinations on some level as well. Are hallucinations simply the beginning of reality-shaping? Is it simply your imagination beginning to affect the world around you? Wilson and Leary both connected fifth-circuit engagement with the separation of the nervous system from terrestrial ties. Astronauts describe feelings very similar to 'being high' when in the freefall of space (perhaps that is why the earth looks different to an individual experiencing it from space than any picture or virtual display can ever convey... they experience earth on a slightly different level of consciousness.

So maybe that's what Willy Wonka is actually trying to do, evolve consciousness to the next level (metaphorically). Look at the extreme warping he does to the reality of the contestant winners (and their greyfaced hunchbrained parents). Every one of them is placed in a situation that forces them to accept that they know less of reality than they think (or at least they know less of Wonka's reality). The book takes this idea a step further. At the end of the book we learn that all the children made it through their ordeal and were now much better for it. They all had improved in a number of ways. Wonka's mindfucks had proven beneficial for each of them.

Even Grandpa Joe and Charley need to get high (on fizzy lifting drink) before they can go to the next level of consciousness where they get everything they always wanted. Charlie and Grandpa Joe finally become fully aware of consciousness at a Wonka-level in the great glass elevator. Not only flying high (stoned off their sweet-tooth), but in a vehicle that allows them, with the touch of a button to go anywhere and anyway they desire. They simply push a button and wooosh! The GGE appears as the representation of Ultimate Freedom from Rules and Restrictions, to fully explore their Three Dimensional Universe.

They found a reality with no more rules to hold them back.

After all, that's what Wonka promised when he sang, "There is no Life I know to compare to Pure Imagination, living there you'll be free, if you truly wish to be."

I hereby declare Willy Wonka a Non-Prophet of Eris.

I think you should choose the rants that are applicable to these forums, and post them in "Or Kill Me".

I would be happy to.

I liked that post.

One word of caution... BMW is a biologist, and takes evolution fairly seriously, and fairly literally, too.  I have noticed.  Sometimes.  Far be it from me to put words in his mouth, of course.


Of course.

I'll be interested in BMW's opinion on my metaphor then... I'd also be interested in a test drive as I currently have an Eagle and hear that BMW's are much nicer.

No offence, I hope.

To be offended by anything on the Internet seems a losing proposal.

If ye know neither me nor my works, than I am indeed a newbie (to your reality tunnel, at least) eh?

Ah, good. Then you will be unflustered when the drama llama comes acalling.

Works? As in plural?

Can we get an x-post?

An x-post of my works?

Well, I'm not sure what the usual accepted procedure is here. I've written lots of stuff, is it better to provide links or actual posts? You can do a google search, which will probably show up lots of stuff (any of my posts may be true in some sense, false in some sense and meaningless in some sense). Gooling on "Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord" "tosk" or "Great Googlie Mooglie Cabal" should turn up a few things.

After nearly 15 years of wandering these eldrich and etheric halls of the Internet, drama llama's are simply curiosities. I once read a wise statement: "Arguing on the Internet is like the Special Olympics: Win or Lose, you're still retarded."

What?  The pastafarians are worse than the Myspace Discordians, and most of them, literally, are 12 years old.

Our Lady of Discord stands and from one hand she releases every species, born through surviving the chaotic whim of nature; from the other she draws in every species as it falls to chaos and becomes extinct.

Evolution means survival of the fittest Children of Chaos.

The Pastafarians and the MySpace Discordians... INRI.

If we can be warmed by that fire, shall we deny the fuel?


Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord
Chatterer of the Words of Eris
Muncher of The ChaoAcorn
POEE of The Great Googlie Mooglie Cabal

*scratches head*


This is a really weird metaphore for evolution.

Also, it seems you are talking about it in a social context. Mixed metaphores then. Biological evolution cannot be equated with social change. Its not only stupid, its immoral, the kind of thing that spawns Nazi science.

And social darwinism is a bolus of fecal matter.


Still, I like some of it. You can do better. Keep it up.

Evolution, rather "Survival of the Fittest", works because of Chaos. If the past several million years had been an ordered sort of environment, then the 'not fittest' would have had no disadvantage. If there hadn't been drastic, immediate and chaotic changes, then there would have been no need to evolve. Thus through Chaos (symbolized by Eris) do all species come into existence. However, it is that same Chaos that wipes out entire species. It is a world thrust into Chaos that destroys entire lines of DNA. Thus through Chaos (symbolized by Eris) do all species eventually die out and become extinct.

In a culture that is not chaotic, that is not challenged by absurdity, there is no reason for a subculture... or subcultures or countercultures. It is through Chaos that some idiots believed that they should teach Creationism and thus it is through Chaos that someone was inspired to write an epistle of the FSM and in this the Pastafarians were born. Likewise for the dadaists, Discordians, Sub Geniuses, Goths etc etc etc each exist (or existed) because there was chaotic pressure placed on the culture, spawning a subculture (which fit a niche). In Chaos each of these will grow into something more, or devolve into extinction.

