I live in a tiny village on the western shore of India. When in England as a student, I experienced this very de-souling of the world around me. My peers were extremely addicted to their phones. They would break conversation mid-way and ride into thought processes that the nudge on their screen had brought them. I felt incredibly distanced in a world where I had too many people around me. People shared a fake smile and spoke things that I knew they didn’t want to say- but still did because I went to have a chat.
I guess what was different here was that I was coming straight out of an Indian village and then traveled with friends around the world who hardly used their phones. I lived in a place or around people who shared genuine smiles, spoke at length, went on adventures and loved and cared intensely. Moreover they were rooted in something deeper. This I did not find in the university in England. I found my peers lost in apps and social platforms that controlled their every move.
It took a radical decision on my end after having lived a life in England to leave that life behind - against the choices of my family and others who cared for me - and move back to my tiny village where my family and extended family- my fellow villagers were. They obviously took me in with open arms and since then I have been living in this close knit community, working on the field, growing our own food, spending quality time with friends who range from 30 years to 85 years. I love every little moment that I spend here - away from the internet, away from the mechanistic sounds of the world - covered in nature from all corners. Writing here on substack and working on fields to feed me and my family. I am only 27 years old and I feel I made the right choice..
Ooh. I love this piece. Yes, speaking our truth which I think of as autonomy. Then, can we tolerate the sense of connection with ourselves and the other that we create by speaking our truth. In my opinion it's the direct experience of connection that resolves the sense of loneliness and emptiness so prevalent these days.
Hello, I believe that the following could be integrated by "rationalists":
1) "Psycho pathology" is a "deviancy" from the "human norm" > identifying it (and here, rationalists can do that, they know about this, it's just remaining calm in face of turmoil and outburst of emotions)
2) "... when your institution adopts the psychological methods of psychopathy, you open it to institutional capture by actual psychopaths... "
"... If you adopt the psychological techniques of a pathocracy, you’ll probably end up adopting the psychology (and psychological demographics) of a pathocracy..."
"... When you adopt the means of a psychopathic enemy, you put yourself within the “gravity well” of a ponerogenic telon or attractor..."
Rationalists can understand this as well (a petri dish situation), then link it with 1).
Overall rationalists climb a precious stair - they get it and put it into practice.
Harari is a smart guy but his belief that people are just machines and rights "are just a story that we've invented" makes him a very dangerous smart guy.
Apparently, Harari was the one chosen to carry the torch for transhumanism. In reading the Harari-isms in your article, I am inspired (whether due to my family's DNA, or the Human genome in general) to investigate Harari's family of origin, and especially to learn how he was indoctrinated by the elites who control a Technocratic world order. In accord with Harari's particular philosophical perspective: his own perceptions and world purview is merely a test-tube free-for-all, with no overriding sentient "mind" on board. In accord with his "treatises"--he does not exist. He has chosen "soul-lessness" as his guiding doctrine. This sort of nihilistic, self-negating premise for what comprises, "Human-Being" is in alignment with the artificial intelligence-driven transhumanist putsch; and therefore, Harari is an ideal example of the mechanistic mentality that he promotes as a technocratic "reality." Harari is unaware of his own ego-centric needs, and may even tell the world that his free-will (and egocentric outlook) don't even exist. Which raises an interesting question: If humans are merely a conglomerate of electrical synapses and bio-chemical events --then humans are not "Beings"--because they don't "be"--they only "be-have" in accord with events which the individual has no control over whatsoever. As human "Doings"--they are destined to live lives of no consequence, and that have no meaning--not even when a human being chooses to create "meaning" as an act of creative 'doing.' In essence: Noah Harari has created an anti-humanistic philosophical template which renders his own life as obsolete, and of no use. Only technology and some form of mechanistic "order" exists. 'RIP Human Beings' = Harari does not exist.
Answering to your last question: By learning Greek and by using the Greek Alphabet Code, in order to get to the True meanings of the words, that is the Good Speech. The old way, sitting by the fire and discussing sincerely and true, is never coming back. In the ultimate era of humanity on earth, there is only one way to get to the Truth and unify the people that still have a soul.
It is great it still happens, but it is performed by a small amount of people, not enough to make a difference to the whole world. In Greece, also we are still sitting by a table, eating, drinking and speaking truths, which is the same idea of the ancient "symposium", etymologically meaning "drinking together", or even the idea of the "companionship"/"syntrofia", etymologically meaning, in Greek,"eating together", which is also means the same in the Spanish word "compañeros" (companions, com-partners, coworkers, comrades), deriving etymologically from "con" (plus, with) + "pane" (bread). So, it seems very important, with whom you are eating your bread and sharing the table that you are eating and drinking. And this is deeply hidden in the language. So, the era of joining together by the fire, eating, drinking, smoking and discussing together, has ended for most of the world. People prefer eating alone, in front of a screen...
