From
the Alpha Absolute(s) to the Omega Absolute
ROBERT: Talking of
religion, does the Creator really correspond to the Devil, and does Hell
actually exist?
PAUL: Yes, I believe
that the Creator and the Devil are fundamentally one
and the same thing, since theological abstractions from the Galaxy. As to whether Hell exists, you might just as
well ask me whether the Devil exists, and I would give you the same answer.
ROBERT: Well?
PAUL: No.
ROBERT: Is that
supposed to be an answer?
PAUL: It is. And for this reason: what exist in the
Universe, not just the Galaxy, are stars and planets, which correspond to
objective reality as it bears on the external world. The stars are really there, we needn't doubt
that fact, and they burn both continuously and fiercely. They are rather nasty phenomena, as anyone
who has suffered sunstroke or otherwise burnt himself through the sun's power
will tell you. Not something to which
one would want to get too close!
ROBERT: I know all
that. And it makes one think of Hell
when you mention it!
PAUL: Ah, but Hell
isn't the sun, nor even the central star of the Galaxy, but an abstraction from
the sun, an idea in the subconscious which reflects the prevalence of religious
objectivity, as appertaining to the pagan and Christian stages of human
evolution. Hell only exists in the mind,
and so, by a similar token, do 'the Devil' and 'the Creator', since they are
all abstractions from the same cosmic source.
ROBERT: But surely the
Devil, or Satan, has co-existed with the Creator, or Jehovah, in Biblical
tradition, and thus led an independent life, so to speak? We read in the Old Testament of Jehovah as
God and Satan as the Devil, who was kicked out of Heaven for what one would now
call insubordination.
PAUL: Well, that might
signify a distinction of place and power, but it doesn't necessarily prove that
the Creator and the Devil are radically different. Rather, I see them as two manifestations of
fundamentally the same thing, both of which were abstracted from similar cosmic
phenomena. This thing would be the
stellar roots, so to speak, of the Galaxy, which is comprised, we now know, of
a central star - much the most powerful star - and millions of smaller stars,
like the sun. They are basically of a
similar constitution, though they differ in size and position in the Galaxy.
ROBERT: Are you
therefore implying that the Fall of Satan corresponds
to the hypothetical stellar explosion that sent millions of small stars flying
out from the large central one at the base of the Galaxy?
PAUL: In a way I suppose I am, since our sun was almost certainly
created through extrapolation from some larger source and would have
constituted a suitable objective reality from which to abstract the Devil. A mind that contends that God created the sun
is referring, willy-nilly, to the far-away central star of the Galaxy out of
which it probably arose.
ROBERT: Surely you mean
fell?
PAUL: A fall would be
the proper pagan interpretation to put on it, since no early Hebrew mind would
have been aware of a transcendental goal to be attained to, and would
consequently have felt the guilt that comes with a degree of human independence
from nature in the face of nature's vast preponderance, both externally - as
stars, planets, plants, animals, etc. - and internally - as subconscious
mind. From our point of view, however,
the emergence of small stars from the big one signifies an evolutionary
progression that could be regarded, paradoxically, as a sort of rise. But if the Devil is an abstraction from the
sun and the Creator an abstraction from the central star of the Galaxy, then we
needn't be surprised by the co-existence, in Biblical writings, of these two
manifestations of religious objectivity.
Hell, conceived as a place where the Devil reigns, only began to develop
as a theological entity with the advent of dualism and the consequent belief in
a posthumous Heaven. Before men
conceived of Heaven, they had little idea of Hell. It is among the ancient Greeks that we get
the strongest belief in Hell prior to the Christians, though they termed it
Hades and simply regarded it as the abode of the dead - a rather lacklustre
place devoid of the kinds of excruciating tortures so essential to the medieval
concept of Hell, and therefore more resembling the Christian purgatory. The Greeks were also polytheistic and thus
inclined to abstract gods and goddesses from nature, including the sun, rather
than to envisage a monotheistic creative power behind it. The Christians subsequently adopted the
Hebrew bias for the centre, while tempering it with a modified extension of
Hades and
ROBERT: So one wouldn't
be strictly justified in contending that evolution proceeds from the Devil to
God or from Hell to Heaven.
PAUL: No, because
evolution proceeds from the stars to God, from the stars to Heaven, which is to
say, from objective reality conceived externally, as matter, to subjective
reality conceived internally, as spirit.
Only the subjective psyche truly exists, for the objective psyche is
necessarily illusory. And it is
necessarily illusory because composed of abstractions from objective
reality. Thus in the lower idealism of
religious objectivity we get the Creator, the Devil, Hell, and so on, whereas
in the higher idealism of scientific subjectivity ... we get curved space, the
particle/wavicle theory of matter, multiple
universes, and so on. The former was
abstracted from cosmic reality, while the latter has been abstracted from the
psychic reality of superconscious mind. The former must inevitably precede the
latter, but will also be superseded by it.
Thus we intellectuals don't believe in the Devil, Hell, the Creator,
like our medieval ancestors, but we do believe in curved space, the particle/wavicle theory of matter, and multiple universes, and so we
should, even though, from any objectively materialist point-of-view, such
beliefs could only be regarded as erroneous and misguided! Just try thinking about curved space for a
moment. Imagine space, which is a nothingness
or void, as a curve!
