You are a very bright young man, and I can appreciate your suspicion toward all of this. Your research is very careful, which I also appreciate.
It is material that is very close to my heart — on both ends of the attraction/repulsion polarity.
Not wanting to come off as a scold, but also unable to hold my tongue, allow me to say that the impulse to reject and demonize is a strong one. It is a survival instinct.
The Renaissance marked the revival of Hermeticism and esotericism. What this means, on a grand scale, we are only now coming to grips with.
Thank you for grasping at these ideas. I look forward to Part II.
I would simply say that I think the problem is people are obsessed with ancient mysteries, but what many have really lost is an appreciation of the mystery that is modern Western civilization.
They’ve taken that for granted and forgotten how we got here, hence the overwhelming sense of disenchantment.
Once we appreciate what was unleashed with the Classical Greece of Socrates, Plato, and its rebirth with the Renaissance, then the real mysteries become abundantly clear.
I've been reading "The Teaching of Buddha" a book which was in our Bangkok hotel room in English and Chinese language. One thing I find interesting about this is that Buddha taught that all of these desires were the basis of suffering and although he wanted people to attain Enlightenment tantric sex orgies or drugs would not have been endorsed as ways to do it. They would have been viewed as leading to more suffering. Even Enlightenment itself as a goal of attainment would have been seen as grasping...
The importation of “Buddhism” by Theosophist circles had little to do with introducing people to genuine Buddhism or truthfully translating much of its teachings. They picked and chose different elements as they liked.
The Buddhist tradition is a very fine one. It’s a shame that it was perverted into mushy brain psychedelic kum bah ya for so many (though not all).
In the future I’ll be doing pieces where we cover the real mystical traditions, both East and West.
I was looking forward to this one, great job. Have you checked out Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy book that came out a few years after Changing Images of Man?
And yes, from what I've read, The Aquarian Conspiracy was a popularized version of the same report, ghost-written by the SRI Changing Images of Man program director, Willis Harman. Harman re-appears in the second half of my piece as well, which will appear next week.
Executive Intelligence Review writes:
"In publishing the SRI report, the Tavistock network made
no mention of its work, through political and other means, to
bring about the "observed" transformation factors. Six years
later, in February 1980, Willis Harman had the Images of
Man report reworked into a popularized form and published
under the name of his assistant, Marilyn Ferguson, under the
@davidgosselin interesting article. but there is a very real demographic crisis overtaking the entire world not just the west. there are a number of reasons why, but the main reason is environmental. the other reasons are cultural and economic. no governments are going to tackle these issues head on. BRICS+ vs the west is a hoax
Can't Christianity itself be represented as an Eastern mystery cult? And is it so dissimilar from all the others? As an aquarian myself I'm not entirely against new-ageism, but I certainly deprecate the use of drugs and wild sexual orgies. Indeed I regard sex as altogether a very dangerous and difficult area. It so easily becomes idolatrous. And idolatry of any sort is the root of all evil, because it exalts the part above the whole. In particular what is needed is liberation of sexual information, not liberation of sex per se. And much the same is true of drugs.
This essay is marred by a rather large number of typographical errors and needs extensive proofreading. In particular 'corral' is spelt corral and not chorale which refers to some other activity entirely.
I could answer your question, but why not let you give it a try first. I'd simply ask: how might one describe the difference between Christianity and these other mystery cults?
Christianity has its roots firmly in everything that preceded it. It emerged naturally and wasn't in any way artificially imposed. Also it provided us with a supreme moral exemplar and a universal moral code. Self-mutilation is not what it's about or fits of hysterical display. Christianity put its emphasis on what we do when we are alone, and on intimate close personal relationships. It's not really about crowds or group power. Indeed it isn't about power at all. It's about power's direct opposite: truth.
In any case I would have thought that it was an important part of your job as the author of the essay to make clear its superiority to its rivals.
You are a very bright young man, and I can appreciate your suspicion toward all of this. Your research is very careful, which I also appreciate.
It is material that is very close to my heart — on both ends of the attraction/repulsion polarity.
Not wanting to come off as a scold, but also unable to hold my tongue, allow me to say that the impulse to reject and demonize is a strong one. It is a survival instinct.