My two cents on your last question, something I’ve seen work to astonishing degrees - the language of poetry. It’s something all souls are fluent in, when truly authentic. Doesn’t even have to rhyme - but something wakes up in the people when it is shared, and I’ve seen it spread like wildfire. Much harder to censor by the wrong think police too 😎🙏❤️
What Rudolf Steiner said about the de-souling of the world was really striking:
The time will come, and it may not be far off, that people will say: It is pathological for people to even think in terms of spirit and soul. ‘Sound’ people will speak of nothing but the body. It will be considered a sign of illness for anyone to arrive at the idea of any such thing as a spirit or a soul. People who think like that will be considered to be sick and — you can be quite sure of it — a medicine will be found for this. At Constantinople the spirit was made non-existent. The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a drug. Taking a ‘sound point of view’, people will invent a vaccine to influence the organism as early as possible, preferably as soon as it is born, so that this human body never even gets the idea that there is a soul and a spirit.
The two philosophies of life will be in complete opposition. One movement will need to reflect how concepts and ideas may be developed to meet the reality of soul and spirit. The others, the heirs of modern materialism, will look for the vaccine to make the body ‘healthy’, that is, makes its constitution such that this body no longer talks of such rubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a ‘sound’ view of the forces which live in engines and in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 177 – Fall of the Spirits of Darkness – Lecture 5 – Dornach, 7th October 1917
Fantastic read. Frightening reflections, because of the Truth they hold. We don't live in a post-truth world. It's there, waiting to be (re)discovered and appropriately raised. But we can only do so by using both brain hemispheres. Something Harari does terribly, I'd assert.
I am discussing the western (we are from the Netherlands) societal madness with a friend of mine, who is recovering from brain injury for 4 years now. He is going through terrible times and I joined him by entering a painful period of healing from traumatic stuff accumulated. We spent hours discussing the how, why etc. We found one common feature of human kind, that can keep us sane. Awareness. And awareness is something one can learn, which means we thus will not become robots. Here is why; The awareness brings us to our deepest being and awe. I am not a particular spiritual guy, but hey, those moments have their impact. When was it that knowing about my awareness gave me the greatest joy? When I was a child. It all felt divine. And I remember that feeling and now work hard to be able to feel that again. And progress is there! There was no drug in my life that made me feel as good as I felt during those moments (mostly) in nature, as a child. And later, as a grownup, when I was with a drug, I knew it was the drug that provoked that specific nice feeling. It never felt 100% real. So no, we can heal a lot of mental and physical defects but we cannot walk away from our nature. If we do it ends up in disaster (which is what we are close to, at least in the western world), I believe. My gut feeling never fooled me. And my gut feeling tells me that I'd better enjoy every moment with myself and others and the world, especially now. And talk about this. All the time. Just by talking and doing, others will follow, hopefully enough and quickly enough.. :-)
I share this essential point «consciousness» that I personally call deep consciousness, from my experience, it is not learned but occurs at a given moment, in my case during a great suffering, a shift takes place and a new horizon is revealed, All this is in us already, it reveals itself when we are ready.
Not repress introspection, let emerge all our being, without judgment, just observe and see who we really are. The result is a well-being, a great inner peace, it does not solve the many problems and questions about this world and its evolution, but it is already a feat of the brain, which I find impressive, without being able to say why, only describe.
Live in the present, without fear of the next day, but also do not abstain from what we as a human being must accomplish for our good and those of all (family, community, society...).
Sometimes, in difficult moments, I scold on the fact we are human and have that conscious brain. I agree we have that, and it is not learned. What I understood is that I can learn how to be aware (again as as a child I was) of my inner self (nr. 1) the outer world (n.2) and the magic that holds it all together.
We discussed a lot of medicine (classical medicine) and more natural - spiritual medicine and agreed that they can solve a lot of issues, however, better is to prevent mental and physical suffering. We found that by being (as a child) and becoming again (as a lost grown up) aware of ourselves and thus aware of our conscious us and even our unconscious us, we can heal issues ourselves and / or with the help from specialists.
So basically making sure we stay in touch with our natural surrounding and our inner self, all our lives long. Which is exactly what we are not doing, in the western society (at least a big bunch of people is not, and I surely was/am one of them :-).
