Elucidating consciousness: Neil Kramer at the first ARC Convention.
One afternoon some time back I was lying on my bed in the dark, eyes closed (as one does), when a vision appeared vividly before me. I was out in a vastness of black space, staring up at a bright elongated whorl. Composed of various gases and tiny particles of matter, it seemed to be a self-contained unit moving slowly through space. As for myself, I was standing on another whorl of material, but one of greater substance and solidity. As the image persisted, remaining both vivid and real, I became increasingly puzzled about its meaning. Then I heard a voice uttering the words 'Control System', before the vision faded, leaving me once more alone in the dark room.
I have pondered over this strange experience as the weeks have passed, slowly coming to digest its meaning, and only now feeling prepared to share it with others. It was indeed a vision of the nature of the Control System, a term coined by Neil Kramer and applied on Pale Green Vortex as most suitable for describing the matrix of politics, finance, law, media, religion, and pure thirst for power that tries to mould the human environment we inhabit. Significantly, it presents itself in the vision as a separate, self-contained unit. Although in one way we all participate in its machinations, simply through being unable to live literally separated lives, in another way the Control System constitutes a world unto itself, the various elements feeding off and supporting each other. Significantly also, despite seeming at first sight to be a huge, bright mass, on closer inspection the System is seen to be formed of gases and small particles only: it's all hot air, and insubstantial beyond its superficial appearance.
Most vitally, I have come to realise that the Control System as manifested in the vision is in turn a construct of consciousness; or, let us say, a particular form of consciousness. The social, political, and economic world we find ourselves in is a creation of a particular type of consciousness. Nothing more, nothing less. And, what's more, there is nothing fixed or inevitable about that form of consciousness and the hold it currently appears to have on the mainstream of human affairs. Ideas such as 'this is the way we were made' or 'this is the way we've always been'; ideas about 'this being human nature' or Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest evolutionary declarations reveal themselves to be merely superstitious beliefs, and/or excuses dished up to help maintain the current heartless and shameful status quo.
As alluded to in various posts sprinkled throughout Pale Green Vortex, it has become clear to me that there is nothing inevitable about the form that a human consciousness takes. The Control System, along with its concomitant dominator culture, continues to replicate like a bad habit, or some kind of malignant virus. It maintains its power by constantly feeding its own poisonous view into the popular culture, and by forcibly cutting off knowledge of, and access to, other possibilities of consciousness. A good deal of its energy goes into reinforcing and deepening a sense of unconsciousness in other human beings, as well as bolstering erroneous beliefs such as the 'this is all inevitable' one.
A deeper engagement with our own minds, achieved through courageous practice of a variety of means and techniques, especially maybe those associated with shamanic traditions, reveals the veracity of what I have written. Habits, thought patterns, begin to be seen as just that - habits and patterns only. Slowly, like peeling an onion, layer after layer of habit falls away, until the human rests in a state of pure openness, consciousness and energy tied to and identified with nothing in particular. We approach what I refer to as zero point, and thereby enter a realm of infinite possibility.
It is this, the true nature of mind, that is anathema to the Control System which, as in my vision, appears to be so strong but on closer inspection proves to be insubstantial. Living in a state of constant fear and paranoia, its tactics become evermore desperate. Too many people experience their own true nature, and the Control System will implode on itself, collapsing like a castle built of playing cards.
A well-known pictorial representation of this 'existence as construct of consciousness' idea is the Tibetan Wheel of Life. This teaching aid (which is what it really is) consists of four concentric circles, one of which purports to illustrate the six different 'realms of existence'. These are the following: devas, godlike beings; asuras or titans - jealous and ambitious warrior-types, who fight for supremacy; the humans; animals; pretas (beings with insatiable cravings); and hell beings, consumed by anguish, pain, and tortures. As believers in multi-dimensional reality, Tibetan Buddhists traditionally have no difficulty in taking these as literally different types of being. More modern western interpreters, hot on psychology but burdened with the constricts imposed by pseudo-scientific rationalism, regard the realms as depicting potentials within the mind of the individual human; the teaching is about inner life rather than outer realities. The construct of consciousness as manifested through the vision actually cuts through both overtly subjective and objective interpretations. It suggests that very different types of consciousness can incarnate in the human form. Control System consciousness (roughly aligned with the asura realm on the Wheel of Life) forms its own distinct world, to the extent that it is almost as if it has become its own type of entity. I include the 'as if' caveat deliberately; I am talking visionary/observational rather than philosophical/ metaphysical here. But I am suggesting that Control System consciousness is at such variance with, say, deep spiritual/shamanic consciousness that it is as if we have different entity forms here.
While literal detachment from the machinations emanating from Control System mentality is hardly practical, elegant disengagement forms a satisfying and realistic strategy. Weaving around and through, deftly dancing, touching and being touched without getting trapped in the tangled web.
And the vision makes clear one aspect to a recurring theme on Pale Green Vortex: how to make the revolution? The demonstration or Zen? It shows that direct confrontation is futile, since it can take place only on the terms set by the construct that is being confronted. The construct works by rules that we do not share; 'taking over' won't work, but will simply invoke the spectre of Animal Farm once again. Revolution, radical change, is first and foremost a matter for consciousness.
