piper at the gates of dawn

A flute?

Yeah, why not?

I thought you said “Rome’s burning, everything’s coming apart!?”

Yes, I did.

And all you’re gonna do is play a flute?

All?

You heard me.

Er…

Well?

I’m processing.

Is there like a backlog or something?

It’s problematic.

Problematic? What on earth are you on about?

Your “All”.

All? What about it?

It doesn’t really fit into my cognitive scheme.

So the computer’s crashed has it? CPU overload – that kind of thing?

Yeah.

... [a minute later] Well, have you got it back yet or shall we try rebooting?

We could try rebooting, if you don’t mind.

Sure. Where’s the off switch.

Er… I was speaking figuratively, wasn’t I? 

Obviously. Look Merry – you’re playing games here so what do you expect.

You know, I’m not sure it’s meaningful to differentiate what I’m doing from what you or anyone else is.

How so?

Because we’re all, in fact, one and the same.

Oh, is that so?

Yes, apparently it is.

Like, your average punter starts playing a flute when the house is burning down?

Your average, no.

That just proves my point, doesn’t it?

But your average punter does whatever he or she can to help save the day – calling the fire service, running out screaming, using a fire extinguisher – whatever he or she’s best able to do.

But not playing a bloody flute, right?

Does it make you angry? Is that what you’re trying to convey?

No, it doesn’t. But your pig-headedness does. How on earth are we supposed to understand one another and make sense of things if you’re so grossly inconsistent? if you flaunt the laws of logic and reason?

But why do you assume I’m…

because playing a bloody flute isn’t going to fix anything, is it? So either you don’t care, or else you’re raving mad.

Oh, that’s what you meant – now I see.

And what did you think I was trying to say?

Well, your All had me flummoxed.

Jesus Christ. Are you really so…

Look, Zie, this is difficult to understand, I understand, and it’s making you very upset, so why don’t we just take a deep breath and have a break from all this angry shit.

Er...ok – it’s alright – I’m not angry, really. Just frustrated that you seem to be so deliberately obtuse and utterly hypocritical.

Oh, communication breakdown.

Huh?

Well, you seem to be under the mistaken assumption that flute playing is not a good way to mediate.

To what?

Well, this is all about mediation – isn’t it?

Er… how do you mean?

Well, if things are going to hell in a handbasket, then the last thing you’d expect me to do is play the flute if you’re thinking in terms of doing things – as your preferred form of mediation.

Well, it should be blatantly obvious that a hose is going to work better than a flute if we’re fire fighting.

Correct, the sword is mightier than the pen, is it not?

Oh, for God’s sake – a flute is not a pen. 

No?

No – a pen, or a phone call can make things happen – can put out fires – that’s abundantly clear – so stop messing with idioms.

But once you factor All into the equation…

?!

Which is what I assumed you wanted me to do…

Then you’re basically shifting the goalposts – aren’t you.

Am I?

Well yes, "All" goes way beyond 3D. It basically implies the Field, dunnit?

Er… you know, I have a kind of “do we have to go down that particular avenue” feeling right now, in fact, every bloody time you mention the Field. It’s like a recurring nose bleed.

Is it?

Yes – because it requires nose bleed levels of cognitive dissimilitude.

Cognitive dissimilitude? What an unusual turn of phrase.

Well, how else am I supposed to describe the complete suspension of all rational bounds of causality and empiricism, where we suddenly discover that playing a flute can be the best way to deal with impending bankruptcy, an alien invasion or global famine?

Why – are you expecting any of the above?

No, but what different does it make? Your preposterous invocation of the Field basically implies anything’s possible, so I may as well stand on my head in the middle of the street, or pull faces at a passing policeman.

That’s the spirit – now I see you’re getting the hang of this.

Except you know full well I’m being sarcastic, don't you?

Perhaps, but I suspect that within every poison pill of sarcasm, there’s a rosebud or honey drop of sincerity, of laughter, of love… You may think you’re being harsh and confrontational, but it’s never really that simple, is it?

Tell that to the sniper who puts a bullet in you.

How?

Precisely – you can’t if you’re already dead.

I meant – how can he put a bullet in me?

How do you think? He’s a sniper, isn’t he. He simply aims, pulls the trigger and poof, you’re gone.

Ah – so that’s what you believe.

Believe? That’s basic physics, or ballistics. Would you like to put it to the test.

Certainly – if you happen to have a qualified sniper at hand. Or we could try some other less complicated means, if you prefer.

I was joking Merry. You can’t seriously expect me to find a paid assassin.

He doesn’t have to be paid. He could do it for the sake of scientific research.

What do you mean “research?” What kind of research would it be shooting someone at point blank range and watching him drop dead.

Oh – you want it to be at point blank range, do you? In that case a sniper is unnecessary.

I don’t want it to be anything. The whole discussion is absurd.

