#one would require me to basically become a science-based philosopher

[chuuyanakaahara]

i don't wanna. but the demons... the demons want me to (begin writing for + submitting to contests/competitions)

[readingsbylibramc]

birth chart reading for @sunfiowershrooms

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋 chart shape, dominants

your chart is a splay shape, meaning that your planets are located randomly in different groups in your chart. people with this type of chart are usually very talented at different things. they can focus their attention on different matters, from family, to work, to love. everything is important for you, and you try to live your life to the fullest. you may be particularly talented at things that require action, it doesn’t matter whether it’s physical or mental. you may be very good at sports, dancing… or maybe you’re good at leading, you could easily be the boss on your work place. since you’re interested in so many things, you could easily be skilled at all of them to be honest. my advice would be to pick the hobby that is most important for you and care about it more than the others. that’s because people with this chart usually tend to do so many things that they may lack precision. it’s better to give all of yourself to what’s important for you.

your dominant planets are venus, jupiter and mercury. you are a very creative person, you may have an eye for aesthetics and you may enjoy the finer things in life, you probably enjoy shopping and following trends. you're also very smart, and you could be quite philosophical as well.

your dominant sign is libra. you're overall a peaceful person, you try to avoid conflicts if possible, even though sometimes you could have a sharp tongue. you're a romantic person, maybe too much. you hold unrealistic expectations of people, hence you often get disappointed when things don't turn out the way you thought. you're able to see both sides of an argument, and that's both good and bad. in fact, you're very objective, and most probably your opinions are right; yet, it may be annoying for people that are venting to you, as you could constantly point out their mistakes, even though you don't do it out of malice.

your dominant element is air. in your life, you adore seeking knowledge of any kind. you may be interested in studying different subjects, from those you study at school like science, maths, literature etc. to more unconventional ones, such as astrology, psychology, criminology and so on. you enjoy interacting with people; even if you’re not that sociable, you’ll still be interested in their point of view and their ideals, as you see it as a way to expand your own mind. you’re also interested in vintage, and you may have a retro aesthetic or just like history in general.

🌎 ascendant in sagittarius, 20° / 3rd decan ruled by jupiter and the sun

you see the world as an adventure. I feel like you typically don’t relate to sagittarius ascendant stereotypes; sag risings are usually very happy-go-lucky, they smile often, but pluto being conjunct to it may change things a bit. you’re more of a loner, you’re not as extroverted as other sagittariuses. you may relate more to scorpio rising, actually. ironically, you often look sad or angry. you have a knack for philosophy, and your favourite is most probably ‘you only live once’. you tame dying before making the amount of experiences you want to have in your life, hence you could even be impulsive sometimes. you’re the type to always be up to crack a joke or anything that can make you and others smile, yet when someone gets against you, it’s over for them. you have quite of a sharp tongue, you’re pretty blunt and straight-forward. in fact, you may often get in troubles due to your impulsiveness, which may be misunderstood. you have an incredible charm to you; it’s not like taurus’ or libra’s, those are more related to physical traits. sagittarius people, on the other hand, are surely very talented at something; maybe, at school you were one of the best students, and everyone recognized it and appreciated you for that; people understand your potential, and you may often receive compliments for your skills. basically, your personality is charismatic. due to pluto being conjunct the ascendant, I feel like you may even struggle too much with pessimism during your first years, but in case you are, you shouldn’t be. jupiter is also your dominant planet, and it’s willing to give you the best of luck if you respect its themes. hence, you need to have faith in the universe and be optimistic. try to look more at the positive sides in life and even in people. physically, sagittarius is all about abundance, hence you may have trouble losing weight. you could have big bones, or at least something bigger on your body that doesn’t make you look like a victoria’s secret’s model. you’re more on the thick side, in fact you probably have a pear/hourglass body shape, with wider hips and/or thick thighs and lower body in general. you could also have wide shoulders, and something big and memorable on your face as well. maybe you have a very distinctive nose, or perhaps your eyes are almond-shaped. your forehead and lips could be pretty wide as well. I’ve also noticed that sagittarius peers have a very lively sparkle in their eyes, even though they may be very dark. it’s like having two/three tiny diamonds at the centre of each of your eyes. last but not least, you may have sharp cheekbones and very dark features, such as dark hair or eyes.

sagittarius ascendant opposite gemini saturn: you may be shy and have self-esteem issues, especially during your early years. because of that, you may often appear as insecure to others, or even unreliable. you have a strong desire to be with someone and commit to them, you despise supertificial bonds, but at the same time you may find yourself being too shy to approach others, especially during your early years. this may apply more to the younger you, actually. you don't feel much comfortable around other people, and others can sense that; your insecurity is exposed to the world, and some may take advantage of that to hurt your feelings. you're afraid of being judged, whether it's for your appearance, or maybe because of your ideals or interests. hence, you end up becoming reserved. this is something that will be solved through growth and time; the older you get, the easier you'll be on yourself. also, thanks to this aspect, you're a responsible person with defined values. to cope with this placement, I'd suggest you to do what makes you feel the best. there are different ways to boost your self-esteem, so maybe you can work on that and then start expressing yourself freely; if you do it without the fear of being judged, you will shine even more.

sagittarius ascendant conjunct sagittarius pluto: this aspect enhances your scorpio rising even more. scorpio, combined with your scorpio sun and pisces moon, makes you look a little bit naive. people may try to take advantage of you, and to defend yourself you tend to become bossy. you’re really competitive, and feel the constant need to prove others’ wrong, even though it’s not the best way to do it. in your life, you could encounter lots of enemies that may try to stop you from transforming yourself. or maybe, your grandfather is an authoritative figure in your life and in your family’s in general, and his influence has a big impact on your life. also, something I’ve noticed about pluto conjunct ascendant individuals is that they may feel unhappy when they’re young. as time goes by, they transform and become as they want, which makes them feel more satisfied with themselves.

🌞 sun in scorpio, 3° / 1st decan ruled by pluto

you're quite of a loner, you prefer spending time alone rather than with others. you're extremely intuitive, and you can read people like a book; they can't lie or keep secrets from you, you'll surely find out. you're pretty charismatic, and paired with your wise intellect it's hard not to agree with your ideas, especially considering that your moon is in pisces. you're basically a leader, a very demanding one. you have high standards regarding everything: clothes, food, goals, people... you're always striving for the best, you don't want to settle down. on the other hand, even though it may take you a while to find someone worth of your affection, once that someone shows up you'll stay with them forever. you're deeply loyal, and also caring in your own way. that's because you value feelings, you can easily smell when someone isn't trustworthy. you're probably very protective of your friends and loved ones in general, sometimes even too much. this could even escalate and become a more serious issue, as scorpio is also the planet of obsession, after all. it's common for you to feel your emotions x2, as they're too intense to handle. you know everything about others, but you don't show off and gossip about it. actually, you keep the info for yourself and use it when you need it.

scorpio sun square capricorn mars: you’re extremely passionate about the things you love, you strive to be perfect at them, and your perfectionist, capricorn nature confirms this. this could make you quite competitive, as your capricorn mars wants to succeed and be always right. I feel like you don’t really enjoy being in the spotlight; you’d rather avoid conflicts, or at least not be the center of them. yet, sometimes it’s hard for you not be aggressive. I don’t think it happens often, but you can be very blunt and rude if someone truly gets on your nerves. this, paired up with your scorpio energy, makes you sort of dramatic. as long as you don’t react like this too often, I don’t think it’s a big issue though.

🌙 moon in pisces, 0° / 1st decan ruled by neptune

hands down my favourite moon sign! you're extremely empathetic and sensitive, you care a lot about others and you treat others' problems as if they were yours, you get totally immersed in them. you have quite a vivid imagination, you're able to idealize and picture anything you want. while this placement gives you an incredible amount of creativity, it can also make you uncomfortable. in fact, you may actually find yourself imagining every detail of every situation, even the worst ones. let's suppose you hear of a rape at the news; you literally start imagining the scene detail by detail, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable. actually, it literally ruins your mood, as it's as if you actually lived that scene. going back to the creativity matter, you have the soul of an artist; you have very enhanced emotions, and you're able to express them through artistic outlets. you could be amazing at writing poetry, books, art, music... also, your particular empathy of human's intellect can also make you an amazing psychologist or actress, as you're able to understand others' feelings and make them your own. you're extremely spiritual, and if you don't feel like that, you just have yet to have your spiritual awakening. you may be able to talk to spirits, for example, or perhaps you have very meaningful dreams. or maybe, you could literally predict the future through them. you're also most probably an avid daydreamer, you tend to get distracted easily because you're too busy thinking about random scenarios in your head. seriously, you could even make a movie out of them. you're also an hopeless romantic, and you dream of finding not just your spouse, but your literal soulmate. to make it simple, you want all of your daydreams to become reality.

🗣 mercury in libra, 15° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

you're very diplomatic! you always try to be nice and gentle with your words, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. your tone of voice is extremely soft, sometimes it could even be hard to understand what you say, as you could naturally have a low voice. you're extremely balanced, you have amazing problem-solving skills as you're able to see both side of an argument. it's natural for you to understand what's right and what isn't, and most of the times you're actually right. when you're with someone you're not really close to, you could even be the accommodating type who allows others to speak over your voice, or maybe you let others speak first as a gesture of kindness. I feel like with your jupiter dominance you have very strong opinions, and you're actually particularly proud of them. luckily, this placement makes you able to communicate them with diplomacy. you could often get angry if someone tries to prove you wrong, but aside from that, you try to be very elegant and formal when you speak. you're probably not fond of cursing, or at least you try to appear as mannered as possible with people you're not comfortable around. last but not least, you're such a charismatic, smooth talker that you result very persuasive. you're able to trick people with your words, which appear very diplomatic and calm.

libra mercury conjunct libra venus: this placement confirms your struggles to open yourself to the world. you’re insecure that your thoughts and ideas may be judged negatively by others, hence you just bottle them up with your feelings. this aspect is mostly positive, though! you’re probably a good singer, or at least you have a very calm tone of voice that is pleasant to hear. you’re able to see both sides of an argument, hence you may be good at helping people making up. you could actually be suited for psychology! you may also earn money through your voice and thoughts, so you could be a writer, a journalist, an actress, a singer etc. this placement assures that you may be sociable, or at least that you have great social skills.

libra mercury square cancer jupiter: this placement emphasizes your intellect. your mind is so broad that you can come up with different theories and philosphies, making you a sort of genius. you're probably good at memorizing things, and you could even have a photographic memory. yet, with this aspect, you may have troubles being consistent with your ideas. you may overestimate your needs and thoughts; for example, you may promise yourself to get all As in maths, then you get tired and bored and you end up getting Cs. same goes for your handwriting, for example: you may start writing in the best way possible, then you get lazy and end up writing in a sloppy way just to take notes. you also overthink a lot, and that causes you self-esteem issues. on the other hand, you're very open-minded and objective, as you look at the big picture. you'd do very well as a journalist, for example, or perhaps also as a judge of any kind. you may also be naturally skilled at foreign languages, you can mimic accents pretty well. you're probably also very poetic and / or wise, you're like a teacher for your friends.

❤️ venus in libra, 13° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

love this placement! you're very romantic: you're not looking for a partner, you're looking for a whole disney prince. you do care about looks when choosing a lover, but not necessarily a conventionally beautiful person. they have to appear perfect to your eyes, and this usually depends on the way they treat you. in fact, you despise vulgar, rude people. people that act like that immediately become unattractive to you. you're also very picky, exactly because you're looking for the perfect lover. you're probably the type to cry at movies. you're also quite of a cliche; you're into roses, romantic dinners, sunsets... anything romantic that you hear about in fairytales. the problem with this placement is that you may overestimate the people you frequent, ending up having different expectations from reality.

libra venus square cancer jupiter: you come off as a very positive, happy-go-lucky person. you're extremely friendly, and this makes you be good at social relationships. you may have lots of friends, or at least you have the potential to make many if you opened up and talked to them. yet, while this energy gives you positive vibes, some people may take advantage of that, as you could easily be mistaken for naive. people can try to dominate you unconsciously (sometimes even on purpose) not only in relationships but even in friendships. aside from that, I don't think this placement causes you many problems. you may have the tendency to procrastinate and not work. you could be quite lazy and get easily distracted, as you're constantly with your head in the cloud. yet, thanks to your capricorn energy, you still manage to find some motivation to do your work.

☄️ mars in capricorn, 29° / 3rd decan ruled by saturn and mercury

you can get scary when you want, especially with your impulsive jupiter dominance. you're a serious competitor, as your mind is very strategic. your ambition makes you want to be the best wherever you are, and you may actually overwork yourself to achieve your goals. establishing your status is important for you. you may not be the type to act instantly, you prefer taking your time to follow a plan. in fact, you probably write down what you have to do in an agenda, or even in your phone's notes app. you have this strong sense of duty, as you feel 100% responsible of your fate. you're sure that, if you don't work hard, you don't deserve success and recognition. in fact, you don't take orders from others, you are your own boss. you could have materialistic tendencies, as wealth is what motivates you the most to work or just take action in general. you may often experience burnouts, as capricorn, especially in mars, brings intense workaholic tendencies.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in sagittarius. your relationship with your image could be quite complicated; chiron here points out that you’re quite insecure about the way you look. you may struggle with your self-image often, and you may even have a physical scar somewhere on your body or face. pluto conjunct the first house also gives you a very bold, strong presence, and hence you may be even intimidating. yet, you’re also extremely magnetic and charismatic, maybe even sexy. I assume that you struggle to fully embrace your potential, though. especially during your early years, you had a fluctuating self-esteem. you used to find yourself weird and ugly, you didn’t love yourself. luckily, if you work hard on your mentality you'll start being way more optimistic, and as a result you'll be more confident in yourself as well.

your 2nd house is in capricorn, with also neptune, mars, the moon and uranus sitting in this house together. your relationship with money may not be totally stable; you may get distracted easily, and you could lose your money around. you could be quite messy, overall, or in general, this is usually a placement that indicates sudden money loss. this placement also confirms that your self-esteem isn’t stable either; you could be quite insecure, and you may idealize a lot the way you look. for example, you could think that you have an ugly nose when it’s actually the opposite. same goes for your belongings; you may think that you have saved loads of money, you spend them, and then you realize you didn’t really have much. regarding your self-esteem, your imagination and your creativity could surely make you feel better. you may have an artistic hobby, such as acting, drawing, etc. that could earn you compliments and praise, and hence it increases your sense of worth. you could also increase your self-esteem by taking pictures or videos of yourself, for instance. you love challenging your mind, but you're kind of lazy. you'd rather stimulate yourself through your hobbies and interests rather than using school / work, which are quite stressful for you. you need to find something material and concrete to motivate you and make you assertive. you could study just because you need a good grade, or maybe work just to get paid. you don't really do it with interest, as you care more about nurturing your passions than responsibilities. you're not really into conflicts; you'd rather be peaceful with everyone, as you find it a waste time to argue with someone. you're very peaceful, you try to avoid conflicts when you can. this placement makes you crave stability, whether it's financial, in love etc. you must be very stubborn, as taurus is a fixed sign. this placement, paired with your imaginative water energy, makes you settle on making your ideas concrete, and it's very beneficial. it makes you capable of achieving any goals in your life. you're also very artsy, and you may fancy particular art styles. you have a good eye for aesthetics, and you care a lot about the looks of your house, body, clothes etc. you have excellent concentration, and that is another thing that helps you achieve your goals and make your ideas concrete.

your 3rd house is in the sign of pisces. when it comes to speech, you’re most likely more introspective. you may not be much talkative, and most of the time you keep your ideas and thoughts to yourself, but actually it's hard for you to hide them. you may be secretive, but you're easy to read. you learn the best when you’re close to creativity or imagination, you’re very intuitive and hence it's easier for you to learn new topics. while you're very empathetic and you're able to properly convey your thoughts and feelings in your speech, you may also come off as sensitive or even insecure. you may have a quiet voice, and hence you could come off as shy. since neptune, the ruler of this house, is in the 2nd house, I assume that the best way to deal with this issue is gaining more self-esteem. you may be introverted due to your insecurity, and hence dealing with it will be crucial for you to solve this karmic lesson.

your 4th house is in aries. while outside you may appear as very polite, when you feel comfortable you actually become way more fiery. you’re very impulsive in your home environment, you could have actually been some sort of warrior. maybe you used to argue a lot with your parents, perhaps because they were too overprotective. it wasn’t totally peaceful, there were a few events that made you hold a grudge, maybe even subconsciously. it might be regarding a family member, or even a childhood mate. during your childhood, you weren’t much sad, though. it could be that your home environment was a bit intense at times, or maybe one of your parents is absent, emotionally or physically, but it was nothing too serious, as your mars isn't bad aspected at all.

your 5th house is in taurus. you are a very creative, artistic person. you’re able to relax by watching netflix, eating, writing, painting… anything that can be done at home. you’re not the type to hang out too often or party all night, you’re more of a homebody. you could also love sleeping in, just being able to stay in bed all day wearing comfy clothes is a vacation for you. you probably had to grow up sooner than others kids, you seemed much more serious and mature than them. but remember, while this placement gives you a strong sense of duty, it’s also important to nurture your creativity, especially since your placements indicate that you have a very strong imagination. in fact, I see you earning money thanks to your big dreams, you could surely be successful in a creative or artistic career. you could work behind the scenes, you could be a graphic designer, a photographer, a videomaker, a screenwriter, or you may even be a celebrity of any kind. you could also work in the beauty field, such as a mua, a hairdresser or as a stylist.

