Masopher's Mind

We live in such a fearful world. This ash cloud debacle is the first piece of evidence. Every week in history volcanoes have erupted but never before in history have we grounded all the planes in Europe because of an eruption. For a week we waited in fear and watched as, as it turns out, a harmless cloud of smoke blew by.

I haven’t quantified it yet, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s language in the recent debates is loaded with fearful imagery. He fears a “double dip” recession; if the Conservatives cut government waste and borrowing. He fears what two remote, backward countries will do should Britain cut spending billions on nuclear weapons. He fears what would happen to the NHS if the government cuts the millions being spent on bureaucrats and failed computer systems. He fears that if we don’t continue being involved in Afghani civil wars; Saudi dissidents and Pakistani paymasters will fund some “youths” from Woking or Tower Hamlets to take out their social frustrations on innocent Brits. He and the Conservatives fear a ruined Pound Sterling if the parliament is not run in an authoritarian way. They fear a hung parliament but the UK would rejoice if every member in parliament were hung.

There will be no revolution, though it is often televised. Clegg is an admirable distraction and something fresh for young people to pin their hopes on. And that is why he has been built up; for a fall. His career and people hopes will be smashed down like all young peoples dreams are and the rotten leering lecherous old boys will return to business as usual. Even if they could get 40% of the electorate, Lib Dems could not get into power. Even with both rivals at around 25% all Clegg’s party could hope for with that improbable landslide victory is a hung parliament with them in the majority.

There are two ways to motivate someone: hope and fear. Barack Obama chose hope, McCain chose fear. Spiteful and malicious morally crippled leaders like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Saddam, Kim Jong-Il, almost any two bit dictator in South America, Africa, the Middle and Far East and pseudo democracies in Europe uses fear and intimidation to elicit compliance. Inspirational leaders like Lincoln, MLK, Kennedy and Obama use hope and dreams to prompt action. Brown chooses fear and despite the strong start, the Conservatives are choosing fear. Clegg is choosing hope.

But it isn’t that easy…politics also works on negatives…making people lose hope and promising people the alleviation of fear. Beating down people with impossible goals and perpetually loaded dice is as good as fear. Here’s a rock, there’s a greased hill, push the rock to the top and you might get what I get for free. With a constant background of fear, the promise of small relief is as good as hope. With the constant background of hopelessness the promise of free taxpayer’s money seems like a reward.

The only thing I fear is fear itself…but there is so much fear here.

A wonderfully sexy friend directed me to her sexy girlfriend’s blog which was in turn directed me to the also sexy Aart Hilal a vestal virgin (of sorts) of the ultra sexy sage Paulo Coelho. Aart and Paulo have on occasion publicized my blog based on a post I made a while back which was based on Coelho’s Alchemist and on my very sexy Fatima, so I am always interested to experience their sexuality.
My own thoughts on sexual taboo might be quite similar to Paulo’s. Because I am also a student of Jung and Napoleon Hill, more scientific and materialistic minded individuals, I understand sex in slightly different ways and I am glad if by reading you find where they intersect.

“In reality, it is far more than that, and carries with it man’s and humanity’s entire cultural burden. Each time we face a new experience, we bring with us all past experiences – both good and bad – as well as those concepts which civilization has made into rules.”

All three agree that sex is the most powerful force and aspect of our lives. Sex when done properly, meaning by integrating passion and romance is an inexorable force through which no mental or physical barrier can defend against. Think of Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Olympias; these women had such powerful sexual relationships with their mates that the object of their affection literally conquered the unconquerable. The French don’t call the heart “la Coeur” (the core) because of some coincidence in harmonics. The affairs of the heart, (sex romance passion) are the core of every human being. Every natural lifespan should involve these of some sort. No matter what we do in life; no matter what path we take, what race, language, religion, political or cultural background we have, there is one activity that we share, and that’s sex.

“Touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste, all of [the senses] are involved.”

I think this point is also important because I am unable to think of any modern activities in which our entire sensual network is naturally involved. Again “sensual” meaning related to the 5 senses and “sensual” as in relating to sex are not coincidentally bound. Sex (in its truest form) takes up so much energy and mental attention that we almost literally become physically, intellectually and mentally centered on the experience. I would like to think that this is where a true “alchemist” is different from a normal person. A normal person leaves sex in the bedroom while an alchemist takes that sexuality out into the world; the feelings, the focus, the sensitivity and alertness, the consideration and certainty, quickness of appropriate response. All of that is taken in every interaction that an alchemist has and that is when true success is achieved. Imagine a task which receives the same multi sense full being attention that sex does. That task not only gets done but gets done well! The alchemist makes love to the world so to speak and the world, funnily enough, reciprocates. As an alchemist gives himself fully to the world, the world gives him all of itself and all of its riches.
I think here is where the taboo against sex has grown into existence. Mankind lives with a “scare resources” concept. There is not enough of the worlds “love” for all of us: Not enough food and water for you and me; there is not enough minerals; not enough cars; not enough wine or gold or praise; not enough love; not enough sex. On reading Aristotle and Plato you realize why the successful Republic centered on sharing all resources, equal access to all things for all. Mankind (which is now a mixture of tyranny and democracy in their worst forms) hides sex and its valuables away because we are afraid that if it is shared, there might not be enough to go around. People are fearful that wealth, love and sex will be taken away from them or denied them altogether. Hence it is taboo to express sex and love in public because sex like all valuable things must be hidden away to prevent others from taking it. This is the great lie on which our civilization is based, this is why the taboo exists.