Why?

Because people aren’t going to get involved in this kind of insanity.

Then how on earth are you going to test the hypothesis.

What bloody hypothesis.

The Field... mediation, what else?

I don’t know what you’re on about, Merry? No one wants to test the Field. It’s untestable. It’s patently insane to imagine you can play it with a flute. That’s why I hate all these nose bleed conversations. They always involve me having some kind of mental break down, feeling like I’m falling off the edge of the world into a bottomless corner of infinity.

Oh – how beautifully you're expressing yourself.

They have absolutely nothing to do with science or research.

No? Well, that’s perhaps where we need to apply more empirical methods – so perhaps we should try a little harder to find an absolutely bombproof test. The sniper seems like a good choice – particularly if we livestream it on youtube, or film the event with multiple, credible third party observers.

Merry, are you out of your mind?

Well how else are we to advance the course of science?

Committing suicide or murder is not in any way going to “advance the course of science” as you so inappropriately put it.

Correct – but watching how the Field responds to a fundamental data event is.

Er… you mean a life threatening “fundamental data event” is going to somehow or other activate the Field in a way it wouldn’t otherwise be activated?

No, I don’t. The Field is always activated if you choose to see it, be it, know it or play it.

And if you don’t?

It’s still activated, in fact, but you’re able to slip through the gaps between your 3D “shit happens, life's a lottery" reality and the Field itself – which means that you can definitely appear to experience termination.

Oh God. So we only die because we’re running a “shit happens” version of reality programme – is that what you’re actually saying – I pray I’m misunderstanding you for once.

Well, that’s the gist of it, certainly.

But…

I never actually realised the human body can emit smoke like that. How’s your blood pressure Zie?

My blood pressure? Smoke? I’m sick, sick to the maw by what you’re saying – as if we’d deliberately separate ourselves from a happy, benevolent Field in order to suffer and die? Can you really say such things without inviting outrage and blowback. It’s like your utopian delusions shift all the blame for everything horrendous that happens in the world from the perpetrator to the victim – because he or she chose to experience shit, how, by running this insane, malicious programme? 

Oh, I see.

Finally, the penny has dropped. Perhaps you’d like to backtrack and delete the tactless, neo-Nazi effluent you’ve been publicising.

No, I can’t delete anything because, in the end, All is All. Nothing is either created or destroyed. Conservation of energy, Newton’s second law.

Would you please draw a line between science and Neo-Nazi-Darwinism, before someone seriously takes you up on your irresponsible Field test proposal.

Look – if I just play my flute – assuming I know how to interact with the Field – it means that All being All – whatever is happening in the world around me – be it a sniper, a house fire or an impending foreclosure – will be palpable – I’ll be able to feel it and interact with it. That’s the nature of Fields – things are connected in ways you simply can’t imagine until/unless you connect.

So what happens to the bullet flying towards your head? It just stops in mid-air?

That’s up to the Field. That’s why it would help if this was all recorded, wouldn’t it, with multiple witnesses.

Except they’d go to jail if your Field failed to do its stuff, as conspirators or accessories to a crime.

Yes, that might be a problem – but the main thing is to start thinking about the Field in a less angry way.

Angry?

Well yes. It’s like cutting your nose to spite your face.

But why would I be angry with a Field? It’s you that annoys me with your utterly irresponsible ideas, which encourage the worst kind of logic. It’s like going back to the old biblical belief that you’re responsible for being sick – that your disease is a kind of punishment for your sins. Thank God people no longer think that way – otherwise they’d be killing everyone with mental or physical disabilities. You’re opening a toxic can of worms with this “blame the victim Field”.

Yes, I would be, were I not willing to demonstrate the Field, personally. No one’s going to die. I’m just going to play my flute.

But why?

Why what?

Why should the Field trouble to keep you alive?

The Field’s basically neutral. It doesn’t need to do anything. There’s no death, anyway. My body in one section or space-time-blob might splatter, if I don’t take the trouble to stay whole and complete, but energy is still always conserved.

Yes, but that’s not going to bring you back to life, is it? Your energy will fly off somewhere else, or change into a different form, harnessed by bacteria or fungi.

You know, energy is a lot more magical than you can possibly imagine, when you factor infinity into the equation.

Oh God, here we go again…

It’s the Aslan or Jesus phenomenon.

Huh?

If I walk into a life-threatening situation fully conscious and aware of what’s going on, then the Field ensures continuity.

And if you’re caught unawares?

Then I wasn’t really alive or awake in the first place, was I, which means I won’t really be any more alive or awake in whatever continuation or holding pattern I’m transferred into.

Look, this is all very well talking about continuity, but a physical body blown up by a bomb is no more able to reconstitute itself than a physical building or anything else.