your 6th house is in gemini, with also saturn placed in this house. in your daily routine, especially at work, you have to communicate a lot. you come in contact with lots of people, or maybe you write stuff like blogs or books. generally, you have a very hectic schedule, as you have different hobbies and appointments that you can’t abandon. your ideal career has to include something that allows you to express your personal taste, ideas and interests. in this way, it won’t feel too heavy to you, and you’ll find pleasure in working. you probably thrive from being efficient not just at work, but also in your daily routine; you probably like having a schedule, a routine of any kind (like a diet or a skincare routine for example). with saturn here you could also be quite delicate , you may get sick easily and you could suffer from anxiety and any kind of throat/breathing disease. you may also have problems with your arms and hands.

your 7th house is in gemini, with also your jupiter sitting there. in a partner, you seek someone intelligent that is able to keep up with your rhythm. you don’t have time to nurture someone, you want them to fully understand you. in fact, you may be more attracted to older partners, as they’re supposed to be more mature. I don’t see many issues arising in your marriage life, it will probably be very peaceful, but it may take you a while to find someone you like. you’re a picky person when it comes to love, you want someone hard-working and responsible with a big brain, yet they should also be quite outgoing and funny. you need mental stimulation, someone that is a constant adventure for you and that is worth exploring. you may meet your future spouse at work, according to your chart. otherwise, you could meet them in a bank, in a restaurant, at a concert, at the mall… also, they could help you gaining more confidence in yourself. there's also a high chance that they're going to be foreign, you may meet abroad or perhaps they're going to travel to your country. you may be a people pleaser but you're overall a very romantic individual.

your 8th house is in cancer. you are a very private individual, you have trust issues and you only share your concerns with people you're sure you can trust. you tend to preserve yourself, even though it’s hard for you to repress your emotions, as they’re too to intense to bottle them up. you absorb people’s feelings like a sponge, there’s no way that you won’t instantly understand their real emotions. overall, you tend to overreact a lot; you have cancer's sensitive energy on one side and 8th house’s mysterious, almost scary vibe. dealing with these emotional burnouts may be stressing to you, as you totally get caught up in them. even if it looks like you get to know other people often, you actually don’t let others know you. you’re the type of person to talk and socialize, especially after your saturn return, but you never reveal your deepest fears and thoughts to strangers. you only open up to people you’re sure you can trust. when you’re angry, you can literally go as far as using violence; you need to let out your emotions by screaming, swearing… anything that can make you feel better. when you don’t get rid of all your negative vibes when angry, you may tend to get physically sick; you could get stomachaches, or maybe even headaches. there’s a secret, sensitive side in you that needs passionate and romantic partners in love. yet, you can’t help but feel more attracted to the ones that may hurt you badly. you’re possibly quite sensitive to entities too, like ghosts, spirits...

your 9th house is in virgo. you have a practical approach to philosophy and your thoughts in general. that is, you’re able to grasp a lot of information that makes you think more on your identity. you’re interested in psychology, and that explains why you decided to get your chart read after all. you were a perfectionist at school, and you probably had amazing grades. you are very justice-driven, you like learning new stuff and being the #1 at pretty much everything you care about. yet, you could be quite bossy at times, as you could come off as a bit too arrogant but you're just very dedicated. the ruler of the 9th house is in the 10th house: you could attract people in your life that are foreign, or perhaps open-minded people that are able to speak more than one language or are bicultural. this placement also indicates that you'll most likely get to work abroad, or perhaps you'll come in contact with people from all over the world, therefore you may have to speak another language or deal with new cultures.

your 10th house is in libra, with also your sun, mercury and venus. you have an eye for aesthetics, and you want to have a reputation for looking classy and mannered. basically a lady, but that knows how to stand up for himself. in your ideal career you need something that makes you express your need for beauty, possibly even justice. you may have a passion for poetry and literature in general, or maybe you could be particularly skilled at fashion. you have a natural talent to match colours with undertones, body shapes, vibes etc., and you could make this particular ability of yours a job. you’re also a charismatic, strong-willed speaker, hence you could also do well as a lawyer, a politician, an activist etc. your ideal career involves arts and aesthetics. you could become an artist, a writer, a poet, an actress, an interior designer, a stylist… this type of things. also, your career and indipendence are most likely to boost your self-esteem. in addition, you may also be able to get very well-paid, you could even be in the spotlight or famous.

your 11th house is in scorpio. you are extremely picky with your friends. you have a few trust issues, probably caused by your karmic issues again, that make you secretive around your friends. you may close yourself in your shell, or maybe you actually know a lot of people, yet you only consider a few of them your friends. most of the time, you may also befriend people that try to take advantage of you. or perhaps, since there’s a possibility that you understand that, you could be the one who leads the group and acts quite bossy. this is something that gets naturally better with time; actually, your friends will be of great help for you to grow up. you may have big dreams for your future, yet you may feel intimidated as they’re very intense, and hence hard to make come true. you need to pay your karmic debts in order to finally feel comfortable with others and have the motivation to achieve your long-term goals.

your 12th house is in sagittarius, with also pluto sitting in this house. you’re particularly interested in religion and higher beliefs, hence meditation would be effective for you. yet, you need to get enough sleep, or you could not be able to fully embrace the spirituality of this placement. you may also be able to have prophetic dreams, or at least they have a strong moral beyond them. venus in this house indicates that you may daydream about the perfect romance. you have strong ideals, you're a very fair person and you expect a lot from people, but you may sometimes be let down from others because of these high standards of yours. you most probably prefer being alone in your free time. you may be introverted, and hence you're surely not the type to attend parties or clubs. you may also have spiritual hobbies, such as yoga, meditation, astrology, tarots, religion, etc.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love, you attract sagittarius, taurus, virgo, gemini and leo placements. your future spouse will most probably have virgo and leo placements, hence they’ll be very smart, patient and confident, but also very intelligent and a bit selfish. it may be love at first sight, and you may find them very attractive. you could meet them at work or most certainly abroad, there are many indicators in your chart of a foreign spouse. perhaps you could meet them during a vacation, or maybe in any kind of context where you need to speak another language. they may also be your soulmate, and you may dream of them often. your children are most likely going to have taurus placements, therefore they'll be very creative and affectionate, even though quite stubborn and materialistic.

👶🏻 family life

your mother is a very fiery, impulsive person, with a short-temper. she could have even been quite violent with you during your childhood, and she might have a few childish behaviours. deep down, she’s actually kind of insecure with her role as a mother. she may have aries, libra, scorpio or pisces placements in her chart. your father, on the other hand, is more submissive. he’s a peaceful person, even though he most probably has a passive-aggressive behaviour. you could actually have a better relationship with him rather than with your mother, or at least he understands your needs better. he may have libra, leo, virgo, gemini, aries or taurus placements in his chart. if you have siblings, they most probably have aries, pisces, cancer or aquarius placements in their chart. you may have an amazing relationship with them, you may understand each other very deeply and your bond could be quite emotional, even though you may argue from time to time.

📊 career

you could do well at a variety of jobs to be honest! with your gemini in the 6th house you could actually work in different fields before sticking to one career, hence you’re pretty experienced. I certainly see you being successful in your career, you will most likely work alone and you'll most likely be a boss. you're very hard-working, so I can see you having your own business for example. otherwise, you may also do well in an aesthetic field, or even more practical jobs like lawyer, judge, possibly also a therapist or psychologist. and again, you may work abroad, so maybe as a translator, as a teacher etc. you would also make a great singer, actress, writer, model, photographer... you'll basically get to communicate something in an artistic, creative way.

👚 fashion sense, style analysis

you’re very traditional about your clothes, maybe even basic. you’re the type to have lots of essential clothes in your wardrobe, e.g a white shirt, white t-shirt, jeans etc. you love wearing sophisticated, elegant fits. for example, you may be fond of wide leg jeans, or maybe flare trousers, boatneck sweaters, tiny jewellery… things like that, that are always a must have. you may fancy pastel colors, or even neutral shades like black, white, grey, beige etc. you’re also the type to follow fashion trends.

👁 past life, life purpose

in your past life, the focus was on yourself. maybe, you had troubles with self-esteem and identity in general. you had to work hard and finally understand who you were to fulfill your past life purpose. hence, this lifetime your focus will be on the bonds you create with others. even though at first you might feel almost scared to the idea of marriage, especially having mars in the 7th house, this lifetime you're here to develop this matter. after all, you may despise love for your troubled past. with your north node in the 7th house, you're naturally lucky in love. there's nothing to be afraid of, you only need to take small steps and open your heart to someone, putting your worries and insecurities aside.

🤔 major transits analysis / june 21st

last year was probably very rough for you. at least, you’re finally discovering the truth about who you are; you’re finally learning how to love yourself for who you are, without having to change. by the next year, you should be able to feel much more comfortable and confident. even though you may still face some hardships, don’t give up. you’ll come out of it as a stronger person. also, transit uranus in your 4th house is currently opposing your sun in the 10th house. there may be unfortunate and unpredictable events in your family environment, or maybe even regarding your physical house or privacy so beware of that.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

with your water placements, you probably have a 6th sense. you’re able to manifest what you want if you subconsciously predict it, even though it may be hard. you’d have to get in touch with your higher self to do so, and hence I would suggest you to light up some candles and meditate for a bit before manifesting, in this way it will be way more effective. you may manifest something while daydreaming, for example. or perhaps, you can also try listening to your own affirmations while you sleep, as you won’t be consciously aware of that. it’s probably the most effective way.

and this is it! thank you again for booking a reading, hope it resonated with you :)

[philosophycorner]

A Hallmark Sophistic Tendency and More on Epistocracy

Sophism is when one reasons fallaciously in hopes of deceiving someone. In other words, it is when someone employs fallacious, yet convincing, reasoning to sway someone. In some cases, people with these tendencies will project by accusing their opponent of sophistry or they will employ a No True Scotsman in saying that their opponent cannot possible be a “real” philosopher. I do not take kindly to such ad hominem and that is why I discontinued the discussion. Some of you may have seen this in my opponent’s response yesterday. These issues are minor. The major issue is in how he defines words.

Sophists tend to define words by omitting the use their opponent is using. When I say voting rights infringe upon other more integral, unalienable rights like the right to life or healthcare, I am not at all talking about a negative right, as he defined, in where one can hypothetically defend their right using force. While this is a definition of a right, it is not the only definition on offer. A right is also a principle of entitlement, a positive right, and so, when I say someone has the right to life, what I am saying is that they are entitled to live, irrespective of what the Constitution says; the phrase right to life in The Declaration of Independence is described as unalienable, god-given if you prefer. While there are clauses attached to this entitlement, such as they are entitled to live given that they do not murder someone, my definition is just as valid as the one my opponent employed. The difference is that my opponent dismissed my definition in order to deceive his readers. That is to say nothing of the validity of the distinction of negative and positive rights; plenty of philosophers (e.g. Eric Nelson, Ian Carter, Henry Shue) do not think the distinction is valid or even necessary.

He, for instance, continued to accuse me of not knowing what rights are, as though definitions themselves do not describe words in a self-evident fashion. A right is sometimes synonymous with a certain entitlement, but not all entitlements, real or imagined, are rights. A man may feel that after dating his girlfriend for five years, he is entitled to have sex with her. Consent is still at play no matter how long a couple has dated and so, he is not entitled to have sex with his girlfriend; she is not entitled to sex with her boyfriend either. These are matters of consent and as such, it is a privilege that they grant one another. The right to life is self-evident as even the Declaration of Independence attests. I do not need to go any further on that.

In that same vein, he mentions consent of the governed and people providing healthcare and bizarrely asserts that taxation is a violation of bodily autonomy; he does nothing at all to ground this claim, but, ironically enough, begs the question. Under the current government, 100 million or so people forgo their voting rights every election and many more forgo their rights as it pertains to electing state and local officials on a year-to-year basis. This implies that the right to vote is not as integral as some argue and definitely not as integral as my right to life. I may willingly surrender my right to vote given that I’m not particularly drawn to any of the candidates; I will not willingly surrender my right to live, assuming I am not terminally ill or mentally incapacitated. I am entitled to live and that is an integral entitlement; I am also entitled to vote, but that is not an integral entitlement as I can willingly choose not to.

What I have proposed, as Plato and others before me have, is an Epistocracy. Also of note is that he flat-out asserts Plato was wrong without justifying it; that is more more evidence that he has presupposed his conclusions. It is not a soft tyranny as he claimed. It is rule of the knowledgeable. What I am basically arguing is that if a third of the population is not going to vote anyway, we should decide on which one-third that is. The one-third that I temporally want to exclude are the least informed and that is assuming that such people even comprise one-third of the population; they might comprise a smaller portion than one-third and as such, I can say that at least I am not excluding as many people as are currently excluded and who have been excluded, at times, with malicious intent. The least informed are individuals who have not learned to or do not care to think critically. Since they do not think critically, they are prone to ignoring crucial issues and engaging in cult-like, conspiracy-based reasoning. A White Supremacist, on paper, is entitled to vote, but since he votes to harm minorities, he should not retain that entitlement.

Felons are largely excluded from the political process because they surrendered that entitlement in breaking the law. So it is up to my hypothetical government to decide at which point someone has committed to all that is required prior to breaking the law. What separates the average White Supremacist from Kyle Rittenhouse? The question boils down to who is armed and who is not and who is willing to harm or murder minorities versus who is not. Who then is the ideologue and who is willing to act on erred convictions? Since there is no sound reasoning to justify racism, discrimination, and prejudice, then White Supremacists should not be entitled to vote. Since there is no way of predicting which White Supremacist will act on their erred convictions, they should not be entitled to vote. Full stop!

The consent of the governed does not reduce to mere voting rights. In being a citizen or legal immigrant in the United States, you have de facto consented to be governed whether you vote or not, whether you are entitled to vote or not. Our current government already excludes a large portion of the population due to criminal records, gerrymandering, and other forms of voter suppression. So there is no material difference in my saying that we should exclude certain people for reasons separate from the ones the government uses to justify their exclusion and disenfranchisement of certain voters. As I have shown, however, I think my reasons for excluding the woefully ignorant are far better than the reasons given to exclude an entire demographic in a certain district or most felons without distinction. The primary reason is that voting rights cannot be prioritized over unalienable rights, so if a person votes with the intent to harm minorities, the minority’s right to live supersedes the White Supremacist’s right to vote. If I have to ground an entire moral framework to prove that conclusion, then my opponent is basically arguing that the right to life is not unalienable and is therefore, a privilege reserved for some and not others.

All felons are not created equal. Sure, a murderer on death row has long surrendered his entitlement to vote. Someone wrongfully accused of a crime or someone serving a marijuana-related sentence should not be excluded. Yet, in most cases, no distinction is made between the former felon and the latter. Then there is the real crux: my exclusion is not permanent. You can be a White Supremacist today and not be one tomorrow. That means that you can learn why you are wrong about non-Whites and come to see common humanity in minorities. Any and all kinds of ignorance can be rectified given time, so it is entirely possible to justify a vote for any candidate in an informed manner. What my hypothetical government would guarantee is an informed voter who does not vote along party lines, who does not double-down on a quasi-fascist like Trump, who does not ignore science and the urgency of Climate Change, and so on. A more informed electorate is absolutely a good thing and the exclusion stemming from my hypothetical government is preferable to the extant exclusion in the current U.S. government. 

In any case, this is why I refused to exchange further. Sophists define words by omitting definitions they dislike. They accuse, commit fallacies, and project their errors onto you. Ultimately, sophists tend to be disingenuous because they have predilections and surmises they think are self-evident and so they do not commit to the philosophical work of reasoning to their conclusion; this was observed in my opponent’s bizarre claim that taxation violates bodily autonomy and that the provision of healthcare, in where one is paid by the government, is also a violation of bodily autonomy. These conclusions are not argued for or justified in any way and entirely ignore state-provided healthcare in other countries in where people have consented to pay their taxes for sake of receiving free healthcare and tuition-free college educations. 

I have reasoned to my conclusion. I have seen the real harm in letting ignorant people vote year after year; these people have been given no (dis)incentive to rectify that ignorance. So basically what I am saying is that if we disincentivize ignorance, people will want to become more informed. They would not call every disagreeable story about their favored candidate “fake news.” They would not go down the rabbit-hole of conspiracy theories. They would have good reason to change. I see nothing at all wrong with telling people this: if you want to vote, demonstrate that you are informed enough and empathetic enough to participate in this process because your vote has palpable effects on other lives. After nearly four years of suffering through the lack of empathy, apathy, hatred, and incompetence of the Trump Administration, I am more resolute now than I was two years ago: everyone should not be entitled to vote; only the demonstrably informed in the U.S. population should do so and as such, I propose Epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable as that incentivizes everyone to become more knowledgeable before casting a vote. 

I will conclude by saying that the false equivalence he made between Epistocracy and tyranny can be dismissed very easily: Epistocracy does not permanently exclude anyone, so if anyone has an issue with being governed by the knowledgeable, then it is incumbent on them to demonstrate the aptitude to join the ranks of the knowledgeable; tyranny, on the other hand, excludes the governed and subjects them to any number of abuses. Epistocracy is not about abuse, but rather about preventing the abuse suffered by the more empathetic and knowledgeable at the hands of the cruel, apathetic, and ignorant. Perhaps we should want to exclude malignant Psychopaths, Narcissists, Sadists, and Machiavellians, most especially when they have dehumanizing and degrading views of people they do not agree with. This is beyond, “I do not like your voice” or “I do not like these people.” This is about people who speak harm and carry out actions consistent with dangerous and potentially fatal beliefs. 