The Renaissance marked the revival of Hermeticism and esotericism. What this means, on a grand scale, we are only now coming to grips with.
Thank you for grasping at these ideas. I look forward to Part II.
Thanks, here is part II.
I would simply say that I think the problem is people are obsessed with ancient mysteries, but what many have really lost is an appreciation of the mystery that is modern Western civilization.
They’ve taken that for granted and forgotten how we got here, hence the overwhelming sense of disenchantment.
Once we appreciate what was unleashed with the Classical Greece of Socrates, Plato, and its rebirth with the Renaissance, then the real mysteries become abundantly clear.
Part II is here:
https://ageofmuses.substack.com/p/slaying-mithra-self-help-human-potential-975
Excellent. Thank you.
Plato was a Pythagorean initiate.
Much to unravel.
I've been reading "The Teaching of Buddha" a book which was in our Bangkok hotel room in English and Chinese language. One thing I find interesting about this is that Buddha taught that all of these desires were the basis of suffering and although he wanted people to attain Enlightenment tantric sex orgies or drugs would not have been endorsed as ways to do it. They would have been viewed as leading to more suffering. Even Enlightenment itself as a goal of attainment would have been seen as grasping...
Yes.
The importation of “Buddhism” by Theosophist circles had little to do with introducing people to genuine Buddhism or truthfully translating much of its teachings. They picked and chose different elements as they liked.
The Buddhist tradition is a very fine one. It’s a shame that it was perverted into mushy brain psychedelic kum bah ya for so many (though not all).
In the future I’ll be doing pieces where we cover the real mystical traditions, both East and West.
Great post for deprogramming generations of Americans since the 1960s.
Thanks Charles!
Indeed, I will die before I allow Western civilization to be reduced to a post-industrial psychedelic bongo bongo land, which looks like this:
https://x.com/gosselin_b/status/1783284977557278935?s=46&t=SeWj-GJnbkRt1O9HXcEHPg
I was looking forward to this one, great job. Have you checked out Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy book that came out a few years after Changing Images of Man?
Thanks!
And yes, from what I've read, The Aquarian Conspiracy was a popularized version of the same report, ghost-written by the SRI Changing Images of Man program director, Willis Harman. Harman re-appears in the second half of my piece as well, which will appear next week.
Executive Intelligence Review writes:
"In publishing the SRI report, the Tavistock network made
no mention of its work, through political and other means, to
bring about the "observed" transformation factors. Six years
later, in February 1980, Willis Harman had the Images of
Man report reworked into a popularized form and published
under the name of his assistant, Marilyn Ferguson, under the
title The Aquarian Conspiracy."
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1996/eirv23n03-19960112/eirv23n03-19960112_023-the_tavistock_roots_of_the_aquar.pdf
@davidgosselin interesting article. but there is a very real demographic crisis overtaking the entire world not just the west. there are a number of reasons why, but the main reason is environmental. the other reasons are cultural and economic. no governments are going to tackle these issues head on. BRICS+ vs the west is a hoax
Can't Christianity itself be represented as an Eastern mystery cult? And is it so dissimilar from all the others? As an aquarian myself I'm not entirely against new-ageism, but I certainly deprecate the use of drugs and wild sexual orgies. Indeed I regard sex as altogether a very dangerous and difficult area. It so easily becomes idolatrous. And idolatry of any sort is the root of all evil, because it exalts the part above the whole. In particular what is needed is liberation of sexual information, not liberation of sex per se. And much the same is true of drugs.
This essay is marred by a rather large number of typographical errors and needs extensive proofreading. In particular 'corral' is spelt corral and not chorale which refers to some other activity entirely.
I could answer your question, but why not let you give it a try first. I'd simply ask: how might one describe the difference between Christianity and these other mystery cults?
Christianity has its roots firmly in everything that preceded it. It emerged naturally and wasn't in any way artificially imposed. Also it provided us with a supreme moral exemplar and a universal moral code. Self-mutilation is not what it's about or fits of hysterical display. Christianity put its emphasis on what we do when we are alone, and on intimate close personal relationships. It's not really about crowds or group power. Indeed it isn't about power at all. It's about power's direct opposite: truth.
In any case I would have thought that it was an important part of your job as the author of the essay to make clear its superiority to its rivals.