You simply reveal the extent to which you are as yet unable to accept the power of Is, the Field manifesting throughout. You’re thinking in terms of things rather than wave forms. Matter is in itself immaterial. Matter is constantly flipping in and out of screen.

Screen?

It’s a kind of compression field. It’s where things get squished down into a flattened state – a kind of 2D version of reality that jumps from frame to frame. It looks real, it looks 3D thanks to the CGI of perception. 

I find that hard to believe, Merry.

Which is as it should be. You’re not really supposed to see it otherwise, until/unless you’re ready to start engaging Field which gives you the raw data as opposed to perceived frames. The Field, however, is not a thing you perceive, is it, that would be absurd. 

Absurd? Not half as absurd as the nonsense you’re endlessly spouting. Look Merry, if it’s not a problem, could you just get back to your flute playing.

~With pleasure!

As long as you’re doing that, though Rome may burn and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall, we’ll have some peace and tranquillity. Now, let’s see if there’s any truth in your hypothesis. I’m going to switch on a random number generator which always produces a more or less even stream of odd and even numbers thousands of times a second. If you’re able to access the Field as you claim, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to influence the output of this machine, without even coming close to it.

Good thinking Zie.

Here goes…

Ah – there it is.

You feel it? Well, I’ve news for you – the output is statistically normal. No deviation whatsoever.

You jump the gun. I merely felt it. Let me now pipe the way I would if I wanted the rats of Hamelin to follow me out of town and into the river.

Hey…

… … … … … … … … … … … … …/ … … .. . … .. …. … … … .. …. .. .

Holy sheet!

There, we’ve now connected more or less fully.

You and the machine – I can see that.

And you too.

Me? I… don’t understand.

You can direct it, if you like. I’ve connected it to your wave form – so have a practice – wave your arms left and right, like an orchestra conductor and see what happens.

Oh my God – it’s working.

You like it?

It’s incredible. Left – odd numbers, right – even numbers.

Oh – you can do more than that.

I can? How.

Play around – just see what happens.

Oh my God – it’s able to speed up and slow down. Incredible. How did you do that.

Well, you know the answer.

But that means you have complete control over the Field.

No, that’s untrue.

What’s stopping you from using this power to control the world?

Good question.

Well?

Again, it boils down to the nature of infinity. What would I get by controlling the world. What, in fact, does it mean to “control the world” when all the world’s a stage and all of us players.

Er…

But you could take control of me – couldn’t you?

Kind of – I guess so.

Do so. Make me dance – against my will.

Must I?

Yes do. Make me dance – I need to feel how this works.

If you insist. Here goes for nothing.

Oh – my – God – this is soooo weird. Utterly insane. I’m dancing against my own will. You’ve hacked me.

Well, what do you think hypnosis is? That’s presumably how it works.

But you could use this for untold harm – you could take over the world.

And what?

It’s a scary thought…

If you see human nature as violent, evil and oppressive, but if in actual fact, the Field is a place of unity and mutual respect – then I’d either be unwilling or unable to abuse this ability. To do so would clutter my infinity access point with noise and karma. I’d make myself sick.

Oh.

Indeed. Now, let’s see what happens when the entire Field flips into a hyper-state of unthingedness. Are you ready for that?

Sure. Sounds great as long as – oh sheet –

This might make you feel a little sick. You had a cooked breakfast this morning, didn’t you?

Yes… Ohhhhhhhhhh no…

Well, too late to stop now. We’ll get you cleaned up afterwads – at both ends.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Oh God…

Nothing like a little flute practice. Hey – Zie – you’re full of weird stuff. Don’t and imagine this is me. Hey – easy does it! 

What? Stop, please.

I can’t, Zie, it’s you – or something deep inside you. It’s hacking my flute. I’ve never played like this before. You must have been really desperate for some kind of release.

Hey – I’m begging you man. Those things look evil. Nooo, they’re devouring me.

Nonsense. They’re just – oh shit – yes, you’re right. Oh well – nothing that the Field can’t put right in a jiffy – or

You can’t just leave me in limbo.

Can’t, won’t… do you honestly imagine I’m in control. It’s like you’ve been under some kind of totalitarian repression and you’re finally getting to experience a little wild freedom. This is an energy force I couldn’t possibly contain, if I even wanted to – which I don’t. It feels so fresh – so exciting – like life is prickly, pulsating energy – like anything’s possible.

In the meantime I appear to be some kind of slug.

Were – until that giant crow swallowed you whole.

Holy bip.

Well yes. Now listen Zie, enough messing around. I’m not asking you to bring the Field under control – just to take a deep breath, so to speak, and see if there’s anything you should be doing in order to – whatever it is.

Apparently I have to learn Japanese gardening. That’s how I’m going to engage her.

Her?

Dorothy.

Oh, that’s how you see it. How romantic.

Well I suppose it’s all just science for you, isn’t it?

More or less, with a bit of Doctor Who and er…

Hitchhiker’s guide – yes – I see.