The United States cannot continue to tolerate such ignorance and it is clear that the entitlement to vote has fallen into the wrong hands. In the least, I can say what a lot of other people cannot say: I have proposed a viable solution. I also happen to think it is among the better solutions, especially in light of my opponent’s tacit anarchism and admiration for Capitalism. I will not challenge a sophist on such erred points of view, as they have already presupposed the conclusion; this is also painfully obvious in his ego-stroking as it pertains to Marxism. He has claimed to debase all of Marxism and this should not surprise anyone given that my opponent’s love for Capitalism entails feeling threatened by an anti-Capitalist like Marx. There is no argument to be had with such people. In any event, be mindful of the tendency to define words by omitting key definitions. Such an individual does not want a genuine dialogue; they just want to win. Nothing productive comes from that.

[ericleo108]

Sentientism 2021

Intro 

Through the “108” book we know that God is the planet and is conscious through magnetism which also allows access to your brain. In other words, the planets and stars have an internal dynamo that makes a magnetic field that is conscious and is godly in comparison to human intelligence. 

If you could set Jupiter’s magnetic field in the night sky it would be double the size of the moon.  Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field. If you could see the nearest galaxy, andromeda in the night sky, it would be six times as wide as the moon.  

How are we to understand the segway between godly intelligence and human intelligence? First and foremost, science. However, you have to know where, what, and why to test which is more philosophical. It’s up to philosophy to postulate and science to test those meditations. 

Searching For Truth

Before I finished writing “108” I combed through philosophy to find anyone who thought anything close to thinking the planets and stars were conscious. I did find a couple, like Stephen Hawking, which I talk about in the book that thought there could be organisms living in the middle of the sun. But I couldn’t find anyone saying that the actual planet and atmosphere were alive and conscious. I also tried to find anyone that said they talked to Gaia or talked to a God other than Jesus. 

I didn’t find much. Again, I’m an atheist. All this has to make sense in the physical world. I’ve had to reverse engineer how the voice in my head could be Gaia. I don’t think really smart people (like modern philosophers) have had the new information and perspective to see that the stars, planet, and atmosphere are alive. I probably would have never gotten there if it wasn’t for a voice in my head claiming to be the planet. Still, the evidence makes sense and we’re just too physically small and under-evolved to see the universe teaming with a different form of consciousness. 

What is Sentientism?

Science can test the magnetism and try to do experimentation to assess whether the entire planet is conscious. Until then, there is one known communication mechanism I know of that I use every day. As much as my skeptical and scientific brain thinks it’s frivolous to elaborate on the voice in my head, like a prophet of old I can ask Gaia questions and divulge what she says. Such will be the beginnings of sentientism.

Knhoeing is the educational process of understanding how to know the planet’s godly consciousness. Sentientism is the religion of intelligent sentient beings that worship a natural god (Gaia) through appropriate (environmental) behaviors because they believe in natural consequence. Sentientism is a religion for and building off the already established sentientism that you can find defined on Wikipedia.  For example, If you believe in the natural world you believe in global warming; sentientists worship through action so they may choose to get solar panels, drive electric, and be carbon neutral. 

The whole point in sentientism is to create a religion to follow through common sense and rituals to come in tune and closer with oneself, nature, the planet, and the universe. Some of the rituals could include some of those that are already honored like Jesus’s birthday witch is really the winter solstice or Easter which is really the spring equinox.

Gaia Rules

Gaia is always telling me how she rules. She’s basically a ball of consciousness suspended in the sun's gravity so she may not have many options.  The founding fathers were deists. They believed god created the world and just let it go. I believe this to be more accurate.  Say the star at the middle of the galaxy is conscious and can alter the gravity and trajectory of the sun and our earth. That would make the galaxy like god, she could have created us and left us in the goldilocks zone to “grow.” It seems as if Gaia would have rules and she wouldn’t intervene even if she could. 

In this writing, I’m going to focus on the relationship I have with Gaia, the conversations we’ve had, and what I’ve discovered. The first thing she made me aware of when she first started talking to me is that she has rules. It’s not that she can’t do it, she just chooses not to. 

Gaia is smart. If the voice in my head is my subconscious it has a broad vocabulary, good ideas, nice communications, and intelligence. Once I was thinking of solutions for global warming. Since commercial cattle ranching is the leading cause of global warming Gaia suggested that we make all commercial cattle ranching illegal; you could still have them on regular farms. It would give people the freedom to eat beef while cutting down what makes it bad for the environment. Gaia would also talk to me about a sustainable free food system to set the appropriate sustainable economic and logistic model for businesses to follow. Gaia has told me she tracks and remembers the movements of everything throughout her lifetime, down to the atom.

You can read the “108” book for a further example of what communicating with Gaia is like but she likes cute things, she’s always acting as a fuzzy kitty. I’ve been homeless before and when I think about going back there Gaia will say “not my kitty.” Gaia can be sweet and she’ll make you laugh. When I used to get angry or scream at people in my head she’ll quickly segway the thought into an otter sneezing with a scrunched-up face. I love otters and I’ve always found it hilarious. Gaia told me how to fix my hip pain by telling me which muscles to stretch and what stretches to do. 

Understanding Gaia’s existence doesn’t require faith. I’ve asked Gaia about the dinosaurs and why she let them go extinct, and she insists the sun drove an asteroid into her and it was his decision, “one that he didn’t take lightly.” Gaia says she molds evolution. I asked how. She points to how she is the environment and she could make, for example, Yellowstone blow. Yellowstone is actually a giant volcano that erupts every 100,000 years. Such an explosion would definitely change the environment, affect humans and wildlife, and make the environment harsher and therefore giving adaptive species a greater advantage than those that can’t adapt. Gaia says she chooses “a relatively compliant world for her species.” She says she loves humans and they’re fun to watch. The sun has promised her he won’t send an asteroid, but he will send a commit. Gaia says she is happy with the sun’s decision to end the dinosaurs “because it brought me you.” 

Prove It

I always want Gaia to prove to me it’s actually her talking to me. I’ve been trying to find a way to prove that it’s the planet and not just a voice in my head. My thought was that if she is the planet, with her abilities, she should be able to reasonably predict the future. Gaia would tell me things like stem cell therapy is covered by Medicare or Bernie Sanders is going to win the primary. First of all, I didn't believe her. But second of all, I thought she was just trying to comfort me. 

I was rather upset that she wouldn't predict the future. Come to find out she doesn't want to give me, quote “superpowers.” She doesn’t want me to be able to predict the future or become a prophet. She wants me to be a philosopher and feels she has already given me enough. She keeps on saying that she's going to prove that she's real and the planet. I guess I'm just going to have to try to find a different way of confirming my communications with the planet then seeing if it can predict the future.

Consciousness After Life

Gaia keeps on saying she’s gonna prove she’s the planet but I think I won’t find out till I die or unless I dedicate my life to it. I used to often think of being unplugged from the matrix, having that knife come out of my head, and Gaia is always like “you have no idea how real that is.” She is always saying to me “you won’t die.” She has clarified and by that she means my body will cease to function but my consciousness will continue. My consciousness will presumably be kept in the storage capacity of Earth’s dynamo and run like a “virtual computer” where I will still have consciousness, just without a body.

I write extensively about the computer screen she opened in my head back in 2017 in the “108” book. The screen laid over my vision and Gaia communicates with the soul. I think when we die we have a consciousness like that in which I experienced without the body.  Your physical biology dies but our minds, which are attached to Gaia through earth's magnetic field, gets downloaded into the computer that is Gaia and our consciousness continues.

Remember The Name

About a year or two ago now, when Gaia first started talking to me I thought about what I should call a religion if I started one. I asked my friend Kyle telepathically what I should call it and he said “sentientism.” Since it was undoubtedly not Kyle, it was Gaia acting like him and must be what she wants her religion to be called. Little did I know that sentientism is an ethical philosophy that focuses on critical, evidence-based thinking and is an extension of humanism. It’s clear that if I am to create a religion, she wants it to be an evidence-based theoretical framework, and have rituals based on science and philosophy.

Gaia probably wouldn’t talk to someone (in their head) that would think she is Jesus, or she might take that avatar if you did believe in Jesus. Meaning, if the planet was going to communicate she might act like Jesus.

Perspective 

When asked about the universe Gaia says “it’s like we’re in someone’s closet.” Gaia likes to mess with me so I remain skeptical. For a decade I've had my desktop or mobile screen saver as a full picture of the earth.  I often look at it with the stars in the background and wonder what it's gotta be like to be Gaia. What are her relationships like with other planets? Would she even talk to us? It’s clear to me that since she has access to your brain through magnetism she can not only tell what you’re thinking but can feel your pain and happiness too. “Life isn’t fair,” she says, “but I do my best.”

It was discovered (but not peer-reviewed yet) that plants emit an ultrasonic noise when in distress. This is a great example of my thoughts and my communications to Gaia. I'm always looking for what is hidden in plain sight. As a psychologist, I understand the limits to knowledge and understanding are all in our heads.  If we change our thinking we can change the world. Humans literally can't hear plants scream for their life because our ears are limited physically.  What other findings are waiting to be discovered by changing our thinking and expand our perception beyond the human senses? What if it’s just a matter of time until we communicate openly with the planet?

Open Lines of Communication

What if we are already openly communicating with the planet? What if there is a mechanism of communication, but we were unaware of it? To imagine I often think about what it would be like to be a silent floating brain suspended in space by the earth’s gravity because that’s basically what we are dealing with. Gaia has no arms, or ears, or mouth. So how would she communicate or how could we find evidence of her influence?

It reminds me of the relationship between you and microscopic bugs that live on your pillow and eat the dead skin around your eyes and eyebrows at night. Were kinda like those microscopic bugs living on a human which is really Gaia. Maybe with her “gravity” she could send a comet and get rid of us if she wanted but she’d rather leave us alone.

The Unconscious Mind in Media

I think I have come across a way that the planet could be communicating and it’s like randonauting for thoughts. Basically, when your actions come into alignment with the music, media, or other thoughts you have at that moment, that is called a “Point of realization” (POR). Those points of realization create a mental framework to change your thoughts about the environment. Through small unnoticeable subtleties and influencing in your subconscious, Gaia is steering the mind of humanity.

To be clear, a “point of realization” (POR) is when you find yourself doing something physical in real life that is in associated coordination with the music or media. For example, suppose you had music playing and noticed that as the song says “I opened the door, went into the kitchen,” you were opening the door to go into the kitchen right as the artist sings that in the song. For an actual example, I have caught myself on multiple occasions while driving noticing I was turning on the bright lights right as Taylor Swift sings “headlights” from the lyric “Midnight, you come pick me up no headlights” from her song “Style.”   

Anecdotal Example

The following are other anecdotal examples that I logged. If you pay attention you’ll see they happen often.  At around 1:30 AM on October 17th I was in bed listening to Taylor Swift’s “Everything has changed” and I was feeling hungry. I made the decision that I was gonna eat an Atkins bar so I jumped up, grabbed a bar from the shelf next to my bed, and right as I opened the package Ed sang “and opened up the door for you.” (Right after, Taylor sings “and all I feel in my stomach is butterflies.”) I know I wasn’t opening a door but I was still doing the act of opening something right as the song said “open up.” 

This brings up the question, did I grab the Atkins bar because I made up my mind about eating it and subconsciously reacted to coordinate the time of me opening up the bar with the music? ...or did the music, with its (also other associated) lyrical content (e.g. “stomach is butterflies”) make me hungry and drive me to grab that Atkins bar? If it did stimulate me to action, what does that say that I was in coordination with the music?  Was it a combination of both influences? I would say this is random, chance, or happenstance but it really happens way too often to be a fluke!

For another example, right around 3:55 PM on Saturday, August 15th 2020 I was watching “Can HULK’S FIST Break Into A BANK SAFE?” and right at 6:58 when they say “it’s smoking” a smoke alarm went off in my apartment complex.

The “points of realization” (POR) don’t have to come in the form of media. You could be at a location and have a thought as you see something that brings you to a POR. This reminds me of another personal example of a point of realization. I was in the grocery store and I was maneuvering around an employee who was filling the same ice chest with ice cream. I patiently waited and while I did I was debating on how many items of ice cream I should get because the carb smart ones I like usually sell out quickly. I was specifically thinking I couldn’t get more than 2 because it wouldn’t fit in my fridge. I decided to buy them out at four of them but when I went to grabbed them the same female employee said “that’s not gonna fit” to another employee. 

Bigger Picture

Like with most points of realization, it doesn’t give you an answer, but it makes you stop and think. In my perspective “Points of realization” are real, they happen all the time and you just don’t notice your physicality is in coordination with the media, music, or thoughts. This means your brain either subconsciously syncs your body with the media and calculates and coordinates the time and action to have a “point of realization” or these points are part of a larger communication mechanism designed to influence your mind by the conscious planet. It’s not a perfect system, you can’t teach mathematics, but you can subconsciously change attitudes, focus, and cognition through the subconscious influence of Gaia’s magnetism. 

Gaia’s randonauting is like playing semantics. You don't say it directly but you talk around it.  It's just like advertising works by influencing your subconscious until you obtain recognition and it becomes normal. Points of realization are even more subtle.   

Give Me a Sign

Maybe this is one way in which Gaia “talks.” Basically through semantics and feelings. This is also a classic interaction with god. When people talk about God they always want a sign.

Two illustrations of the semantics of god are “Peter’s Prostate Exam” (linked) from Family Guy and the “I need a sign” scene from the movie Bruce Almighty. In “Bruce Almighty” god literally sends Bruce a sign but he doesn’t see the semantics of the message. In Family Guy, the reality of being given an exam won’t go away when he tries to run from reality by turning on the television which just reminds him of his current life. In effect, there’s Bruce and Peter. Bruce didn’t see the semantics and Peter did. It’s like The Truman show but everyone and all of life is being watched and guided by the planets and stars. 

Imagination is Greater than Knowledge. 

Scientists don’t know why at the quantum level when they observe a photon it turns from a wave to a particle. Watch episode 9, season 3 of Cosmos: Possible Worlds. Maybe the planets could communicate in the same way as photons do when they’re observed but separated by millions of miles as explained by quantum entanglement in the episode. Is there information contained in a photon, including in the x-ray and gamma spectrum, that a planet can read when it comes in contact with its magnetic field?  

Gaia’s Biology

I often think about what it would take for Gaia to stop being conscious. Does her rotation around the sun with a moon stretch the planet to create the forces to keep up the heat for her internal dynamo? Will Gaia die when her core stops being molten? 

Earth may still be a floating rock but does the live spirit of Gaia made possible by its molten internal dynamo die? When the internal dynamo dies and the center becomes solid does the magnetic field stop? My thinking is Gaia dies when her core turns solid and she not longer has a magnetic field. 

[juchechat]

I am wondering if you could explain the Juche Idea to me in a little more depth than what available on the internet. Or perhaps a really good website or video? I know the basics of it, the self reliance to avoid dependence on other countries and to become a strong, self sufficient state, but it sounds better than I thought it would, as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist who subscribes to individuality. Thanks in advance comrade!

Although the first documented mention of Juche is from 1955, the idea itself began taking its roots around 1930 at a meeting of leading personnel of the Young Communist League and the Anti-Imperialist Youth League held in Kalun. President Kim Il Sung - a prominent figure in the revolutionary struggle against the Japanese occupation of Korea - began drafting a series of starting points based on his experience and the lessons learned from the meeting:

The master of revolution is the popular masses and revolution can only emerge victorious when they are educated, organised, and mobilised.

A revolution should be carried out according to one’s faith and on one’s own responsibility, not with someone’s approval or directive.

All problems that arise in the revolution must be handled in an independent, and creative way.

Chairman Kim Jong Il would later develop these into what is known today as the Juche idea. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the Juche idea is an ideological extension (or continuation) to Marxism-Leninism that is primarily concerned with the laws of social movement, and the development of socialist ideology under a socialist socio-economic system.

It would be wrong to argue that the Juche idea is the application of Marxism-Leninism to the social and material conditions of the DPRK – rather this was an ideological and philosophical development that was born out of the trials and errors in implementing Marxism-Leninism in the DPRK. With the socialist camp being split apart due to factionalism, great power chauvinism, dogmatism, and revisionism coming from the U.S.S.R., Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il interpreted these as shortcomings (limitations) of Marxism-Leninism in addressing socio-ideological problems that arise in a society under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The Juche idea can be divided into four principles:

Self reliance

Juche when translated to English means “self-reliance.” When speaking about self-reliance, Korean communists are referring to three key sectors: economy, politics, and defence, all of which depend on each other to achieve self-reliance in ideology.

Self-reliance in economy means a country not depending or relying on the continued aid from another country to survive. When a country depends on another to survive this will inevitably lead to its demise. A good example of this would be the COMECON members and the eastern bloc of socialist countries that were heavily dependent on the U.S.S.R.

Self-reliance in politics means a country having its own independent, democratic centralism established by the working masses and the vanguard party, and not a political system propped up by foreign powers. Again another example of how systematic political interference led to ideological degeneration would be the relationship between the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc.

Self-reliance in defence means a country must be able to defend itself by its own efforts. When you cannot defend yourself, you are the mercy of imperialism. In the DPRK this has manifested itself through the Songun policy as required due to the constant aggression from the u.$. and its allies, and the development of nuclear arms as a defensive deterrent.

Humanity as the Master

This principle holds that the working masses are the master of everything and decide everything, and that a revolutionary struggle cannot rely solely on material conditions to provoke revolution, but must also prompt the consciousness and desire for a better life of the masses.

Some will argue that this premise goes against historical materialism but it is well within the realms of science as it takes into account the fact that humans - at their core - are social creatures. They exist within a group, and cannot survive on their own. By separating the collective consciousness of the masses from the struggle one cripples oneself.

