No Excuses

As I recently discovered, there are two main ways to attain what might be considered close to ‘true’ freewill:

(1) To kill the Ego (Ego Death)

(2) Synthetic Immersion

Ego death can be achieved using at least three methods:

(a) Merge the Ego into the SuperEgo- this would result in the will of the self being the will of the collective. Mass-conversion to a SuperEgo-based self is the primary prerequisite to the holy grail of Socialism: Instrumentality.

This would essentially result in the Collective Unconscious becoming conscious.

The downside of instrumentality is a lack of uniqueness (which would normally be created by individuality, the bane of istrumentality). However, according to Utilitarian philosophy (a philosophy that I agree with), uniqueness itself is a bad thing, because the irrational need to be different is ultimately the source of all conflict.

If any ‘group’ of people were to attain such a state of mind, all psychic abilities would become unlocked, most prominently telepathy, telekinesis, and prophesy. The anime franchise Neon Genesis Evangelion is focused primarily on the achievement of such a consciousness, albeit ultimately deeming it dystopian in nature. The AT Field, first understood only as a forcefield that repelled or absorbed most conventional weaponry, was later revealed in NGE to be the spiritual barrier that separates the consciousness of the world from itself (to protect itself).

In a poetic sense, it is “the light of the soul”. As individualism is incremental, progression towards such an ideal would equate to the strengthening of one’s AT field; this renders one impervious to pain and every kind of emotional negativity; Hypothetically speaking, a person with an infinitely strong AT field would live forever.

The disadvantage of an AT Field is the loss of all positive emotions, as well as complete apathy, detachment, and a sense of life being fake, and ultimately, meaningless.

From my own metaphysical observations, death is the direct result of the loss of spiritual energy.

How much vitality a person has is dependent on two factors:

(1) Desire (Freedom). This refers to how much spiritual energy that each soul contains to begin with. Normally, a person can only release spiritual energy; very few people can receive it.

There are of course exceptions, and these are the source of a variety of mythology, such as vampires, soul-suckers, demons, witchcraft, and so on. There are also instances where spiritual energy can be willingly released into another individual, utilizing “God” and “miracles” as a catalyst and spiritual transfer medium.

In theory, a person of exceptionally strong willpower would be capable of producing an AT field on par with those produced by the Angels in NGE– in fact, I think that this is how Angels came to be in the first place. The synchronization of several strong-willed individuals would make such a phenomenon even more likely, so many Angels might in fact be several individuals merged together into a single super-strong AT field.

The lower levels of this are actually quite common, as evidenced by military training, and demonstrated in high-level military operations (Covert-Ops/Navy Seals).

(2) Control (Willpower). This refers to the amount of control a person has over their spiritual energy, which in turn is determined by the level of their resolve to separate themself from the world. The greater a person’s Willpower, the more efficiently they manage their spiritual energy, and the more they retain it.

The ratio of these two synthesize what we call “Freewill”.

I find it particularly interesting that Shinji, the character in the series that most closely reflected the Ego, had the strongest AT field. This makes perfect sense of course, as the Ego is the source of willpower.

If an entity were to have infinite spiritual energy, and / or an infinitely strong AT field, that entity would probably be God.

The merging of the Ego into the SuperEgo would result in the loss of individuality. As I realized in (among other posts) “Agony”, there is a price for everything– even for God– and that I believe the price of individuality is mortality. In a true collective no one would ever die, they would only be reintegrated into the life stream, and their energy would be recycled. Alone, life may seem longer, but over time it will lose meaning eventually leading to Nihilism, and there is little distintion between living and dying.

Based upon the basic nature of human beings (namely that we are social creatures), the merging of the Ego into the SuperEgo is an inevitability, as this is the natural course of things. In fact, the reason why that There is so much suffering in the world is because many members of Planet Earth are still resistant to their destiny, being blinded by their pride, individualism, and patriotism (sadly I live in one of these countries: the U.S.A.)

Individualism will inevitably lead to Nihilism, because all meaning in this world ultimately derives from the collective, even if only (in my case, for example) on a metaphysical or etheral level.

(b) Tabula Rasa (blank slate): Everyone is born with a destiny, and in most cases this destiny is not the product of divine intervention, but of “chance” [for lack of a better word]. To clarify, who we are is essentially based upon who we were. Our environment, perception, and the influence of those closest to us decided who we would become– particularly when we were only a few months old. The reason why influence on our destiny is greatest when we are young is because, metaphorically speaking, we really were a blank slate.

Until the Ego develops (which according to this site is when you are 12-18 months old) you are at the mercy of your environment, and anything that you become ultimately derives from everything in your environment during those first few months– both big and small; in many cases the little things actually make the biggest impact.

Thus, the second way to kill the Ego would be to reduce oneself (as much as possible) to a blank slate. This particular type of Ego Death is usually only favored by people who otherwise would commit suicide, as they are literally killing themself at the psychological level.

If a person were to successfully perform a psychological rebirth (as this type of Ego death would be called), they would be reduced to the maturity level of an infant, being unable to care for their own needs until their Ego reforms. This type of Ego death is the most dangerous and error prone, for the following reasons:

1. Just like the original development of the Ego, you have no control over what you will become as a result– the Ego itself is what provides such control in the first place. If you must perform this type of Ego Death, you should place yourself in the care of people that you trust most, and who know what destiny is best for you. After all, it is such individuals who will play the greatest role in determining what your environment– and thus your destiny– will be.