“When [true sex] happens, we enter a sort of ancestral ritual, which is an opportunity for transformation. All rituals, in whatever form, demand that one be ready to allow oneself to be led to another perception of the world. It is this will which lends the ritual meaning.”

I do not have the mind that fully appreciates the nuances of rituals, magic and gods but I do know the mind and how mind blowing sex is. The mind does “magical” things, it slows, reverses and fast forwards time, stops it all together, defies gravity and all laws of the universe, creates alternate universes and whole entropies. The mind also allows us to interact and integrate with other objects and people on a level which is crudely described as genius. Sex therefore becomes more than a simple physical rite but the key to genius and fulfilling your potential in every sense of the word.

Sex is an amazing yet simple experience and I for one cannot get enough of it. I enjoy being sexy and spreading Paulo’s sexiness with you all, I would go on but I don’t want to leave you saddle sore.

Enjoy!

M

Contrary to my belief when I bought the ticket to see “Lars and the real girl”, it is not a movie about a geeky perv with a blow up doll and the hijinks that ensue. Why I would buy a ticket under this impression is another story and beside the point. This story is about a man under a psychological delusion and a love story. Not between the hero and the object of his affection but between a community and one of their own who has somehow fallen out of step with the normal. It is a story about a psychologist’s role not only with people who think or believe differently but with us all. What the movie also illustrates to me is that there are delusions that we all live with. Delusions help us to cope and function. Delusions are rather benign when compared to the other psychological “illnesses” that professionals must deal with such as schizophrenia, psychosis and psychopathy. The psychologist in this story operates under no delusion that she is this man’s savior of that she is anything but a facilitator as he sorts out his own problems. She serves to educate Lars’ family about his condition rather than Lars himself.

The story is sweet and funny, emphasizing on family, community and individuals as they handle this disorder. But as the story progresses we start to see how normal this abnormality is. Lars hands a bouquet of plastic flowers to his woman saying, “They aren’t real so they last forever” and one remembers the sweet words that one whispered to another in the days of naivety. Did we all not think that love was like that? That it lasted forever? Is that not what we hoped vainly, as we embarked on new relationships; that the feelings would last? Similarly we capture moments on celluloid and in digital, so that reality is transposed onto facsimile forever, capturing something that cannot be captured. We also encourage our children to partake in delusions where stuffed toys and plastic figure become real life princesses, soldiers and tea party guests. Many of our young and older men and women are enthralled in fictional yet extremely complex worlds which really only exist once the computer or console is switched on. Even more adult games, like bowling, darts, athletics, competitive sports, are they not allegory for things that men and women do? The soap operas about non-existent characters, the fictional books and rumors and speculations which affect our financial markets: Is it then our place to destroy another’s delusion when we labor under so many delusions of our own?
I was not altogether surprised to note a few tears onscreen and even in the audience for the plastic ladies fate. Is this any more ludicrous that tears when a real life actor “dies” on screen? Is it any more ludicrous that we take up prime real estate and erect gravestones and to place over the heads of cadavers and corpses who decay away back to the earth? The gravestones aren’t there for them, funerals aren’t for the dead. They are for people to express feeling for people that no longer exist.

I end with a brief word on the most popular opponent of delusions, Dr. Richard Dawkins. I hope he would agree with me that feelings, like love and community spirit, for temporarily animated flesh is also a delusion, tricks of a selfish gene just trying to reproduce and improve itself. Lines start getting fuzzy when the flesh is no longer animated. They start to disappear if the flesh was never animated and confusion may begin to reign once matter and the laws of physics are ignored. Yet it is the delusions that helped Lars to make the developmental progress he needed to become a functioning member of his community. Delusions are helpful if not integral to the mind’s machinery and one may argue quite successfully that delusions are the basis of successful societies. Even professor Dawkins seems to labor under the delusion that it is a “God delusion” and not a complex matrix of human greed, population expansion and development, mis-education ignorance, poverty, politics and power seeking by almost all the parties that is the reason for almost any “religious” war he may care to mention. The Kenyan born, Berkley and Oxford educated gentleman should do well to remember his fellow Kenyans who were not afforded his opportunity to read Nietzsche, Socrates and Hobbes or travel the world professing something that greater men have discovered before him but were wise enough to keep to themselves . Religious delusion played no part in their recent unrest. As he mulls over a good wine or an erudite tome or perhaps his fan mail, may he reflect on the fact that for some people, delusions are all they have.