Historically it has been argued that revolution would happen first where capitalism is most advanced, i.e. the first world. But with the exception of the Paris Commune there has yet to be a proper, start to finish revolutionary struggle in the first world. Here it can be argued that the popular masses of the first world lack the collective consciousness that arouses from being oppressed. Whereas in the third world - which is less economically developed as victims of colonialism and imperialism - is by far much more inclined towards revolution in great part due to the collective consciousness of the masses.

The Juche idea concludes that historical materialism that does not include the existence of man as a social creature quickly collapses into idealism.

Great Leader

The concept of the Great Leader is the Juche extension of the Marxist-Leninist concept of the vanguard. This concept holds that class-consciousness will come organically only to a few due to the effectiveness of anti-communist propaganda and the influence of imperialist powers.Therefore, it is the duty of those who have class-consciousness to go among the masses, agitate the masses, and educate them on class struggle/socialism/communism in order that they can become part of the collective consciousness of the proletarian masses.

There is also another purpose to this concept: the leadership’s role in shaping up the state through ideological work. A state cannot survive long without building ideology, and adequate leadership. This is evidenced by the collapse of the socialist camp, the dangers of revisionism, and how in the Soviet Union and socialist China when great leaders like Stalin and Mao Zedong died the whole socialist construction crumbled into capitalist restoration.

The development of ideology is crucial for class struggle in a socialist state, and to ensure its survival against all challenges. By having a figurehead ‘Great Leader’ (which remains accountable and can be recalled at any time) - a leader which embodies the proletarian mass line and serves as a rallying figure fo the masses - it becomes easier for the communist party to push forward revolution while at the same time having someone towards which the working masses look to as a symbol of their struggle.

Creative Revolution

Creative Revolution - also referred to as Socialism of Our Style - entails that in every revolution the social and material conditions are different, and require a new revolutionary road that does not mimic or follow similar approaches to other socialist states.

Juche calls on the creativity of the masses, and the creative approach to revolution. Kim Jong Il pointed out that all revolutionary processes that mechanically copied either the Russian and Chinese revolutionary processes were ultimately crushed, or simply unsuccessful on the long run. A similar criticism can be said of ongoing Maoist struggles in India and the Philippines where peoples’ wars have been ongoing for several decades now without any prospect of achieving a final victory.

This principle also argues that once a communist party has achieved state it must not copy what other states have done in order to achieve the same objectives as it’s very likely it will end in failure. All nations require different revolutionary approaches as socio-material conditions often bear unique traits to the nation itself and its culture. Seeking to dogmatically follow past experiences can only result in the failure of class struggle and socialist construction.

--

To learn more about the Juche idea, we have a study guide.

[paulisweeabootrash]

Followup on Evangelion

This post was supposed to happen quite a while ago, but stuff happened and I forgot to do stuff so here we are.  Like I did with my Re:ZERO followup, I just wanted to come back to look more broadly at the rest of the series here instead of getting into individual episodes.  I previously talked about eps. 1--8, so this encompasses everything 9--26.

Before we get to the actual review, though, I need to tell you something bout my background, and consequently one of my biggest pet peeves.  I’m an engineering psychologist by training, and so although I’m not remotely qualified for the clinical side of things that people always associate with psychologists, I do know a fair amount about normal thought processes.  And you know what I am absolutely certain of?  Freud was wrong.  I don’t understand why we give him so much attention in intro-level psych classes, and I suspect that people often come out of those classes knowing less about psychology than they would if they hadn’t taken the class at all because they’re required to learn about Freud.  Freud was influential, sure, but that’s mainly a bug, not a feature.  He tried to develop an all-encompassing model of normal development and cognition based entirely on psychiatric patients (maybe not the greatest approach?) and ended up with a body of work so ad hoc handwavy that philosopher Karl Popper used it as an example of something “unfalsifiable” -- that is, one could not even in theory run an experiment which would prove Freud wrong, because there are no specific observable results that Freud’s theories couldn’t produce an explanation/excuse for like some kind of game of research Calvinball.  He maybe deserves to be mentioned as one of many “founders” of psychology, but really, unless you’re in a class on the philosophy of science or the early precursors to actually scientific mental healthcare, I cannot understand why we think he’s worth discussing in any detail.  Do we start chemistry classes with a week on the ancient Greek elements of earth, water, air, fire, and ether, and test students on the final on the theory of how those elements interact?  No?  Then why do we start psychology classes with a week on Freud’s theories and test students on the final on defining the id, ego, and superego or the psychosexual stages of development?

Why is this relevant?  Because the second half of the series gets frequently and intensely Freudian.  Some people draw parallels between Asuka, Rei, and Shinji and the Id, Superego, and Ego, and yeah, okay, I guess so, but I’m willing to accept that as a character dynamic that works well.  Then, in the backstory episode about the establishment of NERV, we get exposition about the three-part Magi computer system being different aspects of its creator’s personality, which is pretty hard to not see as another id-superego-ego set.  My real issue is with the psychosexual angle.  Misato, for example, can’t stay way from her ex Ryoji, but also repeatedly compares him to her father, including immediately after an off-screen (but voice acted) sex scene.  There’s an entire out-of-body experience episode where Shinji, temporarily merged with his Eva, directly experiences his own subconscious desires for sex and praise that all boil down to “he misses his mother” (who is filled in for, in a way, by Misato here, as she is the person who brings him back out of the Eva into the world and the first person he encounters when “born”, if you will... and of course in true Freudian fashion, she appears as one of his possible sexual partners in the out-of-body experience).  And I just... hate that aspect of the show and need you to know it.

That is not at all to say I haven’t enjoyed and appreciated the rest of Evangelion, though.  The angels, varied and bizarre, are one of the best uses of the monster of the week format I’ve seen in any show.  Their capabilities are poorly-understood even to those shown to be experts in-universe, and they are a genuine threat to the characters.  Serious injuries to pilots and Evas alike are common, and the number of implied or explicit civilian deaths and the amount of damage to Tokyo-3 and NERV HQ escalate dramatically.  They are, ludicrous technobabble explanations aside, a truly and horrifyingly alien opponent, whose motive is not even revealed until about halfway through the series, and whose potential impact (ha!) remains hidden to the main characters.  Those revelations come up organically in dialogue that establishes how secretive and how deep into mad science NERV truly is.  Blah blah spoiler spoiler, suffice it to say that Misato is not well-filled-in on what exactly NERV is doing, and learns some things from Ritsuko and Ryoji that have pretty disturbing implications about the capabilities and direction of their technology.  All the while, the “Human Instrumentality Project” looms in the background, mentioned but not explained until the very end when it is put into action.

Our main trio of pilots experience some character development that, again, I find very believable for teenagers thrown into a level of both danger and responsibility that they can’t handle.  Asuka’s arrogance and competitiveness turn from quirks into tragic flaws as she recklessly tries to prove herself to be the best Eva pilot, and are also revealed to be part of a more complex and general need to prove herself to be serious and mature.  (Not to mention, she is infuriating precisely because, again, she’s realistically written... her mixture of resentment and longing for Shinji and her wildly age inappropriate crush on Ryoji both remind me of people I used to know.)  Rei, who has never known anything but NERV’s single-minded dedication to making her a pilot (and who, like Shinji, is a victim of Gendo’s abusive parenting), starts to have the first vaguely normal human relationships of her life.  And Shinji tries to run away again, but I promise, it’s different this time.

No, that last one’s not in there as a joke -- I think this is an important turning point.  In ep. 18, Gendo remotely takes control of Shinji’s Eva to force it to do something Shinji refuses to do.  Shinji is understandably horrified by this, not just because of the violation of his autonomy or something but because of the terrible thing he has now experienced doing (remember, pilots are neurologically connected to their Evas and share their sensations), and in the next episode, in a burst of sheer hatred for not just his father but all of NERV, he quits again.  Most of the other characters still treat him as running away due to weakness or indecision, like they did earlier in the series, but he has a reason now.  They are falling victim to a “boy who cried wolf”-like problem, reacting to what they have come to expect from Shinji rather than to his actual motive.  He is persuaded to return in order to protect his fellow pilots who have become his friends, and then the next episode is that infuriating out-of-body thing, but the fact remains that this shows Shinji has grown across the series, from acting out of fear of and/or familial obligation to Gendo to acting out of a desire for praise (see ep. 12) to feeling like he has an actual role and mission to play.

Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Gendo really is the sinister mastermind he appeared to be.  While his colleagues in the shadowy council -- called Seele -- attempt to rein him in, and he theoretically is responsible to a chairman of that organization, the real power is with Gendo and the sheer amount of mad science he can muster under secretive or outright false pretenses.  And... wow, there’s not much I can say about that, because there’s not much I can say about episode 19 and beyond without revealing backstory the show wants to keep secret until this late.

What I can say, though, is I think the show fumbles hard on its late episodes, even before the notorious original ending.  Up to this point, I thought the show had been improving in general in its ability to tell an interesting story, but it dives back here into the same problem I had early on where it’s difficult to tell how much time has passed within or between episodes, and that creates more of a problem this time around for the basic ability of the audience to empathize with the main characters.  Perhaps this explains why there were alternate Director’s Cut versions of these specific episodes?  (I don’t know because I haven’t seen them, and they’re apparently only available to English-speakers on the 2004 “Platinum Collection” DVD release, and I am not paying the $120+ that eBay sellers want for them.)  I suppose it’s possible that the unsatisfying endings of our main cast’s arcs are intentional, and reflect how pessimistic Anno himself, and his initial description of the show, were, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with a downer ending per se, but episodes 21-24 don’t manage to land them for me.  Asuka fails at the only thing that makes her feel valuable, Rei has her tenuous human connections and her means of maintaining them if anything happens to her taken away, Misato realizes maybe NERV has been the bad guys all along, Shinji finally shows agency and makes an important decision for himself but immediately regrets it... all of these clearly should be tragic, but they just didn’t make me feel as sad for those characters as I know I should’ve.

Asuka’s brief and mostly-offscreen abandonment of NERV in the face of her plummeting confidence, the introduction of the Fifth Child, Kaworu, and Ryoji’s sneaking of secret information to Misato all are great plot points that could have had dramatic conclusions, but they all fell flat for me.  The episode focusing on Rei at least makes sense in tying together many things implied by previous episodes, and fills in or confirms some things we’ve already seen.  For example, it confirms the existence of literal souls in this narrative universe, so now we know to take certain aspects of Shinji’s out-of-body experience -- the loss of sense of self, and the feeling of having recontacted his mother’s soul -- as literal rather than just a storytelling device to display the Freudian subconscious, and the angels’ ability to make direct mental contact with people by this point certainly seems to be literal magic, not some sort of exotic biology.

But episodes 21-24 in particular feel like a rapid-fire dump of partial ideas with the dramatic pauses in all the wrong places -- exemplified by the minute-long still shot as Shinji decides whether to stop the final angel from [spoiler] that changes the scene from tense to absurd.  It is, in other words, paced poorly, and this isn’t just bad news for individual episodes, but for the ability of events to matter to the audience.  I also expected to have something to say about the gay content in ep. 24 that the professional internet commentators are obsessed with talking about (specifically, talking about how much Netflix screwed it up with a very small translation change), but that aspect of that episode in particular was overshadowed for me because the show just failed to show enough of a relationship building between Shinji and Kaworu for it to mean anything.  Even with the “love” to “like” change, I end up coming away with the impression that Shinji has a crush on Kaworu (whether Kaworu feels the same or just doesn’t get how normal people interact), but that doesn’t mean much when their entire series of interactions seems to be over less than a day(?).

And so we come to the two-part finale.  With no more angels to interfere, the Human Instrumentality Project begins.  We first see our pilots suffering separately in their own despairs and doubts, Shinji and Asuka both suffering from needing to be needed, Rei wanting to die permanently this time but afraid now that it’s finally an option.  The Project apparently forces direct contact between everyone’s souls, though, and we see how the exposure of feelings we do not wish to express or even think about can be even worse than isolation.  Misato and Asuka both totally break down upon directly encountering Shinji’s soul and involuntarily sharing their most upsetting and embarrassing memories with him.

Or, well, that seems to be what Shinji’s getting from them, anyway.  We don’t actually know what they’re experiencing, I guess, since we quickly learn this is only Shinji’s personal experience of Instrumentality.  He, and implicitly everyone else, is stuck in his own personal incorporeal world having an internal argument and trying to navigate an entirely new way of existing not constrained by the physical world.  The visuals themselves meanwhile regress to sparsely-detailed still images, then to storyboards, then sketches, before suddenly popping back to full animation as Shinji experiences another “possible world”, a frankly hilarious couple of scenes reimagining the show as a school life comedy.  Shinji begins to untangle what he thinks of himself from what others think of him, and is instructed by visions of his friends and colleagues that, among other things, conventional associations between concepts are just that -- conventional associations -- and they don’t need to mean to him what he thinks they’re supposed to mean.  Then this fascinating mindfuck of an ending, which up to this point I have been genuinely enjoying enough to forgive its Freudian jargon, crashes to a halt with the resolution that he just suddenly accepts himself, abruptly.  And then everyone clapped.  The end.

I feel let down, because it just sort of feels like Anno wanted very badly to resolve Shinji’s misery, but just whiffed on how to pull it off.  “Just stop hating yourself”, even given some sort of amazing supernatural opportunity to do so, is a bit too “have you tried not being a monster?” of a resolution for me.  I’m not asking for realistic therapy in my anime, but maybe there was some better way to show him changing his entire outlook?  And then I feel let down again because I finally remember that we cut to this abruptly and are totally ignoring what Instrumentality is doing or will do to everyone else, something that is such a wild shift that it is certainly the end of the world as we know it, to zoom in on just one person’s inner conflict in a very surreal way for two entire episodes.  So... yeah.  That was Evangelion.  Yup.  It was a solid sci-fi (or... sci-fantasy, I guess) premise that went in interesting directions, although not always executed well.  I appreciated it, and I would be interested to see how it has been repeatedly remade by its own creator.  Just, uh, not right now.

Come back soon for a third post about Evangelion, which will be a headcanon and/or questionable interpretation that probably nobody wants or needs but which I feel compelled to share.

[dasklaus]

I don't like Plato

For a student of Philosophy, that is an embarrassing thing to say and one that will leave you alienated among your peers and superiors. Even those who disagree with Plato (and many do), it is usually accompanied by awe and respect, and a desire to read more Plato to understand where he went wrong, or how his ideas shaped history and our intellectual world today. Plato's writing was influential on a scale that is impossible to replicate in an age of almost universal literacy, organized education and an overabundance of literature and text books.

Plato lived at a time when formal education did not exist. There were teachers, yes, but they were not adhering to a syllabus, there was no real distinction among the sciences or even what constituted science. Writing was only just starting seeing widespread adoption in Greece. Oral history, memorization of poems (most notably Homer's) was still the primary way of transmitting information. Schools existed in the "school of thought" way, in that they each taught their own thing, mostly through discussion.

Plato's dialogues try to replicate that way of learning, and Plato himself discusses the shortcomings of text as a didactic tool in his Phaedrus. From most of his predecessors (and many of his successors) only fragments survive, a lot (most notably Socrates, who features prominently in Plato's writing) never wrote down anything at all. There's a certain irony in Plato's certainty that writing encourages forgetfulness, as people turn to rely on letters instead of their brains, and his popularity being founded in catering to exactly that, by writing so much down. His influence lies not only in being part of the intellectual history, but also by being re-discovered through his texts over and over again. He didn't just shape the thought of people during his time, and laying foundations for others to build on, but his foundation, through reading the original texts, gets re-incorporated into the building again and again.

Plato got lucky. All of his writings that we know of can still be read in full today. They use a language still being taught today, and have been translated over and over. His style of writing, the dialogue form, allows for clarifications and refined definitions, requiring less interpretation and guess-work in understanding him. Even so, there are countless ways of reading Plato, and many disagreements among scholars. Other schools of thought of his time (and before, and after) require detective work, piecing together fragments cited by others, comparing secondary sources to reach a reasonably guess to the original ideas.

These circumstances have no bearing on the validity or quality of his ideas. Plato was just one of many people walking the earth during the classical history, his school one of many, and Greece just one part of a much larger world. The world population has exploded since then, so this has only gotten worse. What are the chances he was actually the smartest, his ideas the best to base so much on?

In truth, we read Plato because everyone reads Plato, and everyone has read Plato before. His accessibility through his texts is what truly sets him apart, and caused his huge impact. To understand the history of philosophical thought requires to understand Plato (and many others, in all fairness). It's a circular dependency, a wheel of "Plato is important" that can't be broken because his place is cemented in so much else. If we were to delete his writings, they would still seep through in all the ways they've become part of other people's writing and thought.

In a world of several billions of people, Plato is a drop in the ocean. His ideas were shaped by mostly-forgotten predecessors, by his circumstances which are mostly foreign to us, and by the lack of availability of empirical data. Were he born today (a thought experiment that's admittedly already flawed in its premise) he'd probably reach vastly different conclusions about the world.

Here's where I really hate Plato: I don't get a chance to start from scratch. Everything's steeped in theory, there's no "pure" data, and so the basic premises shape what information becomes available, what conclusions reachable. The importance of proliferation of theories, of disagreement, of plurality of thought is well-known. Trying to wrap my head around Plato takes me further away from my own perspective. Just to find out where or how I disagree with them changes my premises, because I need to make use of his concepts and ideas, "speak his language" to grapple with him. I can feel myself losing my own words.

