Bouncing thoughts

James Allard

8:13 AM (0 minutes ago)

to Scot, Rick, Pete, Nancy, Jennifer, Dean, Doowad, Elijah, Al, Craig, Eliot, Funky, Todd, Ken, Texas, DJ, Kyle, RetroJoe, Susan, Starkiller

So...

Of late, the man Kubrick has been nudging at my inner place.

"I hear you knocking..." "Can't you hear me knocking?" (Song lyrics, second from The Rolling Stones' song of the same title, my favorite of theirs in that it has a bizarre time signature shift half way through: the first from ... Nick Lowe? Maybe? "I hear you knocking..." is followed by "... but you can't come in."

I have often said that the paranoia of other humans is infinitely entertaining to me. Rabble babble madness creeps under the skin, however: paranoia is viral, very contagious and possibly lethal to the healthy working of the rational mind.

While an undergraduate, Timothy Leary was doing his internship in a psychiatric hospital, a repository for the truly mad, mad by the Romantic standards. Visions grand and hallowed invisible choirs were the marked signs. These 20th Century afflicted came bound, normally accompanied by their beloved family. While studying the Mad Jung, Leary encountered the Followers Of The Box, the interns worshiping at the altar of B. F. Skinner.

Skinner's Control Method, btw, was a required incoming freshman course, complete with laboratory torment of rodentia, at Western Michigan University. I had that course. I know Skinner, and the evil he brought from the depths of Hell itself. Subliminal seduction, when institutionalized, creates a populace fully prepared to surrender any liberty, any freedom simply for the everlasting quest for The Reward.

Back to the American Asylum in which we've left the soon to be (then defrocked) Good Doctor Tim, then...

Leary via Jung felt that the soul of man was expressed in the mind. The broken mind can, indeed, cause irreparable damage to the body, but first one had to make certain that the soul was not damaged. If the psyche (Greek for soul, not mind) was made right, then the patient can see how their mind has been broken and can apply that to a happy, healthy life. One day, as the tale is unwound 'round many a Lodge Fire, Doctor Tim overheard a Skinnerist discussing a certain amount of improvement in the most difficult cases. The Skinner Method was to withhold a certain quantity of food when the patient mentioned the Sights And Sounds Of The Ether Spheres, and eventually the Event Unseen became mentioned less and less. The Skinnerist is alleged to have said aloud in public, "If they let me cut off their rationals completely, I'd be able to reduce the number to zero." He was referring to the reduction of mentions of Unseen Events. Leary overheard this statement, and is said to have spoken thus:

"There is one time that was used as treatment, and that was by the Nazis."

Maybe. Maybe not. I prefer to not answer, as the answer may unintentionally incriminate myself.

Make of that as you will...

There is more to your philosophy, Horatio, than Heaven and Hell." -- WS (or someone else, it matters not)

So, have seen several documentaries about Kubrick of late, most from the extras on the DVD/Blu-ray. From there, thought, I caught wind of a project called Room 237, a collection of theories about the Actual True For Real Unquestioned Because I Posted It On The Internet And It Must Therefore Be True Deeper Philosophical Meaning And Making Of The Film The Shining.

That primed the pump.

2001: The Alchemy, a tale in four parts that explains it all for you!

Part the first: Birth Of Consciousness

Part the second: Chaos, Order, Control

Part the third: Loss

Part the Fourth: Awareness At Birth

I suspect that a properly made film of The Celestine Prophecy, a grand hoot of an adventure novel buried eyeball deep in all manner of esoteric philosophic and religious studies, would be better if it followed this indicated pattern. Mostly due to the fact that the book, in terms of its storyline, structure and meaning are in that four part pattern, and for lack of a better description, mirrors the themes as I identified them this fine, fine morning.

R.S.V.P. Anything... thoughts? Songs? Stories?

For the love of Christ, somebody talk to me! I need the intellectual and spiritual stimulation each of you provide in your own unique manner.

Thank you.