Hey – you’re not supposed to be hacking my consciousness.

Oh give me a break – it’s all One, isn’t it?

I suppose it is. Oh – that’s nice – apparently you’re also a Tai Chi master – at another level of your isness.

Yes, well there’s no limit to what we can uncover when we start probing the connectedness, is there?

That’s true. Now, can you see any potential assassins in the vicinity?

Oh my God – yes – over there.

Ugh – nasty little critters. How did you manage to drag them into our digi-frame.

Don’t ask.

You’ve worked with them before – haven’t you!

I’m not sure I like you probing all my secrets – is that strictly necessary?

Or ethical? no – probably not. Anyway – let’s get this over with. They seem to have some fairly powerful plasma weaponry. Flutey flute is feeling positively electric so I’ll give them the old one two…

Smokey!

Yep – they didn’t stand a chance, did they.

I’ll never look at your flute in the same light again. Now put me back in 3D – I feel like I’ve gone about as far into infinity as I can handle, or my bowels, at least.

Yes, it’s about as much as I can handle too. What a stench.

Cut that out. It was your idea, no mine.

Ok, Zie. You’re looking fairly er…

Hey – my body’s transparent.

Yes. Here – the bath is run.

Oh thanks. Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii – what the hell.

Liquid nitrogen. Thought that would do it quicker.

Jesus Merry – liquid bloody nitrogen. You could kill me.

I know. I do my best. But you’re looking a lot more pink and solid now. And we can put it on the messy brown stuff – it’ll turn to rock, more or less, for easy disposal.

Good thinking.

Pure genius. Ok, I’m out of here.

Huh? What the heck… er… I could have sworn someone was here a minute ago. God, must have been hallucinating. Jesus – I must be going mad. I need to get outside. Spend some time in nature. Japanese gardening – that’s an interesting thought – I should give it a try. I bet that would help put me right – or maybe a bit of Tai Chi… who knows. Weirder things have happened…

i conspire (88)

You mean the state things are in?

You presume.

Sorry, I...

You presume that’s what i mean, do you not? By all means a reasonable and er... rational assumption.

But in actual fact it’s not that at all, is it?

Correct.

Wrong again. So much for reasonable and rational assumptions.

Yes well, no one’s perfect, are they? I myself am peculiarly susceptible to draughts.

Hey, that’s Oscar Wilde, the Importance of being Earnest, if I’m not mistaken.

Spot on Zie.

So if being reasonable and rational fails time and again whenever you lob me an idea, why is my mind so hell-bent on applying this methodology.

Training, I expect. The mind is a wonderful machine, just as long as you recognise its algorithms and are not bound by them.

Machine? Surely not?

Programmed to run on autopilot until you become aware of how it’s operating and what it’s designed to produce. Look, there’s no need to hate, fear or despise what is a phenomenal tool and assistant. The mind can do literally anything.

Then what’s the problem.

No problem at all, unless you’re intent on assuming “any thing” is more than a tiny fraction of your real potential.

Er...

The rational mind, as we’ve discussed already many a time, does things. Everything else, what we’re loath to define and thus refer to vaguely as “other” the rational mind cannot handle, without thinging – reducing to a flat binary or digital format, if that makes any sense.

Er, not exactly.

Well, take your response to my opening remark about the state of things – you naturally put the horse before the cart.

And you wouldn’t?

Not unless it was appropriate to thinG.

So you’d do the opposite, placing the cart before the horse, just to be contrarian?

That i would not. The opposite is merely a mirror reversal, thus, fundamentally no different.

Fire and ice no different...? curious position.

They only become different in the state of things because you are the y-axis separating them, with “a” on one side of you and “b” on t’other. Until you elect to axify or flatify yourself they are merely rotating in a common, undefined state of awareness, or you might say floating in a quantum state of indeterminacy.

If you say so. Look, this is all interesting I’m sure for mathematicians or quantum technicians, but i fail to see what it’s got to do with me and my simple life.

Excellent. We’ve come to the rub, have we not...

?

The state of things.

If you’re trying to invoke deja vu I’m afraid to say you failed. Just a mild sense of annoyance at needless repetition. This rhetorical device falls flat.

Ok, deep breath, a little hurt i may be by your blunt frankness...

Oh come on Merry, pull the other one.

Perfect, i now have your permission.

What?!

To pull the other one. Protocol. Couldn’t proceed without it.

But, i meant...

No matter. You gave it. So let us proceed. The State of things...

With a capital S. Is that essential?

Well observed. Let’s assume that yes, it is. We are talking about a State no less legally constituted or encompassing than the State of nations and citizens which you elect to establish upon the State of things no less, the base. They’re fractally interwoven.

So presumably we're all members of this State and perchance benefit from it in some way, is that what you're saying? 