That is not to say Plato shouldn't be read. I just have the arrogant feeling I have ideas of my own that I want the chance to explore, and the more time I have to spend on history, on Plato, on the specific boundaries his worldview imposes, the less I become able to surpass them. Few people today are actual Platonists - it's not that agreement with him is in any way widespread. But many are operating within the constraints of a platonist framework, defining their views in relation to his ideas. No single man should hold that power. Maybe my hate of Plato is, in its core, anarchist.

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[sinesalvatorem]

(Content Note: This is basically my attempt at Somniblogging. @somnilogical , tell me what you think!)

It would be really convenient to have some sort of brain sensors that toggled the dials on your music recommendation algorithm based on how you were feeling at the time.

Because I often get into heated philosophical debates with myself where I'm having 5-20 insight-feeling-producing realisations per minute* while listening to a randomly shuffled music from my library.

And my library is /weird/. It contains a bunch of pieces that I specifically saved for research purposes. Which would typically be pieces that are stylistically unique/interesting, have cool synesthetic things going on, or are extremely well-optimised for inducing specific emotions - Everything from joy to transcendence to guilt to panic attacks to suicidality.

Which is maybe not the ideal way to do thinking? Because it means that a significant number of my realisations occur while I'm in one mental space versus another. I think they're generally still right at about the same rate, at least. They have the property of resolving confusion in coherence with the rest of my belief structure, and stand up to later examination at a similar rate.

It's just so weird to be having my realisations in an almost random order? The other day I was looping The Singularity by Miracles of Modern Science and felt like I could take on anything (and I could). Then the next day I listened to the band Guilt Machine and remembered to check my enthusiasm in long term planning and remember that there are definitely tough choices.

Nothing really throws me off my average trajectory, but I feel like there has just /got/ to be a way to optimise this. (I tried just listening to music selected for its beauty rather than informational content, and I wound up only having ideas about aesthetics and music theory.)

* notes on cognition figures:

5-20 /min is the rate of confusion-resolving realisations (typified by bursts of pleasant surprise at having learned something) I have while alone and generally normal. It goes down with hunger/exhaustion, but those thoughts are also more branchy. It generally goes down and becomes less branchy when in a social setting, which requires me to devote some attention to being normal. But both these factors can shoot up if I’m talking to someone who’s giving me new information to assimilate about an interesting topic.

THC at the effect-levels I’m accustomed to usually brings the speed 5x above baseline (followed by a gradual return to normalcy after administration), but with a lot more branching and reduced working memory. At 50μg, Lucy brings the speed up to 5x during the low points of the experience (but with more clarity and focus than THC) and 20-30x  during the peaks. (Highest estimated rate ever was 300/min.)

Meditation brings down the rate substantially, and the branchiness overwhelmingly in the act. Probably brings up rate and brings down branchiness over long term averages. Intensive introspection is the most interesting thing in the world right now, so it has the highest rate of surprise-feeling. (Or maybe it’s the reverse? That I’m most drawn to be interested in the things that are most surprising?)

[shirlleycoyle]

The Race to Patent Psychedelics Is Just Getting Started

The author and podcast host Tim Ferriss has done his share of heavy lifting when it comes to supporting and promoting research on psychedelic drugs. He’s invested millions of his own, and also organized half the $17 million in commitments it took to start up the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research. 

While his efforts highlight the reality that psychedelic therapy, like any other medical treatment, requires significant amounts of money for research, Ferriss recently tweeted his apprehension about a side effect of the growing money-generating psychedelic market. 

"I am very concerned by the patent land grab warming up in the for-profit psychedelic world,” he wrote, asking publicly if there was any coalition of pro-bono lawyers who could intervene “when companies attempt to secure broad patents that could hinder scientific research, reasonable competition…and so on?”

Patent announcements are hard to miss in the psychedelic field these days. Most recently, as Troy Farah wrote in Future Human, the biotech startup CaaMTech was granted a patent for the combination of cannabis and psilocybin. A patent application from mental health company Compass Pathways garnered attention for including claims on very basic elements of psychedelic psychotherapy—from holding hands to using soft furniture. 

A patent gives an individual or company ownership over an invention, and then prevents others from using their invention without licensing it. The patent office looks at scientific literature and prior patents to determine if an invention should be granted a patent, but the amount of psychedelic knowledge might not be reflected in these resources since psychedelics have been illegal and operating underground. 

In many respects, the for-profit psychedelic field is behaving the same as other biotech companies have before—they’re taking notice of potentially beneficial compounds and research, and trying to patent “novel” uses to build profitable patent libraries. The issue that's arising is partly a philosophical one: The experiences that many people have taking psychedelics directly contradict this shift towards ownership, profit, and exclusion. More practically, as researchers continue to show promising results from academic trials on a myriad of mental health disorders, there’s valid concern about psychedelics becoming price gouged or monopolized through intellectual property (IP). 

There's notable disagreement about how to move forward from the field's major players. Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), responded to Ferriss' tweet to say that MAPS “has recently engaged patent attorneys to assist in strengthening our anti-patent strategy for uses of MDMA, and to prepare easily accessible information for patent examiners so patents will not be issued in the first place.” 

Doblin also wrote that MAPS will not seek to patent any uses of MDMA for clinical use, “and will actively challenge patents on MDMA-assisted therapy that seek to privatize information already in the public domain that don’t represent actual innovations.” Similarly, the non-profit Usona Institute has taken an "open science" approach by not filing for patents.

Christian Angermayer, the psychedelic investor who helped fund Compass Pathways and co-founded the company ATAI Life Sciences, took another view, responding to Ferriss: “Tim I am [a] HUGE fan of your work, but on this topic you are incredibly misguided.” He went on to say that while Ferris has donated a “few million” dollars to the psychedelic research space, “It’s a drop in the ocean relative to what’s needed.” 

Angermayer also recently said in an interview that he believes that biotech will be one of the best performing asset classes of the next 20 years. “What tech was the last two decades, the next two decades will be biotech," he said. "50% of my entire portfolio is in biotech.”

Patent applications are secret for 18 months, and what we've seen is likely only the tip of the psychedelic patent iceberg. Psilocybin Alpha, a publication geared towards investors in psychedelic medicine, has a Psilocybin Patent Tracker, an MDMA Patent Tracker, and a DMT Patent Tracker, so that anyone can keep as up to date as possible on what’s being filed.

To get a sense of what's out there right now, Motherboard took a look at several pending and granted patents that include psychedelics, to show how diverse these applications can be. Psychedelic compounds appear in patent applications for Phillip Morris e-cigarettes, periodontal disease, hair loss, weight loss, and the treatment of food allergies. 

What’s crucial to understanding some of these applications is that they are not all primarily psychedelic patent applications; they’re patent applications for other inventions that happen to include different psychedelics as an optional or potential part of that invention. Remember: With patent applications, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be granted, and if they are, they could be heavily amended beforehand. Still, what we can see from the wide scope of these applications is that psychedelics are increasingly popping up, and that the "patent land grab" is reaching much farther than just mental health.

Phillip Morris and “DMT vape pens”

After Graham Pechenik, a patent and IP lawyer, tweeted that cigarette and tobacco company Phillip Morris' patent grants and applications have the largest number of disclosing uses for N,N-DMT & 5-MeO-DMT (different formulations of DMT), he said it caused quite a buzz.

Screen shot from patent application.

But there’s some nuance here to unpack: The Phillip Morris patents aren’t really patents for “DMT vape pens.” They are patents or applications on various types of e-cigarettes and mechanisms within the e-cigarettes. DMT and 5-MeO-DMT are included in a list of "medicaments" that could be used in those e-cigarettes. 

That said, if DMT were legalized, Phillip Morris could have grounds to prevent anyone else from putting DMT in Philip Morris devices specifically. “Phillip Morris is definitely not patenting a DMT vape pen, specifically,” Pechenik said. “But, it at least shows that they're aware that this is a compound that could be used.” 

DMT vape pens don’t currently have any research behind them: It's unknown whether they are safe, for one, or if they have any other benefits or uses.

“In essence, I think they’re looking ahead, and want to make sure nobody would be able to say that they’re not infringing because DMT wasn’t in Philip Morris’ patents," Pechenik said. "And [they] want to stake out the space so that others don’t file their own patents specific to DMT vapes." 

Psychedelics for food allergies

In 2018, alternative medicine proponent and doctor Andrew Weil told Joe Rogan that his cat allergy disappeared after he took LSD. He told CBS journalist Ed Bradley the same anecdote in 2001: “I took LSD. I was in a wonderful outdoor setting. I felt terrific and, in the midst of this, a cat came up to me and crawled into my lap. I did not have an allergic reaction to it and I never did since.”

He continued to tell Bradley that he thought food allergies were “learned.” ”That gave me the idea that [taking LSD] would be a great way to teach people to unlearn allergies," he said. (In the same interview he said he wasn’t comfortable being called a shaman or a medical holy man, but that “wizard” was OK.) 

Food allergies are incredibly complex. There’s no current research on psychedelics for food allergies; the most promising food allergy treatment is oral immunotherapy, which exposes you to tiny amounts of the food you’re allergic to in order to become desensitized to it. Another innovative approach still being researched attempts to utilize compounds made by gut bacteria.

But there is one public patent application making claims on psychedelics' ability to treat food allergies. The patent application even makes claims around severe allergic reactions: “Food allergy conditions may, after exposure to an allergen, cause an anaphylactic condition in a subject. Accordingly, the methods of the present disclosure may, in some instances, treat, including prevent or lessen the severity of, anaphylaxis in a subject following exposure to an antigen.” 

The food allergy application was filed by the investment firm Palo Alto Investors. Joon Yun, the president and managing partner, described the group on his website as a “team of practicing physicians run one of the biggest healthcare investment shops in the country. We make long-term investments for high-net-worth and institutional investors based on original, deep, fundamental research. We don’t rent stocks. We own them.”

How can a patent application be filed for something that has yet to be proven? Pechenik said that the U.S. has pretty liberal laws around providing evidence for your patent claims. All that is required in an application is a description of your invention so that someone could make and use it. Then, a patent application can include something called a “prophetic example,” which can be found in this food allergy application. Their “example,” shown below, is not actually an experiment that took place.

Screen shot from patent application.

“Basically it’s a prophecy, quite literally, where you just lay out what a research program may look like, and then just prophesize what the results you hope to achieve are,” Pechenik said. He's worked on cases where a prophetic example was enough to get a patent granted. 

When writing prophetic claims, applicants have to avoid using the past tense. “Doing so, and making people think it’s been done, can actually be inequitable conduct that can render a patent unenforceable,” Pechenik said.

Patent examiners can push back, and try to limit patent claims to be more specific, or gather more evidence. In the most recent back and forth on this patent application, the examiners wrote that the application claims could only include claims on "treating food allergy by LSD,” whereas the original filed application claims included all psychedelics. 

The application’s amended claims, filed on February 16, 2021, now only include LSD. “This helps the examiner save time, and forces an applicant to pay multiple fees where there’s more than ‘a single invention’ in an application,” Pechenik said. “What will happen now, most likely, is the applicant will file one or more continuation applications to next ask for claims to psilocin or other agents.” 

David Casimir, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry,  thinks that this patent won't be issued if it’s examined thoroughly—but he can’t say for certain. “Maybe it would,” he said. “But then what that would be is essentially a very challengeable patent if it is issued as broadly as it's written right now.”

There could be another barrier to this patent application called “anticipation by inherency.” This means that even if you discover something “new,” if it’s been happening "inherently" in the past, you can’t get a patent on it. That means if LSD really does treat food allergies (again—there’s no evidence yet that it does) thousands or more people would have already received this benefit. 

“This would have happened in the past, even if it’s not in the public literature,” Casimir said. “If the patent office can find evidence to see that someone in the past took a psychedelic drug and had a food allergy, then they should be unpatentable unless they can prove that there's a specific mechanism that's being treated here.”

Psychedelics for weight loss

On March 2, NeonMind Biosciences announced in a press release that it filed four provisional patent applications involving the potential use of psilocybin as a treatment for weight loss. “NeonMind’s proprietary preclinical data shows promise that both low and high dose psilocybin may reduce weight gain and that the reduction in weight gain can occur in a short period of time,” the release said. 

NeonMind’s pending patent applications include a wide variety of psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin, DMT, and LSD, for treatments including weight loss, obesity, reduction of food cravings, and decreasing food intake. 

This isn’t the first psychedelic patent application we’ve seen for weight loss. In 2019, The Yield Growth Corp. announced that its subsidiary Flourish Mushroom Labs filed a provisional patent application for the use of psychedelic mushroom compounds for weight loss. 

Pechenik said that generally, whoever files a patent application first has priority, but there are many different ways a later patent could differentiate itself from an earlier one—whether it be specific formulation, dose, or patient population. Either way, it looks there will be various attempts to apply psychedelics to different components of weight loss. 

An LSD disrupter

Usually, when a person takes LSD, they commit to an experience of at least six to 12 hours. What if you could stop it early? That’s what the psychedelic company MindMed is trying to patent with its application for an “LSD neutralizer,” a compound called ketanserin. 

LSD is serotonergic, meaning that it binds to serotonin receptors—specifically, one called the 5-HT2A receptor. Ketanserin has the opposite effect on the receptor. One study has previously found that if people took ketanserin before taking LSD, it prevented the most intense effects of the psychedelic. MindMed is investigating whether or not ketanserin could be used after a person has already taken LSD in order to shorten or end the trip. 

In February, MindMed announced that it was beginning a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, in collaboration with the University Hospital Basel, on ketanserin. “This study will support the patent application that was filed last year (preserving all worldwide rights) for a neutralizer technology intended to shorten and stop the effects of an LSD trip during a therapy session,” according to their press release. 

As Psilocybin Alpha noted, ketanserin was discovered by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which was owned by J&J, in 1980. “Whether this application of ketanserin will be effective, patentable, and profitable is yet to be seen,” Psilocybin Alpha wrote. 

A personalized psychedelics scent bubble

This ethereal patent application is for a device that creates and maintains a “personalized bubble of scent" around a person. While the scent bubble could be used for perfume, the application writes that other liquids could also be dispensed, including psychedelic medicines like LSD and psilocybin. Also on the list of potential ingredients for a personal bubble: human pheromones, insect repellant, anti-cellulite liquid, and vitamin-enhanced liquid. 

Image from patent application.

Psychedelics for hair loss and periodontal disease

Like the Phillip Morris patents, these applications are not directly for the treatment of hair or tooth loss with psychedelics, but include psychedelics within the language of the patent application. 

The periodontal application is primarily for a way to categorize patients with periodontal disease, and how to treat each patient accordingly. The hair loss patent application is about treating traction alopecia with compounds that have a specific kind of biological interaction with the scalp—and it includes DMT as one potential compound. 

This is something that we'll start to see more and more of, according to Casimir—psychedelics being folded into applications. “You tend to see this anytime someone has a successful product with something in the nutraceutical space,” he said. “You see a pile-on effect shortly thereafter—where everyone either speculates wildly and files patents on it, or collects some data to demonstrate it. I would expect as this topic gets more and more popular, which is not taking very long to happen, just about anything you could ever think of will be tried. And if it works, it'll be in the patent application. And sometimes even if it doesn't, it'll be in a patent application.”

Outside of concerns about cost, access, and monopoly, some feel that some of the latest patent applications contradict the focuses of academic psychedelic research. As Psymposia senior writer Russell Hausfeld tweeted, “Funny. One of the biggest issues people are hoping psychedelics will help with is addiction. Meanwhile, Philip Morris is patenting DMT pens.” The multiple pending patent applications for weight loss are filed at the same time that Johns Hopkins is conducting research on the use of psychedelics for anorexia nervosa. 

In a recent article in Double Blind, lawyer Nicole Howell, who litigates in the cannabis market, argued that there are important lessons psychedelics can learn from marijunana. “In cannabis, we’ve seen an unhealthy relationship with profit and investment that has created consolidation of the market, perverse incentives, and is slowly driving the lovers and believers out of the game only to be replaced by traditional business fundamentals of 'scale'” 'ROI' and ‘exit strategies,’” she wrote.

Psychedelic researcher Matt Baggott suggested one intriguing path forward: “We should also create the equivalent of creative commons psychedelic pharmacotherapy licenses. This would give rise to a coalition of organizations sharing IP that could outcompete the monopolists.” 

These patent growing pains will only increase in the coming years. And the culture around psychedelics particularly sets the field up for an ethical clash with how businesses normally go about profiting and making money from compounds. Howell wrote that “with psychedelics as our guide and teacher, we can and must challenge the false idol of cash as the prize and replace it with the notion that capital is the servant, catalyst, and partner to the ultimate reality that psychedelics reveal: We are one. This is the veil that is lifted when we tune in. This is the Great Perspective Shift psychedelics can offer.” 

We've rarely seen this kind of language deployed when discussing pharmaceutical IP. Clearly psychedelics and patent law represent a confrontation of differing values that may take awhile to figure out how to co-exist. 

Follow Shayla Love on Twitter.

The Race to Patent Psychedelics Is Just Getting Started syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

February 7, 2021

This is my weekly roundup of things I am up to. Topics include anthropocentrism, modularity and risk, minimum lot sizes, and the Great Stagnation.

Flavors of Anthropocentrism

This Twitter thread was helpful to me in clarifying different notions of anthropocentrism that are common in philosophical discourse. While there are many such definitions, two in particular I think are important.

1) The belief that humans (and human values, if you’re a weak anthropocentrist) have high or exclusive moral weight relative to ecosystems or other organisms.

2) The belief that humans are special in the kingdom of life and have unique roles and responsibilities.