2. Unlike the original development of the Ego, the development following an Ego Rebirth is greatly accelerated. The reason for this acceleration is because the human physiology is already fully developed. The reason why that humans take longer than animals to physically mature (other than living longer) is because more time is needed for the Ego to properly develop). The creation of the Ego, which normally takes about 18 months to develop, will redevelop in about a month. The development of the created Ego will take (and this is a total off-the-top-of-my-head guess) about 1-5 years (depending on how mature your Ego is at the time).

This method is thus the “quick-and dirty” Ego death, and should only be attempted by those who would probably commit suicide otherwise– done out of desperation.

(c) Ego Engineering: initially I thought there were only two main methods, but I was inspired (by prophesy?) to develop a new method– revolutionary, yet safe. Once I am able to properly formalize this method, I will begin work on the presently empty blog Ego Engineering. Here’s how it works:

Rather than assuming that a person is an object (the control-based mindset currently adopted by Society, and humanity in general), we should assume that a person is a infinitesimally evolving force, which is manifested as an object to better interact with and integrate with their environment. Thus, although we are superficially a static object, that object only exists as reflected by the self.

If this is assumed to be the case, then life, death, and existence are all illusions created to support the construct that is life. However, because perception itself is at this point considered dynamic, we have already decided that truth and lies are both irrelevant.

To quote from an email I just sent:

I believe that everything both exists and does not exist, and that everything is both true and not true. But few people will understand what I mean by that, even when I give the long elaborative explanation about how truth (when viewed logically) is irrelevant to me, because I am more concerned with the “why”, or “essence” of everything that has value to someone, regardless of whether or not it’s empirically true or not.

I think it’s crucial that everyone thinks this way, but because I have yet to find someone who genuinely lives according to this principle as I do, I many times feel very alone. One would think that with the contradictory nature of science and philosophy, and the hypocrisy and dynamic nature of such concepts as trust, friendship, and love– that people should understand these things as I do.

but even though I have expressed this to you, I would be very much surprised if you truly understand and agree regarding these things.

After all, who would want to accept that everything that they thought they knew to be true was irrelevant. How could one fathom living a life without some firm foundations cornerstoned upon some reliable principles of truth.

I would not wish such a cruel fate upon anyone, but I still believe it to be a necessity if we are to truly live a life of meaning, instead of a one of ignorance founded in self-righteous bliss.

Another way of putting it: you are what you believe in…..so  believe what you want to be!

In essence, because our measure of truth is limited to our own perception (cognitive bias), we cannot find truth outside what we believe to be truth.

A more scary (but down-to-earth) way of putting it. Nothing becomes “true” until we decide it is true! We may feel as if our so-called truth is influenced by some higher power, science, or some other bullshit standard of truth. But guess who created those standards, and the criteria for them? We did!

If you, being religiously motivated, might assert that your beliefs about God are the product of the infallible word of God, let me then ask you this? Who decided what the wording of the Bible would be. Who decided how it would be interpreted? Do you really think that the awesomeness of God could possibly be expressed in the words of man.

Have you forgotten that the very Bible you stand by admits to the inevitable truth that God will not conform to the ways of man, because man is imperfect. Now tell me, how is trapping yourself inside a mere 2000 odd pages not conformation?!

The same applies to science…I should not need to elaborate, other than that man created science, and science is always changing, despite being “fact”.

Moving past that religious rant:

If truth is something that we perceive, accept, own [control], characterize, and promote (in roughly that order), then everything that exists only exists because we believe that it is real. As to why we believe something is real, or choose to accept and own those beliefs– that’s all ultimately irrelevant.

What each of us believes to be true determines who we are– thus, the only limits as to what we can achieve, and more importantly, what we will achieve, are the limits of that which we believe in. Most people are weak-minded, and will believe whatever their environment wants them to. According to my beliefs, such individuals have no souls, as their existence is bound to that of the Collective. Ironically, it is that belief (among many others) that causes me to lean towards a sociopathic lifestyle.

But nevertheless, as inferred in my post Colorless Mana, the reason that I would suggest most people to not have souls is because rather than becoming Suns, and emitting light,

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

most people are satisfied with feeding off the light of others, and reflect the light of Society rather than shining on their own ( and thus influencing Society).

Moving on to the central premise: Ego Engineering:

Because beliefs are not necessarily objects (such a premise is part of the control-based system that is Society), and might more accurately be perceived as dynamic forces, all beliefs might be more accurately thought of as “ideals”. How much one believes in any given ideal is then what we refer to as a “priority”. Furthermore, the amount to which we prioritize an ideal– that is, how much we choose to believe in something, determines how real something becomes.

Here’s the fun part: The extent to which we make something real [by believing in it to that given extent] determines the extent to which that belief is manifested in reality. Remember– we are what we believe in. Thus, our reality is determined by what is real to us.

This revolutionary idealistic thinking is the “foundation” for a new field of science (if it does not obsolete science!) that will become known as Ego Engineering. Most of you reading this will probably not believe it– but someday…..you just wait and see :p

ps. I’ll elaborate more into the details of what Ego engineering is in a future post (on this blog!), that will be called “Ego Engineering” (of course).

(2) Synthetic Immersion [Finally!]

Just as conversion of the Ego into the SuperEgo is the holy grail of Socialism, synthetic immersion is the holy grail of Transhumanism.

ps. note to self: write posts “All for one and one for all”, and “Closure”. also don’t forget “Philosophical Scrapbook”.