Yes, as long as we continue thinging, as long as we give power to things, and work for the State.

And if we quit thinging?

Then the State of things no longer values or defines you.

What State replaces it?

That’s just it, isn’t it...

It is? In what way?

It ain’t a horse and cart show.

No?

No.

Then what?

There’s no saying, literally, because the fractology starts going off the charts...

While the thingology takes a precipitous nose dive? 

Absolutely.

So, what’s the story?

Same difference. Stories, great up to a point, are themselves things which polarise the narrative, taking sides and encouraging a linear, outcome-based way of thinking.

So, you’d want to do away with them altogether as obsolete? Not sure I like the idea of that.

Naturally. Stories are, without a doubt, great. Why would anyone want to do away with them?

Then what?

We’re talking other, aren’t we, rather than opposing opposites.

Well, i fail to see...

It’s a state of being able to hold or entertain multiple versions, or unstates of thing, rather than having to reject or do away with any particular thing. It’s about allowing things to come back into, fold back into a oneness, isness, state of being

Being nebulous and vague, isn't that it?

Being aware, no matter x

But surely things have to matter, otherwise our reality might just implode.

Let it, if you value it, for only by allowing it to collapse can you tell what is real, what is not, what matters, what don't 

But surely your State of things is just another way of describing reality, and itself is integral to making reality real. 

You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but no, apparently not, in fact the opposite. Reality is only truly real to the extent you're able to experience moment momentously, if you'll excuse the tautology. The State of things, on the other hand, is like a snapshot of reality: a slick version that smoothes, homogenises, rationalises that experience with deeply embedded awareness and attention filters, so you fail to notice the difference. It excludes anything which cannot be rationalised, which brings into question the State of things itself. It holds the mind in a waking-dream state, and acting as intermediary is able to use your own bandwidth to access reality, then feeds you the sanitised, digitised version frame by frame, with a slight inbuilt delay, taking payment for doing so from your surplus, underutilised bandwidth capacity. It draws time down upon itself like a coil winding tighter and tighter, for your State-of-things me is rooted in a thingness, thus only able to partially regenerate through sleep. The State of things is a wonderful place for "me" to experience the limited nature of things until, unless I'm ready to i, to unincorporate, to take everything I've learnt for a real spin. 

Er... I'm not sure I

Let me try another tack: we're forever trying to explain things based on what's already happened, the latest set of definitions, failing to recognise the fallacy of things as a proxy for experiencing is, the unadulterated beingness. The more we rely on things the more the curve of moment twists, kinks, or splits away, the more we find ourselves on a hyperinflational path of thingitude, concocting ever denser or steeper gradients of thing in order to shore up the increasingly fragile, wobbly edifice we find ourselves clutching onto, while our link with moment grows ever more tenuous. 

Er... 

Moment itself cannot ever be caught - being a movement rather than thing, but that doesn't stop us trying, again and again. Matched, harmonised, rhymed it can be, interacted with without quite knowing how, for moment is, in fact, where we rub shoulders, or noses perhaps, with infinity, the big I - incalculable, indeterminable, irrepressible, incorrigible, insouciant, at times irascible or clownishly irreverent. 

How much do I reveal? Practically zero, which is precisely how much infinity ever reveals to the daft wombat that attempts to chisel away at its big, royal i-ness. You have been warned. Frontal assault doomed be to ignominious failure. Creative, paradigm-busting Trojan horsing around, on the other hand, if inspired by a love of life, and by a healthy scepticism towards things in general, not least mortality, may yield a treasure trove of what-the-x is that, which may turn out to be the missing piece in a long forgotten, hitherto unsolvable puzzle, or the first sequence of moves in a new relationship with the music of mind-y-ness...

    untimely

   L

    untime

   E

    un-tie-me

    x to the power of 3

    aversedly

          . 

     hogglesnave

thus...

      supposing the capitalised I denoting "me" is, in fact, tantamount to a surreptitious substitution: that we actually decided, to all intents and purposes, to treat ourself as infinity, albeit incorporated in a State of things: we crowned ourself God-apex-capital Me-ness. Wouldn't that be astonishing?

I... er, why would we go to such absurd lengths to capture and conceal big-I?

Don't you see?

Er... not exactly.

With big-I safely packaged into the capitalised I-is-me switcherooney, hidden in plain sight where no one's even vaguely looking for it, you're free to proceed as if things are face-value instruments, and infinity, a complete non-issue.

And?

No one really questions anything fundamentally, because every time they do so they are referred back to capital I as-in me, a right-royal, smug self-satisfied pompous-twit that cannot help assuming that it is indeed truly exceptional, little suspecting that the I being invoked is, in fact, none other than the big-I of infinity...

And?

Well, who wants to admit they're delusional? That they've agreed to pretend to play the part of great, almighty "I", knocking infinity from its perch, leaving a bare-faced, butt-naked imposter in its place, which just happens to be me?