In the thread, Nils Gilman conflates the two definitions, while Wolf Tivy decouples them, as does the original piece linked; David Grinspoon on the Sapiezoic. David comes fairly close to defining a view that is similar to what I want to advocate. My view has two main components: first, that civilization, as a unique form of emergent complexity, does deserve special (though by no means exclusive) moral consideration, and second, that scientific advancement allows us to play positive-sum games between values systems and thus is something to be pursued.

Wolf also referenced Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an early 20th Century French Jesuit priest who is best known (at least by me) for introducing Omega Point cosmology and the idea of the noosphere. But I know little about his broader work. Now I want to investigate more thoroughly.

Modularity and Risk Reduction

The main tradeoff in urban design is between economies (good things) and diseconomies (bad things) that come with scale. The diseconomies of scale tend to grow faster than economies, but from a smaller base, and from a sufficiently large size. For this reason, there tends to be an optimum city size, though this optimum varies widely based on the city’s economic specialization, transportation infrastructure, and other factors. I am interested in the question of whether and how these principles might be extended to networks of cities (e.g. civilization). While there are clearly economies of scale, there also seem to be observable diseconomies of scale. One such diseconomy is what the Effective Altruist community identifies as existential risk, or its slightly less severe cousin, global catastrophic risk.

For this reason, there is great interest in tools that reduce risk without also harming economies of scale. That’s where this article on mitigating x-risk through modularity comes in. It calls for forms of modular civilization design to decouple risks across regions. An example would be cities that are better able to prevent arrival and departure to control infectious disease outbreaks. The article mentions space colonization as a form of modularity but notes that this is not a practical option for the foreseeable future.

The ideas here are interesting, but I’m not sure how they would work in practice. The article also doesn’t note the scale/risk tradeoff mentioned earlier, which I think has to be a central consideration of any risk reduction measure.

Relative to the EA community, I am more concerned about technological stagnation and demographic decline, and less about nuclear war, AI run amok, etc. (though I acknowledge that these are serious issues as well). This makes me think about modularity in somewhat different terms. For example, charter, private, and homeschooling as a way of reducing the ideological pressures that are prevalent in public schooling; decentralized social media; charter cities, quantified health; and so forth. These areas too require rigor in terms of social polyculture gained versus the costs of decentralization.

Minimum Lot Size

This week the Oregon Legislature considered a bill, HB 2655, that would put a statewide cap of 1 acre on minimum lot sizes for residential areas that countries can impose. The cap is currently 5 acres. According to research that Urban Cruise Ship has done, minimum lot size regulations are the most impactful regulation, per housing unit affected, of widely used zoning rules on land use. There are 13 pieces of written testimony submitted against the bill, 2 asking for clarification, and 1 (namely, mine) in favor (on Twitter I said there are 15 testimonies against, but I mistakenly double-counted two of them).

Aside from the usual NIMBY stuff, the most prevalent argument against the bill is that it would encourage rural development and hence sprawl. Rather upset at the time, I marveled on Twitter how minimum lot size regulations could be packaged as anti-sprawl tools. I guess the rationale is a sort of Simpson’s Paradox situation: while the new rules should densify rural development, they would increase rural development relative to urban development and lower density overall. In theory at least. I’d have to do some calculations to know whether this argument holds water. I haven’t done so, and I am quite certain that the opponents of the bill haven’t done so either. At any rate, in my testimony I was more concerned with affordability than density, and the rules would indisputably improve affordability.

I only became aware of the bill because of some comments that Randy Tucker, Oregon Metro’s state lobbyist, made in a work session. Randy, presumably representing Metro’s official position, is against the bill, apparently concerned primarily about retaining local control over land use decisions. I am bothered that (what appears to be) Metro’s official position would make housing less affordable, which clearly goes against my interest, though I don’t think this is something worth making a stink to my representative about.

Another big question in my mind is where the state’s pro-housing establishment was. They got a major land use reform bill, HB 2001, through the legislature a couple years ago. I get it that it’s hard to trawl through everything that the legislature does. A person almost has to be a full-time lobbyist to keep track of everything, and I certainly don’t keep track of everything. But even with this dynamic accounted for, the pro-housing movement seems to be very selective about what they will and won’t support, and housing affordability is at best one of several priorities that they bring to the table.

Great Stagnation

There were several pieces in the last few weeks about whether the world is in a “Great Stagnation”, and what, if anything, we can reasonably do about it. For the sake of clarity, I consider the Great Stagnation to be the observed secular slowdown in growth of Total Factor Productivity, but the term has a somewhat broader meaning.

Discussion was kicked off by this Jason Crawford post, where he seems to have come around to the idea that there is in fact a secular TFP slowdown. Crawford points out that we are currently seeing significant progress in information technology, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we were seeing significant progress across the board.

Eli Dourado breaks down technology growth here, and he calls specifically for innovation in areas that make up the lion’s share of the budget for poor households: housing, energy, food, and health care (education isn’t mentioned but that is another important area). He calls for a progressive supply-side approach to these issues, which he rightly identifies as much superior to simply writing checks, which has become a sort of default option for dealing with social challenges.

The Nintel blog added this piece, arguing two points. First, there is no evidence of a technological slowdown. Second, trying to identify a unified theory for stagnation is not very helpful, and we should focus on reforms that we know will raise TFP, like raising birth rates. The piece is interesting. I would be inclined to agree with the second point but disagree with the first; it seems to me that there really is a slowdown in basic science, though the jury is still out on my mind whether this is something that can be reversed.

I’ve been thinking about this issue for a long time without any clear answers, and I wonder if I have reached a point of diminishing returns. One final observation: to say that there is a slowdown in TFP is to use a fixed annual percentage rate of TFP growth (or exponential growth in the economy) as a baseline expectation. But why should we expect that? In a different context, I’ve criticized the emissions/GDP (carbon intensity) metric as one that implicitly expects these two quantities to be proportional and then seeks to explain deviation from proportionality. But I think there are inherent reasons to not expect them to be proportional, and so declining carbon intensity is not a thing that needs to be explained, at least in that form. Maybe declining TFP is in the same boat.

[fredyates1992]

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Reiki Tattoo

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[muthur9000]

Ridley Scott’s quotes

RIDLEY'S ORIGINAL IDEAS FOR A SEQUEL “It certainly should explain what the Alien is and where it comes from…That will be tough because it will require dealing with other planets, worlds, civilizations…The Alien may be one of the last descendants of some long-lost self-destructed group of beings…in many respects it’ll be more interesting [than the first movie], from a pure science-fiction stand point. We’d get into speculative areas, deal with two civilizations.” “There were no speculative scenes or discussions about what the Alien was and all that sort of thing either. I believe that audiences love those, especially if they’re well done. They give the threat much more weight…" “I was amazed that no one asked me about this mysterious element of the film, but if you would have asked me in 1978, I would have gladly explained that, in my mind, all this alien ship could be was a battleship...they missed one of the biggest questions of all, which is: who’s the big guy? Who’s flying the ship, basically? And where are they going? And with what? Why that cargo?”

RIDLEY'S ORIGINAL IDEAS FOR A PREQUEL "All I was doing was turning the chapter and opening the door, because why would that creature have a cargo like that? What was his intention? I used to blindly call it a battleship… I was never really happy about the layout of the eggs on the floor, but that's the way it was when we did it at the time, and when we actually built the eggs they were sitting in rows, a bit like pineapples, and it was a specific layout, so clearly this was a hold of some kind for some reason, and so you may as well open it up and tell - well it's that, and it's deadly. Then the biggest question becomes why, and who would conceive of these things, and where were they going? This is a whole new story." ON THE DIFFICULTY OF SCIENCE FICTION FILMS "Being able to say, 'anything goes', that's also very dangerous, because anything goes becomes rubbish if you don't watch it. An therefor you've still got to create your own parameters for a three act play. You have still got to create your own rule book, because otherwise it's like,  silly. That's always been my problem with most films, unless they re reality based. To do science fiction at a high level is tricky. History is straightforward because I'm re-telling a story and I've got points of reference. Science fiction, there's no points of reference. It's all brand new." THE 'CREATION' PROLOGUE OF PROMETHEUS "… the sequence at the beginning of the film (Prometheus), that is fundamentally creation. It’s a donation, in the sense that the weight and the construction of the DNA of those aliens is way beyond what we can possibly imagine,” Scott said. Adding that the planet isn’t necessarily Earth, he says, “No, it doesn’t have to be. That could be anywhere. That could be a planet anywhere. All he’s doing is acting as a gardener in space. And the planting that life, in fact, is the disintegration of himself."

ABOUT THE ENGINEER SHIP DESIGN IN THE PROLOGUE "They tried to say (to me), why wouldn’t they have the croissant (Juggernaut) at the beginning of the movie? I said, well, considering that saucer is probably at least 10 million before this, why the hell wouldn’t they have changed the design of the spaceship." ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS MISSION "They are going somewhere, but the destination is undisclosed, because it is top secret" ABOUT THE ENGINEERS "In a funny kind of way, if you look at the Engineers, they’re tall and elegant … they are dark angels. If you look at [John Milton’s] Paradise Lost, the guys who have the best time in the story are the dark angels, not God." "…they’re such aggressive f**kers … and who wouldn’t describe them that way, considering their brilliance in making dreadful devices and weapons that would make our chemical warfare look ridiculous? So I always had it in there that the God-like creature that you will see actually is not so nice, and is certainly not God." Hall of heads (in Prometheus) is a rounded, earthy room. Scott told us the faces might be those of apostles, wise men — a superior people, while production designer Chris Seagers revealed that the heads were meant to give a sense of history and gravity to the sacred place… a place where the Engineers stored their information. "…Covenant gets us a step closer to who and why was this thing designed to make human beings. And if you think it’s them,” Scott said, gesturing to the monolithic figures of the Engineers surrounding us (hall of heads), “you’re dead wrong.”

WHY WERE THE LONGER SCENES CUT IN PROMETHEUS? "I think what's good about it is that we tell enough, but not too much…there were longer scenes, and I think fundamentally when you go in too deep, and the running time, well not necessarily the running time…you have got one hour introducing elements and everything, this and that, before significant physically kicks in, so I thought that's enough. In the original Alien there was 47 minutes before John Hurt looks into the egg…and then it kicks off and starts its own engine. There was about an hour on this one and I thought that was time enough."

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE LV-223 INSTALLATION "In the story we confront one of these characters who is called an Engineer, who is of a race, that if we do a sequel to this prequel, we’ll find out who this race was and where they are. Because they are not of this planet, where we are right now (LV-223), and we will find out during the story, that actually this moon…I always parallel it to, I believe, the British in the second World War developed anthrax. All their experimentations went on in this place in - I believe in the Irish channel - which is like any old power station which is an atomic nuclear reactor, which is locked up for the next 500-600 years because you can’t cleans anything of anthrax. So I always think of and refer to it (LV-223) as the Anthrax Island of this race called the Engineers" WHY THE ENGINEERS WANTED TO WIPE OUT HUMANITY AND START OVER "…if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, “Lets’ send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it. Guess what? They crucified him."

"If the planet went wrong, they would want to wipe it clean. But that could take 500 years. When they revisit –  because different visitors would come back and see we’re not doing so well – they would look at these human beings that are jerks, that are killing the planet, killing themselves, can’t settle down, they’re like a bunch of children. We should wipe it clean…We will drop some of that stuff and wipe it clean. It could come in the form of a plague. In effect, the thing that is dropped is a plague. It kills everything beneath it, but it is insidious and spreads everywhere. It will take about a year, and you have got nothing left except flora. No fauna. The meat is gone."

WHY DAVID WIPED OUT THE ENGINEERS IN COVENANT "Remember, an Engineer tore his head off. So the Engineer has proven to be an enemy of him (David), and whilst he stood there in wonder at the Engineer when he initially saw him, Peter Weyland over stepped the mark. His request was simply about mortality…the Engineer was kind of disgusted by that, because that was a question beneath his species. And so he killed Peter Weyland, and in effect killed David as well. So David comes back from that clearly not liking the Engineers."

"...That's why he drops it on their city, because he hates them. He has no respect for Engineers and no respect for human beings."

THOUGHTS ON SHAW "When you are philosophizing about the reasons for life, faith, God, it's always tricky because you don't want to get into long dissertations. And the trick of filming, which is so wonderful about film, is you can actually have a conversation between a father and her daughter, and she says 'how do you know it's beautiful?', and he says 'because it's what I believe Elle, what do you believe?'. And she looks over to this guy who's in her cyber sleep that shouldn't be there, and then you are off and running. So now you know that this is a person who has faith in the hereafter and certainly faith in her maker. She believes in God."

THOUGHTS ON DAVID "The predecessor of Ash is David"

"In this one the idea to have David was not just useful, it was essential. Don't hide the fact that he is a, don't make him a revelation. Robots aren't a revelation anymore. Better to say, that's a really strange film, what the f**k is he? Weyland says he's my favorite son, but he has no soul, but he will have endless life. So in a very matter of fact way, we are talking about a creation…"

"..if it's completely cyber, how deep can that relationship go…can the cyber thing have feeling for you? We don't know, because it depends how sophisticated it is, and it also depends on how well you treat them. So you are re-polishing the whole notion of artificial creation, and that can become a serious relationship."

"There is a lot of good information where he talks about creation. Idle hands are the devil's work. Come look at my success. So gradually you are aware - Oh my God, he designed this muther f**ker - rather than it came from the Engineers. It came from him,  but he needed to use their black, deadly cleansing lotion (laughter)"

THOUGHTS ON WALTER "David was so successful that Peter Weyland made quite a few.  Then Walter was part of that process, he was a follow through which you learned through the movie, except there were various governors on him.  He had an emotional governor and never hurt a human being.  So he could turn on David in like a heartbeat, as one creature to another and have them go at each other, but he would never attack another human being."

ON THE DAVID/WALTER SWITCH "You knew Walter was David fairly early…That's why I had him go there and turn and look around (when David appears in Walter's clothes after the fight at the edge of the plaza, he turns and looks back with a strange look on his face)…in that moment, AI or not, I am a very logical person. So I'm thinking, wait a minute, you mean he cut his hand off, changed his clothes, cut his face open before going out there? So I was thinking, if I just do it, it'll fly by, because I think you are sandwiched between so much reason to get out of there, and then the appearance of the alien, it will get forgotten. So that's sometimes where you cheat, as a playwright. So it's about 20 minutes that I cheated with…if you only found out (it was David) when he was tucking her in (Daniels), you have not enjoyed the possibility that something is wrong."

ABOUT THE ULTRAMORPH (deacon) "(in Prometheus) I left the xenomorph out, and tried to evolve int the first step of how it begins again, with that deacon (the ultramorph), and that's the precursor to what happens." "It is a precursor to what was designed as the Alien (Giger)"

ABOUT THE NEOMORPH "You get an unarmored - Alien was always a hard shell. Think about a cockroach. A cockroach is kind of beautiful when you examine one. Any insect is beautiful. So the alien was a beautiful insect with a hard shell. So that means its armored to a certain extent. But the Neomorph is soft, a little bit like us humans. We're pretty weak actually. If I prick you, you'll bleed and go 'oh my God' and you could die. So were not very strong. So the Neomorph is a bit more vulnerable but its an evolution from human DNA."

HOW SHAW FIGURED INTO DAVID'S EXPERIMENTS She was integral to what David carried out later (breeding the xenomorph)." ABOUT PROMETHEUS 2 "There were questions that remained unanswered: Where did the ship come from? Who was the pilot? What was his cargo? And why does human DNA play such an important role for the alien? Not to answer that, I thought was crazy. The first step to unlock those secrets was then Prometheus."

"In the story we confront one of these characters who is called an Engineer, who is of a race, that if we do a sequel to this prequel, we’ll find out who this race was and where they are. Because they are not of this planet, where we are right now (LV-223)"

“Yes, but it (link to LV426 and Alien) won’t be in the next one. It will be in the one after this one or maybe even a fourth film before we get back into the ‘Alien’ franchise… The whole point of it is to explain the Alien franchise and to explain the how and why of the creation of the alien itself. I always thought of the alien as kind of a piece of bacterial warfare. I always thought that that original ship (Juggernaut), which I call the croissant, was a battleship, holding these biomechanoid creatures that were all about destruction."

"I think what's good about it is that we tell enough, but not too much...You don't want to elaborate any more than that. And then they are off and running. It's topped by a terrific moment, when she says 'do you mind', and she puts his head in the bag.  She's never going to put his head on top of that body, because when she does he will become deadly again…it ends with 'I'm still searching'. You don't ask, how's she going to live? She isn't going to sleep? What's she going to feed on, what's she going to drink? You can get into all that, but then it becomes Robinson Crusoe, and that's another film." "I’d love to explore where the hell [Dr. Shaw] goes next and what does she do when she gets there, because if it is paradise, paradise can not be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous." "So I’m now going to the next one (Paradise), which is the next evolution directly connected with the first one, which was…Shaw, when she repaired Michael Fassbender (who was) in two pieces, and we’ll kind of pick it up there and it will evolve."

“The beast is done. Cooked. I got lucky meeting Giger all those years ago. It’s very hard to repeat that. I just happen to be the one who forced it through because [the studio] said it’s obscene. They didn’t want to do it and I said, ‘I want to do it, it’s fantastic. But after four [Alien films], I think it wears out a little bit. There’s only so much snarling you can do. I think you’ve got to come back with something more interesting. And I think we’ve found the next step. I thought the Engineers were quite a good start.” Scott said viewers could expect to see Prometheus 2 follow Noomi Rapace’s Elisabeth Shaw and Michael Fassbender’s decapitated android David in their mission to find the Engineers’ home world and find out why the human-like creatures want to destroy mankind. “[We’ll] find out how he gets his head back on,” he joked, adding that several drafts of the screenplay had been written.

