Hello Brin-List.
Recent events make me glad I'm still subscribed to a list like this. Even
though I don't read every post or follow many threads, I continue to find the
content with a high percentage of worthwhile material.
For the sake of it, I wrote an essay to represent my thoughts on the subject
everyone seems to be voicing opinions about: 9/11. More philosophical than
political. (text below).
Glad to be here,
T.Sands
ON THE COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF 9/11/01
I am writing this in an attempt to examine recent global events in a
philosophical and spiritual light, and perhaps to explain to myself the
significance of what is before us now. The things that happened on 9/11/01
have allowed me a unique opportunity, heretofore allowed only my father and
his father before: the opportunity to experience, as a matured man, the
phenomenon of collective tragedy, and perhaps collective revelation.
I use the world “collective” in attempting to describe the widespread impact
of events which, for the vast majority of the world populous, occurred far
away from the individuals who felt their effects. On 9/11 and the days that
followed, people in all parts of the world took in the truth of a moment
which has changed the course of Global History. This is a rare and
magnificent phenomenon which forces us to examine the nature of reality.
Personal tragedy (and revelation) is a common experience for human beings.
In his lifetime a man (or woman) is likely to experience many moments of
revelation, victory, and joy just as he is assured to experience moments of
tragedy, loss, and grief. He experiences these moments for the most part
alone, at best comforted (or celebrated) by a handful of family and friends
who empathize with him and share in his experience. His individual
psychological response to the events of his life are his and his alone,
something only he can completely understand (if he is fortunate enough to
ever actually understand them).
Collective experience is far more powerful, mysterious, and complex, and is
suggestive (I believe) of powerful forces at work beyond our individual lives.
On the day of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, billions of people worldwide had a
collective experience – an experience which, because of the images provided
by modern video and broadcast technology, transcends the limits of language.
As the hours went by and the news spread, the reality of what was occurring
swirled around the heads of countless individuals. Words spoken by news
media attempted to explain what the images contained: death and destruction
raining down upon New York City. But the words, for all their power to
communicate, could not – and cannot – ever articulate the varied human
response to realizing such a thing was happening.
Like a slowly rising tide, the collective experience grew to include the
majority of the
world population. Resonating in the minds of everyone who knew the truth was
a single, massive, indescribable moment – a moment colored with every
possible emotional response and every conceivable conclusion. It was a
moment of global revelation, for better or worse, a moment which in some way
touched the psyche of billions of human beings. In this sense, it is a
moment which has the makings of a global awakening.
To better understand what I am trying to articulate, imagine this event
occurred in a world in which language does not exist. Imagine that humans
never developed a set of symbols and phonics to help themselves understand
one another. Spread through the continents, all of humanity is deaf and
mute. In this silent world, the events in New York City and Washington D.C.,
broadcast en-masse as they were (minus text and graphics) would still have
the same impact they have had in the world as we know it. But without the
luxury of language, how would we respond? What would we be attempting to
communicate?
This is not only testament to the power of cinema, but also to the limits of
our ability to communicate to one another – an example of our shortcomings in
the realm of personal expression, as well as the single most effective
example of how motion picture technology is the best tool we have developed
so far in our attempts to bridge the gaps between us (I think telepathy is
the natural next step, though we are far from achieving it). With the time
distortion and repetition capabilities of film and video, we have been
allowed to experience something together on a global scale. The events of
9/11 exposed our raw humanity like never experienced in the history of life
on this planet. In a single moment, we all KNEW.
But what did we know?
It is this void of expression, this massive unspoken thing, which fascinates
me. I feel this moment, which manifested itself in the minds of billions of
humans beings like a flurry of synapse connections in a single collective
brain, represents the sum-total of the human experience – a moment of
collective revelation equivalent to the individual experience of death or
birth.
I say this because I believe linear time as we perceive it does not exist,
that all time is, in fact, one massive moment, and that the moments which
make up our lives are fleeting illusions. I believe the moment of collective
tragedy and revelation which occurred on 9/11 is a real and awesome glimpse
at eternity because it not only includes the feelings of loss, grief, terror
and rage evoked in Americans and other world citizens, but also the feelings
of victory, elation, joy, and redemption that were no doubt evoked in a
smaller (but still significant) sections of the population.
My personal experience of this moment could be best described as a steady
rise of consciousness which climaxed with an epiphany of sorts. Three days
after the primary events occurred, I found myself in a health clinic early in
the morning preparing to have blood drawn. With the psychological impact of
9/11 fresh in my mind, an empty stomach, and a strong phobia of needles, I
closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the syringe pierced my skin. Soon,
I sensed the plasma begin to flow out of me. I felt my stomach turn over, bec
ame nauseous and weak, and tipped my head back.
