Soli Deo Gloria

I went through this book in close to two days. 

A highly enjoyable read that has tremendous impact for most. This is typical for Mr. Hitchens and his work. He continues to inspire me and humble me simultaneously. 

During the time I was reading this book I became quite reflective and stumbled into synchronicity. 

While browsing Meshuggah videos on youtube, I came across an interview with Tomas Haake, the drummer and lyricist for the band. He discusses the writing process and Christopher Hitchens. He then adds Robert Anton Wilson as an influential author also.  I was unaware that he was a fan of either. Ironically, Tomas writes the lyrics for the band and the words have alway been fascinating.

- Meshuggah: New Millenium Cyanide Christ-

I was fifteen when I first encountered this song. 1998 or so. 

The video was featured in this album. 

This video really made the song more accessible to my virgin ears. 

The tendency for agressive metal to turn ridiculously serious is almost synonymous with the genre.  The sense of humor in the video really completes the song for me. It would be easy to go as far as saying this might actually be my favorite song. 

Many of the themes present in the lyrical content of this song invoke core elements of inspiration, awe,  and animosity. These are really qualities that are exceptionally useful. 

Often I find myself utilizing music for channelling rather than mere enjoyment. A means of influencing and adjusting mood and occasionally focusing intent. In other words: If there isn't shit on the radio I would rather listen to the deafening silence that is my mind. This is a great example of a song that hits me like a rail of finely cut cosmos shoved into the back of my skull. 

"I'm a carnal, organic anagram

Human flesh instead of written letters"

Existentialism expressed and pushing the metaphors of Korzybski and Burroughs. 

A quote by Alfred Korzybski

W.S. Burroughs

The next lines follow with 

"I rearrange my pathetic tissue

I incise, I replace, I'm reformed" 

Yukio Mishima

Whether it is protoplasm or musculature, the inherent drive to distrust hedonism engages the motivation to condition against future adversity. This I relate to very strongly. This desire to change and manipulate to the limits of this organism.  

"I eradicate the fake pre-present me

Elevate me to a higher human form"

My early exposure to the concepts buddhism, brought with it a maturing philosophy that eventually encourages ego death. This idea of a fake pre-present me, is also something I can relate to with my immersion in analytical psychology.

"The Characters I am

Made into a word complete

Then I'll be the new norm"

After investigating the concepts of Jungian psychology and the Hero Mythos described by Joseph Campbell in Hero with a Thousand Faces, things began to sort the components that drive the being. Suddenly Eros and Thanatos bring order and and sense to actions. The Archetypes, Complexes, and the personal journey/individuation come together. That word is an invocation. That norm is godlike.

Liber Jugorum

"Self inflicted fractures

I replace my bones with bars

Aluminum bleeding oxide

The drug of gods into my pounding veins"

Again the masochistic creative destruction. Transhumanism excites me greatly. The drugs assisting the psychonaut to encounter with a higher evolution. 

The mode of choice of Dr. Lilly

"My receiving eyes exchanged with fuses

Blindness induced to prevent destruction"

Giordano Bruno's Mnemonic Memory Seals

Method of Loci: ...the greatest practitioners of the old art discovered some odd things about their memory houses the longer they lived in them ... it was discovered, for instance, that the symbolic figures with vivid expressions, once installed in their proper places, are subject to subtle change as they stand waiting to be called forth... also, as the memory house grows, it makes conjunctions and vistas that its builder can't conceive of beforehand...

Artifical Lung

"Ceramic blades implanted past my ribs

To save me from the dues of inhalation"

"I tear my worldly useless skin

Staples to pin it over my ears

Non-receptive of ungodly sounds

I disable the audio-generators of fear"

A banishment. Banishing the skin or shadow. Banishing of internal dialogue. Or any negative programming.

Christopher Hitchens

"Hexagonal bolts to fill my mouth

Sharpened to deplete

The creator of the violence

Without speech there will be no deceit"

Speaking with polemics and holding them to the edge. Leaving your dick in the mouths of those who speak in tongues. Speechless. Words are often a hygiene problem. A symptom of the duplicitous duality of a binary mental apparatus. 

G.G. Allin

"Baptized in vitriolic acid

A final touch, a smoothing of features

Completion of the greatest art

To cast the godly creatures"

Abrasive is generally my nature though nurture is not entirely without its faults. 

Shoko Asahara and the  14th Dalai Lama.Two  Charismatic Cult Leaders...

"Humans once astray, made divine

Stripped of congenital flaws

We're incandescent revelations

In a world of darkened forms"

...but Shoko could obviously out meditate the Lama.

Despite the visceral and possibly congenital misanthropic demeanor, hope exists for the species that may or may not decide the fate of the biosphere. Hope translates into the odds for survival.

"Disciples, come join with me

To save a failed humanity

Follow the god of cyanide

Into the new eternity"

An invitation to join. A reiteration of the mantra to focus under the duress that may occur. 

"Behold, a sacrificial raise

A cleansing worshipping of pain

The new millenium christ

Here to redeem all from lies

Lies"

Truth or the approximation that isn't. The pursuit is the process and product. In spite of it all.

The sheer ferocity of this track was latent with time signatures that would cause brainwave entrainment. Truly though, it is the themes in this song that remain relevant to my life after all these years. It has earned the term longevity and still provides the potent formula to enhance my the riding of what has been known as the True Will.

So to you my friend that asks me, what is your favorite song? The one that still gets me high.

So to you my friend who also asked me politely what I believed in: after reading the Hitchens book. I feel comfortable replying that  both pantheism  and atheism are really attractive to me. Yet it was Joseph Campbell that reintroduced the hero mythology and how they integrate into Jungian psychology. This in turn explained what Hitchens doesn't delve into. Why people need the spiritual salve. Thus, I am aware that there is a relationship where my science and atheism struggles while my irrational mind toils with its archetypes and crutches. 

With such profound difficulty achieving balance with these extremes, I consider it beyond a challenge to humanity to even conceive of a divine unification like GOD. In that case, sure, let us all be godlike.

I am currently operating a Jungian/Atheist OS on a machine developing random access memory via the technologic aids of Giordano Bruno to hoard shit in my memory palace. Which further reaches into the various strange rituals I design to deal with emotive material but thats a whole different post...

Note to self: 

Synchronistic data. Not signed into my account on youtube when the Haake video was found. No possibility of a suggested node via previous searchs. 

Yukio Mishima and G.G. Allin both destroyed themselves. Ironically, with honor.

P.S. Doug Stanhope, thanks for calling out. Alex Jones. That "audio generator of fear".