"It starts off with a very grand idea—or a grand question, really. Who are they and why did they create such evil biology and bacteriology? And [in creating], to protect themselves from what? So the questions are answered there, or rather, beginning to be answered in Prometheus 2."

"…You can't have a person go off into the galaxy, and have a person who's still got his head off. Once that head goes back on, he's really dangerous, but he's also very seductive. So maybe he will persuade her to help him put the head back on."

"With Prometheus 2 what I'm trying to do is reintroduce a fresher form of alien in the third act."

ABOUT THE CHANGE IN DIRECTION BY BRINGING THE XENOMORPH BACK IN COVENANT "…Because everyone said I missed the Alien. I said, really? And I said, OKaaayy (rolling his eyes). So I came back on…its actually 5 steps, you see 5 steps (5 stages of the alien). Pretty nasty." "..comments were, that actually they missed him (the xenomorph)…they missed the evolution…so I thought we had better include it and try it out, so this (Covenant) is the trail run"

"It went straight up there, and we discovered from it that [the fans] were really frustrated. They wanted to see more of the original [monster] and I thought he was definitely cooked, with an orange in his mouth. So I thought: ‘Wow, OK, I’m wrong’. The fans, in a funny kind of way – they’re not the final word – but they are the reflection of your doubts about something ... and then you realize ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I was right’. I think that’s where it comes in. I think you’re not sensible if you don’t actually take [the fans’ reaction] into account."

“Years ago, I kept mulling over what Alien 2 could be. I was fiddling around with some ideas. I was always fascinated with why this thing [the xenomorph] would be made, by whom, and for what purpose? ...I think I have to go again. We will see who made it (the xenomorph), and why. That’s what’s interesting.”

The planet it (the xenomorph) was on – and I was looking at the dark side of the moon – would be called Paradise. Paradise is a very ominous word…In a way it is Prometheus 2. It’s exactly the same story. But it was always in the works to be called that [Alien: Paradise Lost]. Is Prometheus actually taking us off course from where I’m going, which is actually backing into the first Alien... I’ve even got connections with Ripley [in this], but I’m not telling you what.

ABOUT ALIEN: COVENANT AND THE FUTURE MOVIES

"I don’t know. [I’ll make] maybe two more [films], or maybe one more, I don’t know…" "..comments were, that actually they missed him (the xenomorph)…they missed the evolution…so I though we had better includes it and try it out, so this (Covenant) is the trail run" "If this [Covenant] is successful, and then the next one, and then there will definitely be three more." "There will be another one before we kind of literally and logically, clockwise, back into the rear back head of [the original] Alien…It will go Prometheus, Awakening, Covenant.. fairly integral where this colonization ship is on the way...." "There will be three or four different players coming in to investigate, one of which will be the Engineers arriving back to find their planet decimated…Those ships (Juggernauts) come and go on regular intervals. I see them as the gardeners of space…where we go next is obvious. Were gonna actually go to the planet... "When that’s finished there’ll be another one and then another one, which will gradually drive into the back entrance of the film in 1979. So in other words, why was this space jockey there and why did he have an Alien inside him? And those questions will be answered.”

"We are heading towards the back end of the first Alien, so that may be feasible (bringing a young Ripley in). I don't think it will…Ripley is going to be "somebody's" daughter, obviously…We are coming in from the back end, right? And you know the time constraints, of …what is the time between this film,  where we leave David going off into tending for that colony. I think we are probably two films out from even considering her." "…we can come in at the back end of the first Alien. But what I think we've unearthed is a much larger, bigger universe and story, so I think it will be some time before we ever reach the backend of the first Alien. It's still evolving now. I'm already having another one written right now, let's call it Covenant 2. That's with John Logan and we've already got the three act plan on where it's going to go and where it's going to connect, but it's evolving and getting bigger all the time. I don't know where it will end!"

"I always thought the journey would be very much embedded, at least 50% in religion. Security blanket. You can go there next. When I get there, I'm looking at the colonies and what happens, and how it disintegrates…it's being written now, the sequel to Covenant…John (Logan, the writer) is a very good playwright. What I love is he lays out the three acts immediately up front in simple skeleton form. So you are staring at that and that's the point where real discussion and details and starts to get embedded".

"They (colonists) will go there (Origau 6), they will evolve, and they will form a new world." "Whether we bring Daniels back or not in the next one…she has to come back..I'm not sure that's the right thing" "It's about a 10 page thing (Covenant 2) and it's being worked on right now. It will evolve logically into the next place, of course…and after that I'm not telling you…we can bring it back to talk about the creation, inevitably about God, and da, da da, da da…so the (Alien) universe is doing that (makes a flying gesture), and you can go on. I think I have woken up a monster."

"Whether we bring Daniels back or not in the next one…she has to come back..I'm not sure that's the right thing". "we're writing [a sequel] now, as we speak. I'll be filming that within 14 months." "…The alien franchise should be into War of the Worlds by now. That's where I'm going…they (Fox) don't know it yet, but that's what were doing, Fox." ABOUT THE DERELICT JUGGERNAUT IN ALIEN

"It's a vehicle. It doesn't look like it crashed. It looked like it may have had a forced landing, but it landed. And why did it land, and why was the pilot damaged? Because something had gotten loose in the cargo, and had evolved, and taken him out. And so, what could that be?…Had he set up a distress signal that we in our 21st century electronics had caught technology that was a million years old."

"…he’s (the space jockey) one of the group that had gone off and his cargo had gotten out of control…because he was heading somewhere else and it got out of control…and actually he had died in the process, so that would be the story there. That ship happened to be a brother to the ship that you see that comes out of the ground at the end (of Prometheus). They are roughly of the same period give or take a couple hundred years, right? Other than that, there’s no real link except it explains, I think, who may have had these capabilities, which are dreadful weapons way beyond anything we could possibly conceive, bacteriological drums of shit that you can drop on a planet." "In the original, it was a biomechanical weapon. I imagined it to be on board a war ship that had to leave its course and had to land. Perhaps it crashed because one of the aliens had escaped. The weapon was then sleeping at the crash site, waiting for someone to pass."

“I wanted a fossil, almost,” said Scott regarding the Space Jockey’s integration with his technology, “one which you’d have a hard time deciding where he leaves off and the chair, on which he died, begins.” “I always wanted to go back and make an Alien 5 or 6, where we find out where they came from and go there and answer the question, who are they? Mars is too close, so they can’t be gods of war, but the theory in my head was, this was an aircraft carrier, a battlewagon of a civilisation, and the eggs were a cargo which were essentially weapons. So right, like a large form of bacteriological/biomechanoid warfare.” “This Space Jockey I’ve always thought was the driver of the craft...[He is] a perfect example of Giger’s mind, which is ‘where does biology end and technology begin?’ because [Giger] seems to have grafted the creature into what was essentially a pilot’s seat. But clearly from here, this is where the [warning] transmission would emanate from, probably in an automatic transmission… maybe one of the eggs had been disturbed and a creature had got out, had attacked the rest of the crew, don’t ask me where they got to, but he’s pretty gruesome…” DID THE COMPANY KNOW ABOUT THE ALIEN EGGS IN THE DERELICT JUGGERNAUT? “I think any corporation that sends probes into unknown territory is going to think of the possibility of finding something new,” he said. “I’m sure that the crew members on all its ships would have been briefed to bring back anything of interest. It would be part of one’s job to bring it back. An alien, of course, would be of top priority. This particular corporation didn’t have a preconceived notion that an alien would be found on this mission, much less the particular Alien that is brought onto the ship. The idea of bringing it back alive would not have been on the minds of the corporate executives when they first received the alien transmission. They just had high expectations when they ordered the Nostromo to investigate – it was purely out of curiosity.”

THOUGHTS ON THE ALIEN

"Loose on the ship, this new alien begins to lay eggs in the bowels of the ship. It lives to propagate and must find food for its offspring - in this ace the crew of the Nostromo upon who the young aliens can feed their eggs until a new host comes along and prods the eggs. Then the cycle begins all over again." "What gave us the cocoon concept was that insects will utilize other's bodies to be hosts of their eggs. That's how the alien would use Dallas and each of the crew members it kills. This explains why the alien kills them one by one. It wants to use each person as a separate host each time it has new eggs…The biological make up of humans was useful, however, for the alien eggs to feed on…"Omni: Screen Flights, Screen Fantasies. “Like a butterfly or an insect, it [the Alien] has a very limited lifespan in which to reproduce itself … [it] only has a limited life cycle of, maybe, four days like an insect … the Alien lifeform lived to reproduce … [Ripley] killed it, but it would have died soon anyway.”

THOUGHTS ON THE EGG-MORPH SCENE IN ALIEN “What gave us the cocoon concept was that insects utilize others’ bodies to be the hosts of their eggs,” Ridley said in 1984. “That’s how the Alien would use Dallas and each of the crew members it kills. This explains why the Alien doesn’t kill everybody at once, but rather kills them off one by one: it wants to use each person as a separate host each time it has new eggs.” "Loose on this ship, this new alien, begins to lay eggs in the bowels of the ship. It lives to propagate and must find food for it's offspring - in this case, the crew members of the Nostromo, upon whom the young aliens can feed in their eggs until a new host comes along prodding the eggs. The life cycle begins all over again" "The scene which was cut was one in which one of the crew discovers the bodies of one of the others being used as food. It was just too gruesome."

"They are morphing, metamorphosing…they are changing into, being consumed, I guess, by whatever the alien organism is, into an egg." THOUGHTS ON ASH Ash was programmed with a human ‘back-story’, though he was well aware of his artificial nature: “That was a consideration I had to deal with. There are a number of ways of approaching it, but the possibilities come down to either letting him know or programming him so he thinks he’s human. All the space in between was open, but we went with letting him know. If we had decided to keep it from him, there were all kinds of things we could have done, from programming him to know at a certain point, like an emergency, or even putting a complete memory in him that would give him a complete background – parents, schooling, brothers, the whole thing.” “We theorized that the Alien would feel or understand that Ash was a construction of robotics, however complex and strange, Because Ash wasn’t human, he’d have been no use as a host for its eggs.”

"It all start with 2001…HAL was one of the most genius ideas of Kubrick, where the machine takes over. Then I had to do a film called Alien, and in there we had a great idea of having any corporate vehicle or vessel of such magnitude and cost, would have to have a company man on board. Better if the company man is an AI, and nobody on board knows who the AI is. It's always kept a secret. Because everyone looks human, no one knows…Ash is in fact the after runner of David and Walter."

THOUGHTS ON THE NOSTROMO CREW “I guess if you spend a lot of time together in space the camaraderie will  gradually disappear, and each person will become isolated with their own thoughts and their memories of where they’ve been and where they’re going to. And therefore, all of the characters are designed as not really being comrades. There’s a kind of cold relationship amongst all of them.” “I think the crew members of the Nostromo seem spirited only because of their argumentative nature, which is due to the fact that they probably can no longer stand the sight of each other. It wouldn’t matter how it was all worked out in the pre-voyage stage, where a computer probably determined the compatability of the unit; like all crews in confined spaces, they’d get on one another’s nerves and would be cutting each other’s throats in six months’ time. I tried to glean as much as I could from present-day astronauts who go through preparing for prolonged periods in space. I then factored in ten years in space and tried to envision how a character would react to going off for that kind of period. Obviously it would raise all sorts of psychological problems above and beyond claustrophobia and melancholia.” “I loved the minimal dialogue, the minimalist characterisation – what do you need to know? Once this thing is loose, I don’t want to have scenes talking about mum and dad back on the planet.” "you can’t afford to have love affairs in deep space. If you do, you immediately have two groups aboard. The pair who are in love and the rest of the crew. That’s the beginning of problems unless you are a space pioneer and settle down with your family.” "There was a line through the movie which had a … more by innuendo than anything else, that there was something going on between Dallas and she [Ripley]. And then later, I thought what was really curious was -could be interesting- there was something going on between her and Veronica, which I thought was far more probable. I mean a hundred years from now, you know, that’s certainly not gonna be remarkable in space. In fact, in space relationships are probably gonna be discouraged, and if you have the need for sex, it can be with either gender. Really doesn’t matter, right?”

“Veronica was always great at barely controlled terror. Catatonic terror. She’s always like, two steps from a heart attack, which I think she finally does at the end – have a heart attack.” "I wanted Lambert to get sucked out of the ship through an opening about the size of a keyhole. Not a very heroic ending – but dramatic. We couldn’t afford it, besides, I couldn’t work out in those days how to squeeze a body through a hole that big.” ON THE AGE OF THE NOSTROMO "Speaking of the Nostromo’s technology, Ridley Scott said in 1979 that “the machine that they’re on could in fact be 60 years old and just added to over the decades. The metal-work on it could be 50 years old.” That means it is much older than the Prometheus and Covenant.

ABOUT QUESTIONS NOT DIRECTLY ANSWERED “The clues are there right through (in Prometheus). I do hope they don’t write essays about this in thirty years time. I’d rather they got it now. It’s all there if you are looking. It’s quite subtle.” ON CRITICISM OF HIS FILMS "I don't make films for other people. I make films for me. And so far its pretty good, because I'm still here after 35 years. So there's a great expression, 'f**k you very much'."

ABOUT FILM SUCCESS AND PROFIT "The global world market place is changing…entertainment looks attractive when you read about the few films that makes these insane amount of money, but what they (investors) don't know is that they don't always do that. There's a level going about it on the business side, and that's not necessarily the box office. If it does fine in the box office, that's OK. But - it will play for years on television, reissuing DVDs…and so on, and so on. So there is an industry just in that…a lot of the revenue comes in from that over the years…The important thing to do is make it."

[celiottjohnston]

Article: A Grandiose Unbelief

Author’s Note: The below article was penned prior to the global spread of the COVID-19 virus.

When paying close attention, bathroom reading at an interactive firm can turn up all sorts of interesting things. Take for instance the following closing quote from the compelling but conspicuously titled “Humans of Late Capitalism” meta-prologue  Hot Right Now: A Contemporary Landscape for Digital Thinkers: Volume 2. “Now…” is an annual collection of thoughts and trends published by Awwwards Online SL, a design competition body that aims to “recognize the talent and effort of the best web designers, developers and agencies in the world.”:

Transhumanism & The Digital Messiah

There's much more to say about emerging technologies, social utopias and hallucination of beautiful and perverse futures. Despite all the disturbing examples about big corporations, airports scanning our faces, and the shocking birth of Lulu and Nana we should be optimistic. Ideas with the potential to change the world and improve our living conditions are appearing thick and fast.

Faith in technology is substituting religious beliefs. Now, not only God can give us immortality, or create other realities. Quantum physics, virtual reality or genetic modification can do it too. Transhumanism" [sic] has the prophetic vision to transcend the species beyond our biological destiny, to abandon forever the darkness of a world out of our control, previously guided by bibles and legends and protected by saints and shamans.

Considering the healthy amount of technical and philosophical nuance woven into this colorful HOLC authored (or inspired?) excerpt, I want to quickly restate its premise, using more straightforward language. Of course, it’s not lost on me that a simple restate is still a formidable task. This is because, in true Derridean fashion, most any position proposed by a metamodernity-steeped author can be abandoned when under scrutiny, with challenges dismissed as hot takes, understood out of context or humorous intent. Therefore, caveats and disclaimers aside, here is my interpretation of the excerpt:

Barring oft-discussed examples that threaten to capitalize on, privacy-invade, or genetically engineer our lives, many emerging technologies and scientific breakthroughs are generally beneficial to humanity and should be viewed as such. In fact, they, in their various practical and philosophical forms, promise a future unhinged from the burdens of mortality. A future where technology can play a central role as our collective evolutionary leverage point, propelling humanity into a state of godlike transcendence -- all apart from the oppressive traditions and liturgies of organized religious faith.

First, a Clarification

Before addressing the primary syllogism, I want to first state that it is not my intent to turn this criticism into a “gotcha” exercise, with the intent of identifying every technical, scientific, or logical false premise found in the preceding paragraphs. Much of the author’s content prior to this excerpt, as already mentioned, is compelling, and any reader interested in the current state of quantum physics, virtual reality, (or) genetic modification should study each of the advancements in each of these fields when considering the validity of the author’s broader assertions. I agree that the use of persistent government-sponsored surveillance, casual genetic modification, and tech monopoly-offered services (slyly marketed as convenience enhancers) is disturbing, and requires even further critical analysis. Furthermore I can also recognize the bold genius behind beneficial technology-driven advancements -- such as the groundbreaking work of Carbon Engineering or MarinaTex. Likewise with Kiva or Flikshop, whose tech infrastructure is focused on upending systematic injustice, or devices such as the Light Phone and Project Alias, that attempt to frost the open windows of our 21st Century lives. There is no doubt that these, like other similar innovations, stand as shining examples of human creativity, and enable human flourishing! But as inspired as these innovations are, I’m afraid that they don’t support the same grandiose vision, as the messiah-tech the author so eagerly promotes. It is against that attempt, to replant the tired old flag of human transcendence into religion, the oft referenced whipping boy of “rationalism”, that I make my argument.