I understand, I’ve also had some very difficult times, and I’ve also scolded as much as I could, it’s quite a realization and I was thinking almost day and night, It was like having dark glasses that you then take off and observe what you didn’t see before.
I understand better : «...my inner self (nr. 1) the outer world (n.2) and the magic that keeps it all together.»
It is true, according to the cases and situations, we can overcome it ourselves, during my extreme suffering, I did not consult, I knew that I could resolve it alone. I am also for natural medicine, essential oils and some herbal teas.
It is also true that the human has become a subject more than anything else, to condition, to deceive, to abuse etc. We have lost the naturalness of early childhood, which also lasts very little, It is done quickly to model it to a medicine empty of meaning and where the ego counts more than sincere words. I really enjoyed Desmet’s essay on this. Being yourself and daring to express yourself whether you like it or not is important.
We can also learn to listen, take the time to think about it, etc. Live or inner journey on a daily basis, not the one that society expects of you.
For some reason, this essay reminded me of the book - Law Without Authority or Limits: Kelsen’s Dilemma by Daniel Gruber. It is not light reading, but it is important information.
For me, the gift of Mattias Desmet is introspective thinking inspired by his writings. So, no sooner I receive what he writes I re-write to promote didactic memory neuron development and in that effort I look up each word and reference, learning, expanding my knowledge and accepting his perception of reality to expand my knowledge and awareness. It is cathartic, it is curative, it is drinking from the cup of Mental Health to help myself navigate out of the abuse endured from tyranny and an early age exposure to Communism / Socialism, removal of property, expropriation, the murder of many of my father's friends and finally, leaving Cuba alone through Mexico, arriving in the United States at the age of 15... Here is what this article turned out after that process: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/de-souling-world-veil-appearances-mattias-desmet-reynolds-4qs8e/?trackingId=1orHp%2FbeRBW4%2BP0kGvz82A%3D%3D Enjoy
Brilliant.
I live in a tiny village on the western shore of India. When in England as a student, I experienced this very de-souling of the world around me. My peers were extremely addicted to their phones. They would break conversation mid-way and ride into thought processes that the nudge on their screen had brought them. I felt incredibly distanced in a world where I had too many people around me. People shared a fake smile and spoke things that I knew they didn’t want to say- but still did because I went to have a chat.
I guess what was different here was that I was coming straight out of an Indian village and then traveled with friends around the world who hardly used their phones. I lived in a place or around people who shared genuine smiles, spoke at length, went on adventures and loved and cared intensely. Moreover they were rooted in something deeper. This I did not find in the university in England. I found my peers lost in apps and social platforms that controlled their every move.
It took a radical decision on my end after having lived a life in England to leave that life behind - against the choices of my family and others who cared for me - and move back to my tiny village where my family and extended family- my fellow villagers were. They obviously took me in with open arms and since then I have been living in this close knit community, working on the field, growing our own food, spending quality time with friends who range from 30 years to 85 years. I love every little moment that I spend here - away from the internet, away from the mechanistic sounds of the world - covered in nature from all corners. Writing here on substack and working on fields to feed me and my family. I am only 27 years old and I feel I made the right choice..
Ooh. I love this piece. Yes, speaking our truth which I think of as autonomy. Then, can we tolerate the sense of connection with ourselves and the other that we create by speaking our truth. In my opinion it's the direct experience of connection that resolves the sense of loneliness and emptiness so prevalent these days.
Hello, I believe that the following could be integrated by "rationalists":
1) "Psycho pathology" is a "deviancy" from the "human norm" > identifying it (and here, rationalists can do that, they know about this, it's just remaining calm in face of turmoil and outburst of emotions)
2) "... when your institution adopts the psychological methods of psychopathy, you open it to institutional capture by actual psychopaths... "
"... If you adopt the psychological techniques of a pathocracy, you’ll probably end up adopting the psychology (and psychological demographics) of a pathocracy..."
"... When you adopt the means of a psychopathic enemy, you put yourself within the “gravity well” of a ponerogenic telon or attractor..."
Rationalists can understand this as well (a petri dish situation), then link it with 1).
Overall rationalists climb a precious stair - they get it and put it into practice.
That's what world view perfectionists crave for!
Harari is a smart guy but his belief that people are just machines and rights "are just a story that we've invented" makes him a very dangerous smart guy.
https://hoisttheblackflag.substack.com/p/natural-law-and-human-rights
Human nature without God = Harari
& varying degrees of loss.