What I experienced next was a separation from my individual consciousness, a
sense I had been lost to some great void of nothingness which was then
replaced with a psychosomatic build of light and sound. Still not aware of
my own thoughts – unable to comprehend who I was or what was happening – I
was filled with something I cannot describe with any sense of justice. It
was an intense flush of piercing sensations – swirls of fear with a
tremendous forward momentum, as if falling at great speed. The sounds were
elusive, electrical, high pitched surges. Pinpoint lines of light scattered
through my frame of inner vision like flashes of starstuff. It all built to
a singular moment of nothing and everything smashing though my being at the
speed of light. Somewhere in the base of my consciousness I had a strong
feeling that I needed to emerge from the buzzing field of otherness, over
which I had no control. This feeling rose within me until the entire barrage
scattered to silence.
When I opened my eyes and saw doctors and nurses huddled around me, asking me
if I was all right, I still did not understand who I was or where I was. In
an instant, I thought I might be a victim of the attack in New York. Then,
as if waking from a powerfully real dream, I realized what was true: I had
passed out.
In the moments following this strange (and slightly embarrassing) experience,
I felt a steady calm come over me. As if I had passed through some cosmic
porthole, I viewed the world around me with different eyes. It was a
profound understanding, an absence of fear, and a baffling feeling of
excitement; a deep sense that I had crossed into a New Time, that this was my
personal connection to the Destiny of Mankind, and that it was headed
somewhere good. Yes – it was good. I knew this and I still know it like I
know I am alive. This New Time is a good one, a good time, a time that is
all time and also just a moment. Before me is a clean thin line of perfect
white light stretching into infinite blackness … and yet real life goes on.
In the days following the events of 9/11 there is no doubt the fabric of
reality has shifted, that something has happened which has for many decades
been talked about, predicted, discussed, and in some ways hoped for. Talk of
contact with extra-terrestrials, Armageddon, a second coming, global
mass-destruction, so on and so fourth, such ideas have been present in all
forms of media for some time. In recent years and with the coming of the new
millennium there has been much speculation about some kind of world-changing
event: a global spiritual awakening, the end of the world, or both.
What has come upon us now, I believe, is the appearance of such an event –
albeit in the form of an unexpected, real-life development in the History of
the World. I do not believe the End of The World has begun, but I do believe
the End of The World as We Know It has occurred, that the beginning of a new
and perhaps more powerful reality for the collective of humanity has begun –
that those of use who have awareness enough to comprehend what is happening
around us have crossed over into the New Time.
Exactly what this New Time holds for us still remains to be seen. What is
revealed in the months and years to come will be the long-term effects of
this collective moment, the extended thread of global consciousness which
stretches beyond our present comprehension. But I do believe it is in our
hands, that it is in many ways a battle of wills, a series of choices made by
individuals on a massive scale which will bring us to the ultimate collective
experience. Indeed, we are all of us writing the Fate of Humanity.
These things have happened before – these collective moments in which History
is made and the world is forever changed. Of course I was not alive when
events of this magnitude occurred in the past. But this time I am. And
somehow I feel this time is different. Right now, living the experience, it
feels as if space-time is unfolding before us, inviting us to step into the
slipstream of a New Wave. It is both familiar and fresh, an echo from the
past that will carry us into an unknown future. The start of the Next Step.
Perhaps the terrorists have done us a favor. Had they not created through
force of will the incredible collective moment of 9/11 (and the moments which
will inexorably follow), we would not now have the opportunity to experience
these changes – changes which I believe could culminate in the next peak of
consciousness for humanity.
Then again, I’m sure it felt this way to the men who experienced Historic
moments in the past. Certainly those who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima (and
those who were alive to witness it) had an unimaginable sense of
participation in the legacy of mankind. It must have overwhelmed them to
face such sights, to know such truths were happening FOR REAL. Perhaps this
feeling is nothing new. But I can’t help but wonder if this time around, the
result will be a stronger and wiser collective. Maybe it’s the optimist in
me.
Something has happened, that is for sure, something that goes beyond our
understanding, something that I know has ultimate goodness in it in spite of
the great void filled with fear. If the lives lost in the events of 9/11
were sacrificed for a cause, I believe the cause was THAT THING, that huge
unknowable thing which is the answer to all space and time, that thing that
we, as a collective, are closer than ever to grasping.
Trevor Sands
September 17, 2001
Los Angeles, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