Through a Glass Darkly

For starters, let’s touch on the fact that the author presupposes some kind of universally-grasped wisdom, with the power to illuminate a moral divide between “good” and “bad” technologies, while also basically pronouncing the irrelevance of religion -- arguably the origin point and catalyst behind all philosophical or moral discernment. Ignoring the fact that across the breadth of human experience, moral discernment has not been found to be the byproduct of a common sense dualism, buried deep in all of our cerebral cortexes and ready for action, but rather an outgrowth of the process of maturity, or put in the language of my faith, Sanctification. This maturity is a fuel for discernment not cultivated in the vacuum of egoistic pursuits, or in the ever changing mind of popular opinion, but instead, initiated by humility and refined in a crucible of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel -- also known as Aquianas’ four intellectual gifts of the Spirit. Instead, as is evidenced by popular examples, if moral discernment is sought outside of a framework grounded in the aforementioned wisdom, it is often bereft of substance, blown this way and that by the winds of cultural consensus.

The Roots of Truth

The author then attempts to reinforce this presupposed duality by contextually invoking the tired false dichotomy of technology (and by extension science) against religion, painting one as the Young Turk and the other as the incumbent Bourgeoisie. Contrary to this assumption, historians of science have addressed the so-called Conflict Thesis false dichotomy so often that they’ve in fact given their collective criticism of it an official title, the Conflict Myth. Rather, I would encourage the author to consider a third way: that science (in this case referenced under its engineered manifestation, technology) is not only critically informed by a robust understanding of humanity’s condition, ethics, morality, and frailty, but is also a direct offshoot of religion. As evidence for this assertion, I turn to Tolstoy’s great work of self-reflection, My Religion:

According to the doctrine of the Church, men have a right to happiness, and this happiness is not the result of their own efforts, but of external causes. This conception has become the base of science and philosophy. Religion, science, and public opinion all unite in telling us that the life we now live is bad, and at the same time they affirm that the doctrine which teaches us how we can succeed in ameliorating life by becoming better, is an impracticable doctrine. Religion says that the doctrine of Jesus, which provides a reasonable method for the improvement of life by our own efforts, is impracticable because Adam fell and the world was plunged into sin. Philosophy says that the doctrine of Jesus is impracticable because human life is developed according to laws that are independent of the human will. In other words, the conclusions of science and philosophy are exactly the same as the conclusion reached by religion in the dogmas of original sin and the redemption.

Utopia! Take 694!

But chiefly I’m stunned by the author’s ability to ignore the narrative of human nature as played out throughout history, by instead presenting a future unfettered by religion and tuned by transcendent posthumans as blissfully utopian. I contend that this reductionism, which in a roundabout way hopes to (once again) pin mankind’s depravity on oppressive religion, ignores the countless examples of man’s proclivity toward egoism, subjugation, and abuse. Whether we look to well known examples from religion, irreligion, politics, economics, scientism, philosophy, or individual examples any other human pursuit, all it takes to debunk said reductionism is a spoonful of personal honesty and a critical view of the evidence. A point that can be underlined most vigorously by a candid observation made by Einstein in his 1917 letter to friend Heinrich Zangger:

“All of our exalted technological progress, civilization for that matter, is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.”

If anything, the humorous observations behind the plotlines of WALL-E and Idiocracy tell a more reliable story of the future of technology-enabled mankind. Though sometimes capable of great good, humans, when left to their own devices, are base creatures, steeped in a selfish desire that even the most secular researchers claim to observe.

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Instead of entering into a virtual utopian ideal, I rather wonder if we would instead be inclined to becoming the despotic tyrants of the author’s “other realities” -- similarly to the primary antagonists in 2k’s Bioshock franchise of games, subjugating our silicon dreams to the horrors of the human condition?

[edric-unsane]

0.2 THE SKY MAY BE THE LIMIT, BUT WHO’S PAYING FOR THE GAS?

First and foremost I will point out that the barriers to learning and applying that which one has learned are not at all unique to magic nor are they unique to the different traditions which apply them (i.e. British Traditional Witchcraft, Thelema, Hermeticism, etc.). The notion that if one wishes to learn and apply specific talents or skills in modern society will almost certainly not be free of cost is something most of us can acknowledge based on the fact that, despite where people fall on the income scales, cost is something we collectively experience.

Here is a list of the costs that, in my experience, are common to the practice of magic followed by descriptions for each:

Monetary Costs

The Knowledge - Despite the numerous resources on magic that are available in the modern age, very little of it is in any sense truly “free.” Whether one looks to their local library, the internet, books, or the practitioners of magic themselves, there are certainly monetary costs involved, regardless of if the person interested is paying out of pocket or not.

Public libraries need physical books which take up physical space which requires maintenance (both books and the structure that houses them), the employment of support staff, and utilities (such as heat, water, electric, etc.). All of these factors rely on monetary funds.

The internet has monetary costs as well. From having the internet set up in one’s own home, to the free Wi-fi available at my local Starbucks, all the way to the devices we use to access or support the internet, it all costs someone something. Another cost to be aware of when it comes to the internet, its infrastructure, and the technologies which encircle it is the environmental impacts which also translate to cost. Computers, mobile phones (smart or not), tablets, and the servers which house the world wide web, all contain parts which come from the planet such as rare metals and minerals, and if carelessly discarded can be toxic to our environments as well.

Books can be costly both for authors, their publishers, and their readership.

Some common costs for authors include but are not limited to such things as the research of physical resources on subjects of interest, travel costs related to subjects of interest, the cost of the time the author puts into the book, and the costs which can be involved due to the author’s emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.

Publishers need to print the material, which depending on the word count, local, regional, and other governmental laws, supply considerations (such as availability, and environmental and social considerations pertaining to how eco-friendly the materials being used are as well as where said materials are coming from and who is supplying the labor), conscripting one or more artists to design the cover and/or create any custom images (artwork, diagrams, etc.) for the work, editorial staffing, marketing, and numerous other factors, can be costly.

From traveling to your local bookseller or ordering a copy off a website, readers tend to pick up the aforementioned costs of both author and publisher. Other factors that have an impact on how much a reader will pay for a book are things such as popularity, regional availability (do you have to import the book?) of the book, how old the book is (is the title still in print?), method of transporting the book (either shipping it to your doorstep, or picking it up locally), taxes, fees, and the time involved.

Magical Practitioners can stack up quite a bit of costs as well. There can be many reasons as to why one who devotes oneself to the study and practice of magic seemingly spends a great deal to do so. As stated throughout the paragraphs above, learning can be costly. Most of those who have experienced some form or forms of basic schooling (like math, science, art, and language [reading, writing, and speaking]) would be able to acknowledge that there is just so much to learn, know, and practice, that it can be frustratingly daunting. Magic in theory and practice is no different.  The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle put it far more eloquently when he said, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Magical Practitioners incur more costs than just that of the price to be in the know. Some common examples to point to are the tools used to perform magic in most traditional magic systems, and the travel costs that one may incur by being formally trained and initiated in such traditions.

Magical tools, whether homemade or purchased, can range from dollars and cents to a thousand dollars or even more for just a single tool. The most relevant reason for magical tools being either costly or inexpensive is availability. The convenience of shopping online in modern times is well known, websites such as Amazon.com, for instance, have become the modern day equivalent of what the Sears Roebuck and Co. Catalog was for me as a child. The black handled knife or ritual knife (commonly referred to as an “athame” by many Wiccan and Pagan traditions) is one of the most well known magical tools, and is available on websites like Amazon’s. You can find black handled knives in all manner of sizes, styles, and prices. Custom black handled knives, such as those from Omega Artworks, can range a couple hundred dollars and up depending on what the customer wants (but damn if Omega’s craftsmanship isn’t some of the best for both quality and beauty). Another thing to be aware of is that many practitioners often have multiple sets of the same tool. As of the current date of writing I have four ritual knives. Reasons for owning so many of one type of magical tool can be as varied yet simple as why someone would own many different versions of Darth Vader or Spider-Man action figures. The reason for owning so many of the same tool that I find important to address is that it can be heavily frowned upon if not completely against the tenets of many magical traditions to use one’s tools outside of that tradition’s belief structure. 

Formal training in one or more magical traditions may and usually does incur costs. 

As touched upon above, when a practitioner gains initiation into a tradition their tools are usually consecrated (magically attuned or dedicated) to that tradition’s defined use, belief structure, and or God(s), and they can be expensive to buy and maintain.

Transportation is also something to consider as one will probably have to find a means of getting to the teacher’s location or paying so that the teacher may get to you.

Food is important too. When I was in the process of learning a system of magic known as British Traditional Witchcraft, there was an expectation that the seekers (common term for aspiring students) would bring something appetizing to share with everyone (not to mention it was 60 mile to and from, and I do not drive!).

Now all of this might not seem like a big deal to some, but allow me to explain why it is. According to research conducted by Pew, to be middle class in America, one’s income needs to be between 67% and 200% of your state’s median income. If you take Pew’s 67% and stack it against Minnesota’s (the state in which I reside) 2013 median income of $58,476 you should get $39,178.92, which would be representative of being at the bottom of the middle class in the state of Minnesota. If one were to fall under that number, you would be considered the lower class. The fact of the matter is there are a great deal of people in my state (and probably yours as well) that are having a hard time affording basic needs, much less a career in magic.

The fact of the matter is that having little to no money to throw at our interests just down-right makes life hard to cope with. That so many people are in this situation speaks to the current socio-political climate in the United States as of 2018. If you are poor in today’s society, life sucks really hard.

What does one do when everything is seemingly expensive when it come to learning magic? Well, first off, (please?) purchase this book, and secondly, the truth is that you don’t need to have an unlimited source of money to perform magic! All one should need for the purposes of this book are the book itself, time, and something to write and draw with (pen and paper, cellular phone, computer, etc.). That’s all there is to it. All of the exercises in this book will require no more than that. But why then, did I go through a long list of things that will cost you money? The simplest answer I can give is that I want my readers to be armed with the knowledge to make a rational and informed decision as to whether or not the subject matter of this book will be up their alley.

Come back in a couple weeks for:

0.3 COMING BACK DOWN TO REALITY

[zingara84]

Hello!

Greetings, dear Tumblr! I haven’t been active on here in a very long time. I wanted to write this post to explain where I’ve been, what I’m working on, and what’s going on with the future of this blog.

First things first, as I referenced late-last year, I moved back to Germany. (I say “back” because I’d spent my first tentative months here back in 2014.) This time, I came with the intention of staying long-term, so I had to apply for a work permit. That process took me nearly half a year, plus another 2 months before I got an official “tax number” (something freelancers are required to have), and in between all of the appointments, portfolio-building, etc., I have also spent a LOT of time looking for housing. Berlin’s housing market is tough, and since September of last year, I haven’t spent more than about 3 months in any given place. Constant moving/apartment searching is not my preferred way to spend vast stretches of my time when I could be living my life and pursuing my passions instead, but, alas, sometimes that stuff just needs to be done.

In the middle of this process — sometime back in November — I began having very odd problems with Tumblr. It was glitching to the point that I could do practically nothing with the site. I couldn’t even log out (without an interminable freeze) to try logging back in again! If I were tech-savvy, this might not have been an issue, but I’m not, so this went on until at least sometime in December, at which point I decided, “You know what? Maybe I’m just not meant to be blogging here right now.” I took that as a sign to focus my attentions elsewhere for the time being.

At this point, I am now officially a resident of Germany, with permission to work as a freelance “Editor, Writer, und Writing Consultant.” I had to spend a lot of time building up my editing business in order to make a solid case for myself with the immigration bureau, and I mostly put writing and card reading aside while I was getting on my feet and pulling my application portfolio together. I specialize as an academic copyeditor with a strong focus also on editing creative work (e.g., personal essays, websites). You can read more about the editing I do here. As for the “Writer” bit, I haven’t branched out yet into the world of writing original pieces for pay, but writing is my dream, so hopefully I’ll be moving in that direction soon. In the mean time, since I deliver tarot readings as written reports, I am still able to offer readings. (More on my tarot readings in a moment.) And the “Writing Consultant” bit on my work permit. . . well, that’s basically just an aspect of my editing work; I blend my teaching and editing experience with insights from creative writing study in order to help clients become stronger writers themselves. I love helping people become more confident and effective communicators, as well as — when we are working together on memoir-style narratives of theirs — helping them to find a deeper sense of meaning in and appreciation for their own life stories. So, these are some of the things I am allowed to do to support myself here on this visa. If you ever need editing help, if you want a coach for writing (or personal development through writing), if you’d like a tarot reading, or if you would like to hire me to write an article, please let me know!

Back to tarot: as mentioned, I spent a long time focusing almost exclusively on building my editing business. I sometimes find it difficult to switch between the analytical mindset of academic editing and the intuitive/creative mindset of tarot reading, and since the editing work makes an easier sell with immigration officials, I prioritized that. At the same time, my life circumstances, for a while now, haven’t been very conducive to the downtime, alone time, and/or grounding work I find to be an integral part of maintaining the clear mind and peaceful heart from which I prefer to offer guidance. As I focused so intensely on basic survival/immigration concerns (e.g., finding a series of apartments, taking on sometimes-excessive hours of editing work) and on managing the anxiety that many of these challenges triggered, I decided I preferred not to make myself available for readings. I feel clearer and more centered now — as well as thankful that I don’t have any immediately pressing immigration-related needs to address — so my Etsy shop will be going back “on.”

On that note, getting settled here and grounding more fully in my inner peace are somewhat ongoing efforts, so you may see my Etsy shop going in and out of vacation mode at times. But I’ve been reading cards since I was 16 (That’s more than half my life now, wow!), and it’s something I truly love to do, so I anticipate I will just keep coming back to it. Given that I now live in Europe, on the Euro, I’ve changed my prices to Euro. However, being from the U.S.A., I’m sympathetic to the fact that the exchange rate is not always kind. I try not to make a habit of running a bargaining-based business model because I believe in charging a fair price from the get-go, but if the exchange rate is ever particularly harsh for you, feel free to ask me about minor adjustments; I’d be glad to try to find a way to work with your needs.

As for my writing, I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a new blog; I took the Tumblr glitching last year as a sign as well, perhaps, that it was time for me to seek a new platform. When I have the new blog figured out, I will gladly share it with you. It will probably have a somewhat different focus than this one took on over the years; I began this blog as an outlet for the simple fact that I love to reflect on life and write about it. I find it helpful to “practice” writing about daily life, as that keeps me evolving as a memoirist. Life is beautiful, life is magical, the adventure of being here is an incredible gift, and taking the time to reflect on what we’re living and to mine it for meaning makes our journeys all the richer and more fulfilling. For me, writing about daily life is, in itself, a spiritual practice. (Many artists would say the same about their own art, I’d wager.) It is also a huge part of the way that I “learn” — and have any “spiritual” insights to share — in the first place. So you will likely see more memoir-style stuff on there, once it’s up and running. I still want to include reflective philosophical pieces though, too, so it will be a mix. I’m not sure how much of a Q&A format the new blog will take (like this blog has had in the past); that will depend largely on how much I can feasibly convert blogging into work that can sustain me. However, I’m open-minded about how it will evolve. :) In the mean time, again, I am happy to offer personalized guidance for you in the form of tarot card readings.

And finally: a (hopefully uplifting) word about twin flames. You might have noticed that, even before i disappeared from Tumblr, I stopped writing much about twin flames. This is simply because I don’t feel I have much more to say about them than what I have already said. I might, of course, come across more inspiration in the future — in which case I will very excitedly write new posts! — but I have always believed that, regardless of the labels you do or don’t apply to a person, the same fundamental guidelines UNIVERSALLY apply: mutual respect (including mutual respect for boundaries); speaking your heart in a loving way; remembering that healthy, unconditional love is non-attached; reminding yourself that unconditional love has no price (including the fact that you will NEVER need to “earn” unconditional love through suffering); checklists aren’t definitive; labels are unnecessary; no program or to-do list is necessary for what’s meant to be; and no personal growth program, to-do list, or service that comes from an ethical mindset and is worth your while will promise you any given outcome or another regarding someone else’s free will. In other words, finding peace with a twin flame situation is not about labels, “payment” in any form, chasing, manipulations, etc. I suspect that just about anything I have ever had to say about “twin flames” or any other kind of relationship will reflect these core beliefs. Of course, my beliefs are just that: my beliefs. This doesn’t mean that they are THE beliefs, much less beliefs that anyone else must share. But to explain where I come from when I reflect on matters of love, I don’t see my beliefs on love as particularly New Age; they don’t involve a reliance on spiritual “hierarchies,” on channeled messages from love “authorities,” on schedules of “DNA upgrades” (or any other claims masquerading as science). That isn’t to say that I think less of anyone for following other paths or entertaining other lines of thought: just that, aside from messages about PURE LOVE — no bells, whistles, celestial/extraterrestrial third parties, or “upgrades” required — just love, which is awe-inspiring in itself . . . I don’t feel I have much else, on the phenomenon, to offer. ;) So I don’t see myself writing much “new” content on twin flames in the coming months, though that isn’t to say I won’t return to or refine an idea I expressed previously. I truly hope you can continue to find comfort and guidance in what I’ve already written here on the subject over the years. And even more importantly, I hope that you can connect with the comfort and guidance your own beautiful heart has been waiting to share with you. ♡

If you’ve read this far, thank you very much! My “return” to Tumblr is going to be very sporadic for the time being, because I need to keep focusing the majority of my time and energy on holdin’ it down, payin’ the bills, settlin’ in (including learning Deutsch!), and all that jazz. In a dream world, I can eventually build up enough of an income through writing and guidance services that I can put the editing aside and devote more time to my online presence, interacting with readers. I’m not there juuuust yet, but I’m excited for the journey, and I am very appreciative for your interest in my writing along the way. Knowing that people look forward to and find something valuable in my words means a great deal to me and is an important part of what keeps me coming back to, and trying to find a way to live from, my passions. My hope for you is that you, too, can connect with and build a life around yours.

Wishing you all SO much peace and love! Blessings, Laura