Apparently, Harari was the one chosen to carry the torch for transhumanism. In reading the Harari-isms in your article, I am inspired (whether due to my family's DNA, or the Human genome in general) to investigate Harari's family of origin, and especially to learn how he was indoctrinated by the elites who control a Technocratic world order. In accord with Harari's particular philosophical perspective: his own perceptions and world purview is merely a test-tube free-for-all, with no overriding sentient "mind" on board. In accord with his "treatises"--he does not exist. He has chosen "soul-lessness" as his guiding doctrine. This sort of nihilistic, self-negating premise for what comprises, "Human-Being" is in alignment with the artificial intelligence-driven transhumanist putsch; and therefore, Harari is an ideal example of the mechanistic mentality that he promotes as a technocratic "reality." Harari is unaware of his own ego-centric needs, and may even tell the world that his free-will (and egocentric outlook) don't even exist. Which raises an interesting question: If humans are merely a conglomerate of electrical synapses and bio-chemical events --then humans are not "Beings"--because they don't "be"--they only "be-have" in accord with events which the individual has no control over whatsoever. As human "Doings"--they are destined to live lives of no consequence, and that have no meaning--not even when a human being chooses to create "meaning" as an act of creative 'doing.' In essence: Noah Harari has created an anti-humanistic philosophical template which renders his own life as obsolete, and of no use. Only technology and some form of mechanistic "order" exists. 'RIP Human Beings' = Harari does not exist.
Answering to your last question: By learning Greek and by using the Greek Alphabet Code, in order to get to the True meanings of the words, that is the Good Speech. The old way, sitting by the fire and discussing sincerely and true, is never coming back. In the ultimate era of humanity on earth, there is only one way to get to the Truth and unify the people that still have a soul.
Interesting you say that. Here in Montana, we still sit around the campfire speaking truths.
It is great it still happens, but it is performed by a small amount of people, not enough to make a difference to the whole world. In Greece, also we are still sitting by a table, eating, drinking and speaking truths, which is the same idea of the ancient "symposium", etymologically meaning "drinking together", or even the idea of the "companionship"/"syntrofia", etymologically meaning, in Greek,"eating together", which is also means the same in the Spanish word "compañeros" (companions, com-partners, coworkers, comrades), deriving etymologically from "con" (plus, with) + "pane" (bread). So, it seems very important, with whom you are eating your bread and sharing the table that you are eating and drinking. And this is deeply hidden in the language. So, the era of joining together by the fire, eating, drinking, smoking and discussing together, has ended for most of the world. People prefer eating alone, in front of a screen...
I love your etymological reflections, Foteini Tyraski... plus your notion of values hidden in language.
My two cents on your last question, something I’ve seen work to astonishing degrees - the language of poetry. It’s something all souls are fluent in, when truly authentic. Doesn’t even have to rhyme - but something wakes up in the people when it is shared, and I’ve seen it spread like wildfire. Much harder to censor by the wrong think police too 😎🙏❤️
What Rudolf Steiner said about the de-souling of the world was really striking:
The time will come, and it may not be far off, that people will say: It is pathological for people to even think in terms of spirit and soul. ‘Sound’ people will speak of nothing but the body. It will be considered a sign of illness for anyone to arrive at the idea of any such thing as a spirit or a soul. People who think like that will be considered to be sick and — you can be quite sure of it — a medicine will be found for this. At Constantinople the spirit was made non-existent. The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a drug. Taking a ‘sound point of view’, people will invent a vaccine to influence the organism as early as possible, preferably as soon as it is born, so that this human body never even gets the idea that there is a soul and a spirit.
The two philosophies of life will be in complete opposition. One movement will need to reflect how concepts and ideas may be developed to meet the reality of soul and spirit. The others, the heirs of modern materialism, will look for the vaccine to make the body ‘healthy’, that is, makes its constitution such that this body no longer talks of such rubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a ‘sound’ view of the forces which live in engines and in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 177 – Fall of the Spirits of Darkness – Lecture 5 – Dornach, 7th October 1917
Translated by Anna R. Meuss
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA177/English/RSP1993/19171007p01.html
This was an excellent read.
Fantastic read. Frightening reflections, because of the Truth they hold. We don't live in a post-truth world. It's there, waiting to be (re)discovered and appropriately raised. But we can only do so by using both brain hemispheres. Something Harari does terribly, I'd assert.
+100 points for this beautiful article
-10 points for taking cinnamon in coffee (what is wrong with you? ;))
Not a coffee - a chai latté ;)
So, +10 points at least!