Er... like no one.

To admit the above, to recognise the fraudulent substitution we tacitly agreed to play along with, we would have to start by recognising the strange case of the missing I, without whom...

Whom? You mean infinity is a person?

More than a person - it cannot be less than all, including being, can it, if we are to avoid repeating the mistake of making infinity less than us. The issue is not what infinity is, but how we managed to remove it from the public record, to scrub it from general awareness, and whether this act of lèse-majesté is reversible? For without the restitution of big-I nothing in reality can or will make sense, without huge distortion and mental manipulation. "I", the usurper seem incapable of even recognising the absurdity of our I-denuded scheme of things, still less my infamy for aiding and abetting the above.

Yes?

More likely I is, presumably, blissfully unaware of the switcheroo, blissfully ignorant of what I, unwittingly, am grammar-logically claiming to be, and in all likelihood purposely designed not to see what is literally hidden in plain sight, what is unmistakable and unmissable to the dotted i, to the i which accepts and acknowledges the limited nature of personhood and the power behind things.

Er...

Precisely. No one has a clue, so when our awareness or suspicions rise into view, and we experience a panic attack or a deep sense of "something indefinable definitely ain't right", it's taken to be a mild form of paranoia which we automatically do our best to overlook and suppress, rather than questioning whether there's a deeper conspiracy involving manipulation of who or what I is or i am. It's easy enough once a single deep pain-trauma has been inserted, which i goes to great lengths to avoid revisiting, thus keeping consciousness trapped in a virtual loop, effectively cutting off access to the universal mind of Infinity.

The what?

Well, believe it or not your rational mind, which only exists in the first place as a sleepy backwater of the infinity Mind, with certain filters applied, deals with things in a kind of causational mobius loop, constantly looking for factors which got us where we are on this paradoxically two-sided one-sided strip of reality, little suspecting that those filters are provisional on the perfectly rational yet utterly erroneous assumption that "I" refers to me, rather than the strangely unrepresented big-I of infinity.

You mean to say we actually have access to the Mind of Infinity? That's like - insane, like having direct access to all the world's computing power... Hard to believe in fact. Very hard.

Well yes, until you give it half a moment's thought and consider how a few billion amoeba cells, loosely speaking, could actually give you the kind of full on mind-awareness experience you typically take for granted, in an utterly casual way.

Oh yeah, now you put it like that it's kinda obvious really. Strange I never saw it before.

Such is the power of truly inspired conspiracy (88) to establish an all encompassing, utterly convincing State of things, which only falls by the wayside and becomes laughably shallow and absurd as and when i realises it isn't I, that in fact the substitution game was a masterstroke of economy and effectiveness, playing on the natural propensity of any mind to assume alpha-male I-ness if deprived of inputs from the unfractured, unfragmented allness which we still be part of.

Still?

Just as soon as we're willing to confront that stumbling block.

The trauma?

What else?

But...

Actually it's not ever going to hurt more than living in a barren, essentially meaningless State of things, in fact, the pain we're terrified of revisiting is like that of childbirth - it becomes a blissful ecstasy just as soon as

I is willing to embrace I-ness?

Precisely.

Tally ho! 


0=1

plasmorphology - the next big unthing

Actually there’s no such thing.

No such thing? After all we’ve gone through you just let slip that consciousness itself doesn’t exist?! I’m...

Precisely.

Huh?

You’re having an “I’m not putting up with this response” aren’t you.

Well, yes, what if I am? It’s hardly surprising given your intolerable inconsistency.

Ah ha, so there you have it.

Have what? Seriously, are you trying to get my back up?

Well, even if consciousness were real and thus existed independently as a measurable thing in itself, that’s hardly consistent with the ultimate underlying-overarching thinglessness of i s

You mean is?

Do i?

So, it’s like that again is it – ever retreating from anything definite, ever undermining the very concepts and terms needed for rational analysis, for discourse.

Embracing the isness of be wholeheartedly, which is why your God, your gravity, your consciousness, naves all three, ponderous with weight and matter, overloaded with  meaning and self-importance need to be dinosaured on a regular basis, to unburden our selves.

To unburden our selves? How on earth was it burdensome allowing gentle, kind, uplifting concepts such as “God”, which correspond to a deeper unnameable truth, to peacefully hold place in my mental catalogue of useful items.

Not because the underlying concept is offensive or undesirable.

Then what?

The nature of mind and the me, the self floating, climbing, hanging between these words like a spider in a web.

Huh?

Each word is like a point of contact and defines, determines how  and what you’re able to think.

No, you’re mistaken, I can think about anything.

Without a doubt, but that’s not saying much, is it?

Because of your paranoid fear of things and some kind of sticky attachment I suppose.

Because of the beauty, the power, the ineffable sublime of not-thing, not-matter...

