hey all,
been a while...i am only intermittently on-line
nowadays.....things are changing soon i hope.
anyway.....
recently i ran across the word 'egregor' whilst
reading the 'anastasia' books by vladimir megre.
immediately, it seemed like i had found an important
piece of a puzzle that i had been working on -
consciously and unconsciously - for some time.
from wikipedia:
"Egregore (also "egregor") is an occult concept
representing a "thought form" or "collective group
mind", an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and
influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. The
symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its
group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult
concepts of the corporation (as a legal entity) and
the meme. See also: Thought-form, as the term is
employed by Janet and Stewart Farrar."
this definition marries well with the context in which
the word was presented in the anastasia books.
the word itself goes back millenia and is seen in the
bible, apparently in connexion with 'the watchers' or
nefilim. these are angelic/demonic beings that have
the power to intervene, often ruthlessly, in human
affairs.
i don't want to concentrate on the occult/magical
interpretations of this concept though for it is the
philosopical (specifically the socio-political) angle
that seems to be most rewarding, practically speaking
(and if we ain't speaking practically i reckons we
ain't speaking at all!).
as dmb will already have grasped (and others i am
sure) what we have here, in the word 'egregor', is a
conceptualisation of Pirsig's "Giant". a
conceptualisation that complements and goes someway to
completing the picture of how social control works -
of how self-aware individuals are subjugated, enslaved
by the seemingly intangible, unreal - a ghost, a
fiction....an explanatory gap that has oft been filled
with the useless holdall - 'human nature'.
the picture is clear now: an autonomous psychic entity
created by and influencing, in turn, a group of
people.
we create, or more accurately, help sustain 'the
giant' as we become integrated within a society. the
giant (or egregor) then operates, logically, according
to the programming we have ourselves (unconsciously)
given it.
case in point: the corporation. the verb itself -
incorporate - reveals so much: it is literally the
creation of a person, an *immortal* person....an
immortal person created from the cannibalized energies
of inferior individuals... is anyone else thinking of
mary shelley here?
there is no doubt we live in an insane world, and it
has been insane for quite a while. we have been
running the same program since Moses was a boy....and
we have been getting the same results. the mist of
confusion - of bamboozlement - is clearing. there are
no bad guys here, no axis of evil, no left and right,
no us and them....there is only the same bloody
psychic mechanism that has been used since ancient
times to control groups of people....
there is a logical progression from jaynes' bicameral
mind (god is a real auditory presence, directing
individuals in the absence of the reflective cogito)
to the egregious 'egregor' of modern times. gone is
the personal, very real relationship to the divine,
replaced by the ego and that frustratingly petty
*repetitious* (very important to bicameral control
too, or any control) inner monologue that is the voice
of none other than our EGREGOR. we have swapped the
gods of divinity for the gods of vanity - callow,
shallow, jealous, banal (okay the gods have stayed the
same to some degree....the denizens of olympus were
often pretty malicious bastards and bitches - that's
for sure !)
so where does that leave us, practically?
an egregor is created and sustained by
*thought-forms*. if we think, en-masse, thoughts borne
from fear, shame, guilt etc we end up with an egregor
that instills these emotions in its subjects (yes we
are talking about chickens and eggs here - but aren't
we always?)
we are seeing the power of thoughts, of ideas of
*words* in action, every single day of our lives.
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY. the situationists developed this
concept in the 50's and 60's. the environment in which
we live is a reflection of our inner life and vice
versa (more chicken omelette anyone?). and what is our
environment like fellow urban dwellers?- ads,
billboards, bland euclidean architecture, the commands
we must heed in traffic signs, on buses (no eating or
drinking! what were you thinking!), everywhere and
then we have TV! as above so below, as outside,
inside.
so now we finally arrive at the simple inescapable
conclusion. there is but one way to change the silly
silly world in which we live - change our
thought-forms. let's stop sustaining the egregious and
start cultivating the felicitous. your thoughts are
producing not only your reality but that of everyone
around you - we are in it together.
i will finish with an anecdote. in brisbane where i
live they replaced the ticket conductors on the train
with machines at the stations and security guards that
randomly patrol the trains checking tickets (but not
selling any - service eh!). if you don't have a ticket
you are given a 150 dollar fine, no matter how valid
your excuse.
my housemate steve was faced with this situation
recently. he had jumped on a train without a ticket
because if he had waited in line to use the machine he
would have missed it. he was accosted by the
pseudo-constabulary on the train: they asked to see
his ticket - he explained that he didn't have one.
they then asked to see some ID - he refused. they
tried again - he refused. he simply kept stating,
amicably - "i have done nothing wrong, arrest me if
you wish, i am not showing you any ID and i am not
getting off the train". the security guards could do
nothing - they are not the police, they cannot use
force or arrest anyone. this control situation is
entirely see-through and maintained only by the docile
reactions of most people when confronted with an
authority presence.
so steve was (eventually) left in peace.
we have done nothing wrong.
we can live in peace.......if we want that.
it *is* up to us
Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