I am discussing the western (we are from the Netherlands) societal madness with a friend of mine, who is recovering from brain injury for 4 years now. He is going through terrible times and I joined him by entering a painful period of healing from traumatic stuff accumulated. We spent hours discussing the how, why etc. We found one common feature of human kind, that can keep us sane. Awareness. And awareness is something one can learn, which means we thus will not become robots. Here is why; The awareness brings us to our deepest being and awe. I am not a particular spiritual guy, but hey, those moments have their impact. When was it that knowing about my awareness gave me the greatest joy? When I was a child. It all felt divine. And I remember that feeling and now work hard to be able to feel that again. And progress is there! There was no drug in my life that made me feel as good as I felt during those moments (mostly) in nature, as a child. And later, as a grownup, when I was with a drug, I knew it was the drug that provoked that specific nice feeling. It never felt 100% real. So no, we can heal a lot of mental and physical defects but we cannot walk away from our nature. If we do it ends up in disaster (which is what we are close to, at least in the western world), I believe. My gut feeling never fooled me. And my gut feeling tells me that I'd better enjoy every moment with myself and others and the world, especially now. And talk about this. All the time. Just by talking and doing, others will follow, hopefully enough and quickly enough.. :-)
I share this essential point «consciousness» that I personally call deep consciousness, from my experience, it is not learned but occurs at a given moment, in my case during a great suffering, a shift takes place and a new horizon is revealed, All this is in us already, it reveals itself when we are ready.
Not repress introspection, let emerge all our being, without judgment, just observe and see who we really are. The result is a well-being, a great inner peace, it does not solve the many problems and questions about this world and its evolution, but it is already a feat of the brain, which I find impressive, without being able to say why, only describe.
Live in the present, without fear of the next day, but also do not abstain from what we as a human being must accomplish for our good and those of all (family, community, society...).
Sometimes, in difficult moments, I scold on the fact we are human and have that conscious brain. I agree we have that, and it is not learned. What I understood is that I can learn how to be aware (again as as a child I was) of my inner self (nr. 1) the outer world (n.2) and the magic that holds it all together.
We discussed a lot of medicine (classical medicine) and more natural - spiritual medicine and agreed that they can solve a lot of issues, however, better is to prevent mental and physical suffering. We found that by being (as a child) and becoming again (as a lost grown up) aware of ourselves and thus aware of our conscious us and even our unconscious us, we can heal issues ourselves and / or with the help from specialists.
So basically making sure we stay in touch with our natural surrounding and our inner self, all our lives long. Which is exactly what we are not doing, in the western society (at least a big bunch of people is not, and I surely was/am one of them :-).
Have a great day/evening/night/morning!
I understand, I’ve also had some very difficult times, and I’ve also scolded as much as I could, it’s quite a realization and I was thinking almost day and night, It was like having dark glasses that you then take off and observe what you didn’t see before.
I understand better : «...my inner self (nr. 1) the outer world (n.2) and the magic that keeps it all together.»
It is true, according to the cases and situations, we can overcome it ourselves, during my extreme suffering, I did not consult, I knew that I could resolve it alone. I am also for natural medicine, essential oils and some herbal teas.
It is also true that the human has become a subject more than anything else, to condition, to deceive, to abuse etc. We have lost the naturalness of early childhood, which also lasts very little, It is done quickly to model it to a medicine empty of meaning and where the ego counts more than sincere words. I really enjoyed Desmet’s essay on this. Being yourself and daring to express yourself whether you like it or not is important.
We can also learn to listen, take the time to think about it, etc. Live or inner journey on a daily basis, not the one that society expects of you.
I love what you say.
I live in France, good evening.
It matters. Keep doing what you're called to do - you're putting soul back into the world!
For some reason, this essay reminded me of the book - Law Without Authority or Limits: Kelsen’s Dilemma by Daniel Gruber. It is not light reading, but it is important information.
Thank you for the reference.
For me, the gift of Mattias Desmet is introspective thinking inspired by his writings. So, no sooner I receive what he writes I re-write to promote didactic memory neuron development and in that effort I look up each word and reference, learning, expanding my knowledge and accepting his perception of reality to expand my knowledge and awareness. It is cathartic, it is curative, it is drinking from the cup of Mental Health to help myself navigate out of the abuse endured from tyranny and an early age exposure to Communism / Socialism, removal of property, expropriation, the murder of many of my father's friends and finally, leaving Cuba alone through Mexico, arriving in the United States at the age of 15... Here is what this article turned out after that process: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/de-souling-world-veil-appearances-mattias-desmet-reynolds-4qs8e/?trackingId=1orHp%2FbeRBW4%2BP0kGvz82A%3D%3D Enjoy