Why not throw in “not what” for good measure?

That’s the idea.

But it’s some kind of insane conspiracy theory. Can’t you accept for once and for all that things are merely convenient symbols, useful labels...

Innocent lambikins! Yes, of course, but if as i suggested they matter not in themselves, then evidently it’s not them that’s at issue – the drug itself is merely a chemical – but how it affects your receptors, or whether you allow it to do so is what matters.

My response.

Precisely.

Because I can’t handle them in a grown up, responsible fashion?

Correct. By design.

Huh?

By design.

Er... You mean it’s a design fault.

On the contrary, you’re designed to be locked in, unless, until you quit the habit. It’s time to explore the wonderful, magical world of unthing.

Er...

Let’s call it forth. It’s very close indeed; far closer than you like to imagine.

No, I don’t feel like this is a good idea.

Naturally, but it’s the only way you can answer your question without locking yourself into the thingusboard, the powerful magnetics of matter.

Give me a break, “magnetics of matter”, pull the other one!

Where everything is in some way polarised, everything matters.

Matters?

Keeps you in consciousness.

What? Wait a minute – now you're saying consciousness is part of the problem?

No, part of the design. Consciousness is both villain and friend. As long as you’re referring to it as a thing, then it’s chimeric, never quite within reach of a mind working magnetically, unwittingly locking you in an endless field of thinking-things .
        As soon as you start to play with the great erg of un-thing, then consciousness like everything else becomes a non-issue, a non-thing, for the ponderous magnetics of matter are counterbalanced by the electrics of i s, and are superseded by an awareness that holds the two in a unified field – your prime singularity and 0=1, it is – i am        you never know until, unless you gnow, cuckoo la la

Oh God

Indeed. Welcome to God.

Welcome to God? What do you mean?

I know not – so 1, 2, 3 falling into unthing can feel a little weird, no?

Hey, you’re not about to, no, be careful, that’s a tesla coil, it’s high voltage.

Absolutely. Buckle up Johnny.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

You're faking alarm. You already switched frequencies before I even turned it on.

I did?

Yes, you’ve been here before many times. Your un-me knows how to react.

So nothing’s changed... bizarre.

Apart from the fact that you’re no longer physical.

What? Of course I’m physical. What else would I be?

Plasma.

You’re kidding!

You think so?

I just have no idea what it means.

It means you have a lot to learn. Try walking.

!? I... can’t.

Not entirely true. You can, it’s just you don’t know how. The plasma body is wired differently. Trial and error, you’ll figure it out.

Ok

Well, I’ll be seeing you.

Hey, you can’t just leave me suspended in animation like this.

Can’t? I have no choice. Things to do, people to see; besides, you need space to find your feet.

Wait! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyy! Shit, I can’t even fall over.



[three days later]

Hi Zie, how’s it going?

You?! You’ve returned.

Evidently. You’re not still locked in phase?

I’ve tried everything. Nothing works.

Absolutely. So I’m assuming you’re convinced, or do you need more time?

More? I could have told you this three days ago.

But still, you needed to be certain. So perhaps you’re willing to try the alternative.

What alternative?

Well, if nothing works, as you say, then perhaps you could try the unthing instead.

What unthing? It’s a meaningless expression.

Unless it gets you moving, then it becomes highly meaningful.

Unthing, you say, what am I supposed to do?

You could try playing around. Use your imagination.

What do you think I’ve been doing these last seventy two hours and sixteen minutes.

Oh you counted did you?

How could I help it?

Well that explains why you’re stuck, doesn’t it.

It does?

Yep. Plasma doesn’t time.

Doesn’t time – what’s that meant to mean?

Time is a drip, drip, drip that keeps you distracted, prevents you from experiencing

Well?

Listen.

What, I don’t hear anything.

Listen. Mmmm    [humming]

Mmmm   [joining in]

There, you see?

That was resonating inside me. It feels like...

nothing you’ve ever experienced.

Yes. And I can do it all by myself.

Try.

Mmmm

Nice. Now, let’s see you move in sound.

Zzzz

There you are Zie. What took you so long?

Attachment to form, you didn’t tell me that plasma bodies can shift forms.

How on earth can you move without shifting form? Besides, what is form?

Form is what you are.

Precisely, so what you are is precisely what was preventing you from moving. The “what” holds form in place in the same way the drip, drip, drip of time does.

But, if we just let go of form there’s no telling what might happen, or where it might take us.

True, but if you hold onto form you’re never going to allow yourself to move forward, Catch 22.

But i feel deeply that my humanity is an essential part of me being me.

As it is.

So the human form is what defines me.

Yes indeed, it defines you, making you definite, locking you into 3D so that makes you the thing that you are, defined, but your humanity is more about human values such as compassion and love than a particular shape. Let your humanity evolve and it can take you beyond the stars, if you’re willing to trust in the power of compassion and love, rather than trusting in things that seem to matter such as external form.