ROBERT: I can't. Only certain material objects appear curved,
since curvature is detectable on their surfaces, being a property of certain
objects. But I can't imagine a void being
curved.
PAUL: No, and neither
can I, although every advanced and truly contemporary Western scientist will
endorse Einstein's theory of curved space.
Some of them can even purport to prove it, as did Faraday, who was
clever enough to invent a machine which created the desired impression, thereby
proving, once and for all, that space really was curved and the Universe
finite. As to the particle/wavicle theory of matter, anyone can bang their hands
against a strong piece of wood and feel the resistance of matter. But certain ingenious devices, like the
Bubble Chamber, can prove that, on the subatomic level, matter isn't really
what it appears to be on the surface, since composed of numerous particles
which interpenetrate one another and also become, at other times and when
viewed from a different psychic angle, so to speak, numerous wavicles. Mysterious
now-you-see-me-now-you-don't alternations of particles and wavicles
are brought to life by this magical device that would shame any traditional
materialist. But no contemporary
so-called physicist could possibly do justice to matter without it, and neither
could he pursue scientific subjectivity so ardently was it not for the fact
that our supermystical bias requires being flattered
in this metaphysical way, not just recognized.
The contemporary physicist becomes, in this context, a sort of
scientific theologian, the modern equivalent of the religious theologians of
the past. What he tells us is false by
any objective materialist standards, but absolutely true to the age - an age in
which information concerning the external world is abstracted from the
spiritual reality of the superconscious, in
conformity with transcendental criteria.
Previously, however, it was the other way around, as information
concerning the subconscious was abstracted from the material reality of the
external world, and internal objectivity accordingly prevailed. Now that we have external subjectivity,
however, we should be sincerely grateful for the fact, since it reflects a
considerable degree of evolutionary progress!
ROBERT: Although this
external subjectivity, as you call it, only prevails in the West, particularly
in the United States, where a transcendental bias is permissible, if not always
officially encouraged.
PAUL: Yes, the
so-called communist world has traditionally remained tied to scientific
objectivity, and thus to material reality.
If at one time it officially outlawed religious objectivity, it failed
to endorse religious subjectivity, and so couldn't encourage abstractions from
the superconscious concerning the material
world. It was essentially an external,
superficial world that corresponded to a post-dualistic barbarism. Civilization on the highest, or qualitative,
level requires a religion, but Marxist-Leninist countries didn't really have
one, at least not in any morally progressive sense. However, don't blame them for that! They were part-and-parcel of historical
necessity and couldn't possibly gravitate to civilization on the next level
within the context of the world as it was until quite recently, which, as you
know, was largely divided between the dualistic and transitional civilizations
on the one hand, and the neo-barbarous post-dualistic powers on the other. To have had three stages of civilization,
viz. a dualistic, a transitional, and a post-dualistic, existing simultaneously
would have been illogical and therefore quite improbable from an historical
point-of-view. Obviously the first two
will have to be superseded before the third can truly become a reality, and
socialism accordingly embraces transcendentalism. But it won't embrace transcendentalism
overnight, so to speak, nor in all the revolutionary post-dualistic countries
at once. Only in one country, initially,
will socialism tend towards the establishment of post-dualistic civilization,
as signified by Social Transcendentalism, and from there such a civilization
will spread abroad to eventually embrace the entire world. Then we will certainly be on the road to
global civilization. But not before
transcendentalism has proved its worth and socialist powers have been persuaded
to evolve, via Social Democracy, into post-dualistic civilization.
ROBERT: Which will be
atheistic rather than theistic, like the dualistic and transitional
civilizations of the contemporary West?
PAUL: Yes, because
completely beyond religious objectivity, which upholds the idealism of the
subconscious mind. For a post-dualistic
psyche, with approximately three times as much superconscious
as subconscious influence, the illusory contents of the subconscious fade into
the mists of history ... as the mind tends further and further into the light
of truth. So, obviously, they can't be
upheld as formerly. The external world,
with particular reference to the Galaxy, will still exist as before, so that
the cosmic phenomena from which religious idealism was abstracted in the past
are still there, and consequently still support and sustain the world. But the internal world will have changed so
much that the Creator, the Devil, Hell, and other such theological abstractions
will hold no place in our references to the external world and, accordingly,
have ceased to exist for us. Evolution
will be regarded as a progression from the stars to the Holy Spirit which, in
more objective language, one might call the Omega Absolute. And the stars and planets will generally be
regarded as though they functioned according to divine logic, with mystical
rather than materialist criteria, in deference to the transcendental bias of
scientific subjectivity. Strictly
speaking, however, this could never be the case, since stars are ever infernal
and therefore function on the fundamentally Newtonian basis of force and
mass. But to a post-dualistic
civilization, scientific objectivity would be as irrelevant as religious
objectivity.
ROBERT: So considered
from the traditional point-of-view, with regard to the infernal nature of the
stars, you would have no difficulty in equating the Creator with a more
powerful inferno than Satan, who was generally regarded as the Devil.