I do not say "Wipe out the Pastafarian, for he is less than us." I do not say "Gas the Goth, for she is less than us."

I say, run everyone through the fire of Action, Discordian, Pastafarian, Goth and SubGenius. Allow each to be tested in the purifying flame of Actually Doing Something. Do not sneer at the 12 year old ZOMG FSM! or the 23 year old ZOMG FNORD! In the action each will have their own tests, and the test will purify them... whats left may be Iron, Gold or nothing more than dross.

From my experience, every Golden Apple has a Golden worm hiding in it somewhere... its just a matter of burning away the crap.

Igne Natura Renovatur Integra

No offence, I hope.

To be offended by anything on the Internet seems a losing proposal.

If ye know neither me nor my works, than I am indeed a newbie (to your reality tunnel, at least) eh?

This piece reminds me of some of Vincent's stuff, in the way it mixes the discordianism of the 60's with the discordianism of the new century.

Its remarkable, some of the stuff that these newbies put out.

Yay, it's been awhile since I've been a newbie... glad they reset this board awhile back

Holy crap.


When I read the first few sentences, I was thinking, "oh, fuck.  Here we go again."

But you know?  I might have to save this & repost it when some of those Dogmatic Pinealists come around.


Good job, Rat.

There is nothing wrong with the trappings as long as you don't get trapped in them...

The Chaotic Ones Were, The Chaotic Ones Are, The Chaotic Ones Shall Be Again

In the beginning the Chaos was, and the Chaos was with Discordians and the Chaos was Discordians. There appeared great non-prophets and these Children of Eris laid the first foundations for further forays. Here we do not speak of the great Mal-2, nor Omar K Ravenhurst, nor RAW (may they party in Limbo forever), nay for there were many before them that found enlightenment through action and salvation through nonsense. Camus, Jarry, Beckett, Shulz, Kafka, Kierkegaard all came to enlightenment by their own path, their own action, their own experience. Each laid a footpath through the territory of the absurd, each left behind notes and clues about how one could go about creating their own footpath through this little explored territory. Each of them were truly Children of Eris. Yet, this is not to detract from the Great Works of those who came later, Mark Twain, for example, left much for us to consider in his Letters From The Earth, Papers of the Adam Family and other writings, there were those who were inspired to write The Principia Discordia, from which a fountainhead of Chaos ensued. Each of these came about their enlightenment through personal action and their salvation through their own nonsense. They all left behind journals, notes, dissertations, FAQ's, How-To's and DIY infos about their own footpaths created in the unexplored territory. These ancient ones did not become enlightened by reading silly things. They did not find their path by slapping people with the same tired trout. Yet, in this time, we see little in the way of Action and sadly, little in the way of enlightenment. In Action and in Action alone, enlightenment can be found.

A few weeks ago, I determined to see how things were progressing in the Way of Eris since the death of the last PD era Discordian. In some places, Erisians weep for the loss of Bob and I too am sad to see such a silly mind move on... yet, it was not in RAW the man that enlightenment is found. In some places, Erisians seem to have confused freedom with liberalism and they claim Discordian thought, while endorsing one political party or the other, yet it is not in any specific political party that Enlightenment is found. In some places, they study the paths of those who have experienced, thinking that Enlightenment shall fall upon them while in meditation, and they will wait as the young man in Camden Benares Zen Story, for it is not in old houses where enlightenment is found. There is no action and long have I waited for Action. But here, here at PD.com I see something that RAW might have associated with the Cosmic Trigger. Here, there is no acceptance of any previous map as the territory. There appears to be a movement to actually explore the territory while making new maps. In this sacred rite, The Chaotic Ones shall be again, rising to replace those that were and to provide examples for those that are. Those that find the PD as The Answer, or those that believe The Conspiracy, the 23 Enigma, The Law of Fives as real... have missed one of the secret keys of the PD: "This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no Apostle looks out". A mirror can only tell us about ourselves... in and of itself the mirror has no Information, no knowledge, no power, and nothing of Enlightenment. However, a mirror can be useful.

Many here appear to have a grasp on the need for action. They seem to understand that it is not in the relics of past Erisian Delight that Future Discordian Works lie, but in their actions based on current realities. Chaos is active and is based on the actions and reactions around it. The actions and reactions during the 1960's that led to the PD are not the same actions and reactions that exist here, today. In this, I applaud you and find great hope for Discordianism and reason to stick around for a bit... if you don't mind a chaotic rodent chattering on occasion.

Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord
Muncher of the ChaoAcorn
Chatterer of the Words of Eris
POEE of the Great Googlie Mooglie Cabal

Hi Ratatosk! I remember you from 23ae!

Ah yes, though my workings with Eris have led me from posting much recently... that, I think may change.

If the podcasts are any indication, you seem to be the type of Discordian that talks about Eris and the glorious delightful chaos of the pinealglandfnord23.


Which leads to clarity regarding you post about evolution and Eris.

Sometimes, when its useful.

Ah.

Your initial post makes sense, then. 

How so?