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Part two of return conversation with author Peter Watts, on the flashlight trying to find the darkness, consciousness as a function of matter or as an energetic template for matter, MKULTRA fragmentation, the impossibility of being two subjects, alien walk-ins and alien hand syndrome, psyche vs. brain, the brain as meat, dissecting the psyche, non-scientific knowing, the limits of science, Peter’s attempt to write himself out of his own box, the assumption of a consistent universe, when the laws of physics break down, knowing things that are untrue, being an embodied psyche, body-swap boxing, a post-human Peter Watts, a sense of unfathomable depths, fitness spaces, a theoretical blob, a multi-dimensional space, the difference between Watts & Horsley, the psyche as place-keeper, Einstein’s cosmological constant, demonstrating the existence of the psyche, Transhumanism & the sins of our copies, Egyptian science of the soul, evidence for the afterlife, making the experiment.
Songs: “The Kommema and his Religion” and “Of the Lakes,” by SunWalker; “La Faon dont la Machine vers lArrire,” by Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Dear Jasun,
Really enjoy this discussion on the brain/psyche. Firstly, we know that the ” brain” is not just in the brain ( neurons have been linked to the immune system, heart and bowel etc.) and all cells house intelligence. This fact lends credibility to the psyche being ” non-local” or outside material observation? ( read The Gene by Mukerjee,MD). Neuroscience, or the naming of it, is pretty much a new fangled take on our consciousness without even referencing the likes of Julian Jaynes or even Alan Watts whose reads were prophetic, if not scientific. At any rate, we know only that we don’t know ( even the Higgs discovery is being supplanted), so best to keep open to all possibilities!
Hi again. Sorry I’m so late to part 2 of this party.
Don’t have an opinion as to whether MPD exists or not. What I can tell you is as someone who experienced the new-fangled version of converting a person to a ‘useful idiot’ {one of my terms, see link below}, that it’s not necessary in to have an asset who is unaware of what they do under another personality. All that is necessary is for the asset to be *confused* as to *why* they did what they did and that is simple enough to accomplish. Investigation into the person’s background would turn up no connection to the intelligence community, leaving the investigators baffled as to what actually occurred or forced to chalk it up to mental illness.
Brainjacked – Intro.
As I noted on my other blog, I’ve no idea where, if anywhere, that fiction piece is going and I hate the working title. But this is what I gather is the basic idea and the basic reasons for MK/Ultra, especially in light of more recent books like The Devil’s Chessboard and knowing some history where millionaires, and not the US Treasury, funded CIA operations in, for example, Central America. It’s cheap/free labor AKA slavery and done in such a way that anyone implying it is possible or true is labeled a nutter even though the motivations, greed and power, are things that most people can grasp.
One of the more psychologically disturbing events, that, if I wrote somewhere else I don’t remember having done so because I haven’t had much to say about it, was scratching my face off of a photo of myself. This was early 2010 while still in NYC. I recall doing it, but I don’t recall precisely the motivation, the mindset, nor my emotional state apart from being scared, confused, and a bit manic.
The demonic possession allegory you brought up is one I’ve often contemplated as well. Look, regardless of what it is, I know what I think it is as do you…but regardless, when an urge to do an action that is not wise enters the mind, it is *useful* to think of it as coming from an external source with motives at odds with the individual’s. Whether that’s a sort of placebo/nocebo thing is another question.
All of that said, I did find the ‘Gang of Four’ in Peter’s Blindsight novel to be one of many fascinating scientific ideas in the book just from a scifi / science geek perspective.
Re the horror story thing and being conscious, there’s a short story I read years ago, can’t recall which anthology, the title nor who wrote it, but it involved the process required for transport over very long distances. In order to travel this way, each passenger is prepared for the trip and is put in a sort of suspended animation. There’s a family traveling from one planet to another this way and the young son pretends to undergo the prep but somehow avoids doing it out of curiosity. When they arrive at the destination, his hair is white, he is obviously insane, and says over and over, “Forever is longer than you think,” obviously revealing the reason for the prep into stasis.
And of course I found it and it’s Stephen King’s “The Jaunt”
‘The Jaunt’ at Wikipedia.
I remember the story well; it haunted me; I think I brought it up recently somewhere? Deja vu…? Some interesting thoughts here…