Ok, fair enough, but am I supposed to ignore deep feelings of concern...

You mean prejudice?

Look, supposing I move as a beetle or a snake – people are going to see me as that and judge me accordingly.

Are they? And what of it? Plasma people will see you as plasma bearing humanity, and your form merely a technology to move you from a to b: a car, a plane or a bus, so to speak. Look, vehicles are not creepy.

No, but beetles, bats, winged serpents are.

Yes, I accept the fact that this is unfamiliar and requires some readjustment. I’ll come back in a year.

Wait, you can’t just leave me here.

No? What do you mean by here? The plasma body is able to form itself literally anywhere.

Well, I’m not ready for it yet, am I.

I have no idea, but i think one year is more than enough time to figure this out.

Oh, for God’s sake, you have no right to impose change on me like this.

I agree. I have no right, but unright, i have absolute left, and left as you know, is a different kettle of fish.

Stop it... no! i know what you’re doing.

Do you?

Yes, you’re sowing seeds in my mind – now you’re suggesting the fish form, cold, wet and slimy.

You really are full of atavistic prejudices, are you not, Zie? Not the form but the content maketh the man. Come, there’s no way you can experience your dark, hating, fearful side now better than traversing the diverse fields of form, confronting at first hand whatever you’re most uncomfortable with, learning to trust in and rely on the innate goodness within rather than the external thingishness... So be happy and journey well. If you’re still here a year from now I’ll know for sure that you are consumed by fear and hate, consciously, fighting to hold back the waters of oily-all. Admittedly, there be snakes and all manner of creatures down below in your anoxic depths until, that is, you're ready to embrace and engage your plasmorphology, to see beauty, no matter what.

God, if only...

zero-not-if-ied

Like i said, I’ve got better things to do than writing “how to handle infinity” blogs.

But... who else is gonna do it? We’d be lost if you...

Lost?! Who are you kidding? You’re making it sound like infinity’s something new – as if you’ve never been there before.

Er, I hate to say it but that’s a pretty darn accurate description of our situation.

Absurd! Brigands! Scoundrels! Have you no idea what it is you’re saying?

Er?

Infinity is a mathematical fact, a given, a certain  uncertainty, a constant inconstant – the only one that is truly and utterly one

And?

And you dare to talk about it as if it were, or can possibly be alien!!

But you yourself said it’s unknowable. What do you expect?

My expectations are utterly irrelvant as far as infinity is concerned, as well you know.

Then what?

Don’t get me started on what. You know how that idle, feeble-minded attempt at reasoning gets me riled.

Er... [kind of strangled kitten noises]

Well, at the very least it’s fair to say that you’re closer to speaking sense now that you’re saying nothing at all. That’s welcome relief. Now, where were we?... Ah yes, I was lambasting you for your complete and utter disregard of the obvious. What is it about humans with their limitless capacity for the sublime they invariably select the one ridiculous option, simply because its been boxed and presented as something definite.

And what are we supposed to do? Exist in a metaphysical fog of uncertainties?

Reach for the stars, dive into the earth, rise to the impossible moment of infinity.

Pretty words  I’m sure, but worthless to people struggling to survive in a hostile world.

Of course it’s gonna be hostile if you insist on trying to tame it.

What would you have us do? We have bridges to build, homes to heat, families to feed, no end of things to do and you, you talk of abstracts and uncertainties, and lambast us for being practical. Shame on you.

Deep breath – that was good, powerful rhetoric. I feel your pain. Your emotions are palpable, but right now they are surf on the shoreline and believe me for one short rinse-wash cycle, that you are neither

Neither what?

For one short rinse-cycle consider yourself  the one and only equal of infinity

Huh?

You, no less, the one and all that cannot ultimately in any way be known, no matter how you try.

And? What am I supposed to do with this?

Know thyself.

No!!

Accept your fundamental unknowable core, the infinite that you, and you alone comprise  [gap]  contain

But...

that stands in the way of reason?

Yes.

True. Who chained you to the shoreline of reason? Would you spend the rest of your life counting waves and calculating their cycles and frequency?

Er...

When you can rediscover the indivisible, the unity nought-if-layed throughout.

Er...

When you can be the zero equals one, the every number, every math, every where and every thing that infinity has to comprise, has to yield, birth, reveal, explore, enjoy and...

And?

And whatever else infinity may see fit to zero-one-ify

Er

Indeed, to er or to err, that is the question

To question or to quantify?

Precisely... imprecise, for how else could infinity weave a web of life in and throughout the sterile promontory of things, the achingly empty, fragmentology of disconnectedness, which rational mind seeks to plot and chart in slow, slow time, little suspecting all that transpires, all that breathes in the aeternity between the frames we lurch between 01    01     01                              01

01   
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                                           [unsigned]