PAUL: If the Creator was
abstracted from the biggest star of the Galaxy, then He would certainly be more
powerful than anything abstracted from the sun.
If the Creator created the Devil, whether by mistake or otherwise, then
Satan could only be a minor inferno by comparison.
ROBERT: And do you
think there was one Creator or many?
PAUL: There would have
been many Creators throughout the Universe.
For each galaxy has a governing or central star around which the
millions of smaller stars revolve. To
imagine that the Universe began with a Big Bang ... from one huge mass of gas
which sent stars, or the rudiments thereof, flying out in every direction ...
would, I think, be to overlook the fundamental nature of the Diabolic Alpha in
utter separateness. If evolution is
destined to culminate in the indivisible unity of transcendent spirit, then I
don't see that one should ascribe a unity in indivisible sensuality to its
beginnings! Rather, one should envisage
numerous separate explosions of gas throughout the Universe which, issuing from
what we now call the central star of each galaxy, sent suns flying out in every
direction, to bring about the rudiments of individual galaxies. Possibly some of these suns were of a
different internal constitution than others, they may even have come from other
galactic explosions in which the gases were differently constituted, and
thereby set up a kind of magnetic equilibrium in tension when they encountered
their opposite numbers, so to speak, in the gradual formation of galaxies. But it was solely from and within the context
of this galaxy, rather than
from the totality of galaxies making up the Universe, that religious
objectivity was subsequently abstracted.
ROBERT: Which means, I
take it, that the ancients, whether Hebrew or otherwise, took the Galaxy for
the Universe, since they lacked the scientific means by which to acquire a more
comprehensive knowledge of the various galaxies, and accordingly imagined that
the Universe was simply compounded of all the stars they could see, and that it
revolved around the earth.
PAUL: Yes, so they
abstracted from a fragment of the Universe under the mistaken assumption that
they were in fact abstracting from the whole, and thereby arrived - at any
rate, in the case of the Hebrews - at a monotheism
only relative to this galaxy. In
reality, there are or were literally millions of creators in the Universe,
because millions of separate galaxies with their respective governing stars,
and these creators each gave rise to millions of devils, because billions of
separate stars in all the galaxies of the Universe taken together. This, however, is to extend religious
objectivity farther afield, and it can have no
applicability to the modern world! We
speak of galaxies, not creators, and so we should. I am not now expecting you to resurrect the
past and modify it by substituting creators for the Creator, devils for the
Devil, hells for Hell, or the lot for galaxies!
But, to get the record straight, I am quite sure that the traditional
religious reference to the Creator, the Devil, etc., was, so to speak,
cosmically provincial, relevant only to this galaxy, and that there were in
fact millions of creators being worshipped throughout the Universe, with
millions of devils being feared there - each alien 'people' acknowledging their
own abstractions in whichever solar system they happened to exist.
ROBERT: So the old
enigma as to whether there was only one First Cause of the Universe or numerous
First Causes has been solved at last, if what you say is true?
PAUL: I believe so. And I believe that intelligent life forms in
any particular galaxy would only acknowledge the First Cause relative to their
specific galaxy, not to anyone else's, even though they would probably have
abstracted the Devil from different sources, depending on which solar system,
if any, they inhabited. Thus if certain
of our ancestors on earth abstracted the Devil from the sun, there would be
plenty of other suns in the Galaxy to serve a like-purpose for other human
equivalents in different solar systems, and consequently they would all be
referring to different devils. As to the
fact that, in most traditional political arrangements, the king and nobles
derive their justification from the workings of the Galaxy and may be thought
of as corresponding, in their relationship with the general populace, to the
relations of suns to planets, I have little doubt that the king corresponds, in
his privilege of 'Divine Right', to the governing star of the Galaxy, and thus
functions as the human equivalent on earth of the Creator. His nobles, being fundamentally of the same
stuff as himself, correspond to the numerous smaller stars that revolve around
the large central one, and therefore are aligned with devils, functioning as the
human equivalent on earth of the devils of a particular galaxy. The populace, by contrast, correspond to the
planets of each solar system and are therefore aligned with demons, functioning
as the human equivalent on earth of the demons of a particular galaxy. This is a thoroughly diabolical system which
prevails while man is under the dominion of nature, of the natural status quo,
and has not yet begun to exclusively aspire towards the supernatural. Thus to some extent it prevails right up to
the advent of post-dualistic civilization, when everything appertaining to the
monarchic/aristocratic system of government would have ceased to exist. A constitutional monarchy, such as exists in
dualistic Britain, is fundamentally a diabolic system that has been diluted by
bourgeois democracy, whilst a republic, such as exists in transitional America,
is a worldly system characterized by bourgeois/proletarian democracy. Only in a post-dualistic civilization will
the undiluted truth of a divine-oriented system become possible, as men turn
exclusively, in Transcendentalism, towards the cultivation of spirit, and thus
cease to fear or worship or slave for the human equivalents on earth of the
galactic order. At that fortunate time
there will be no such equivalents, for they will have ceased to exist, having
faded into the misty past, along with scientific and religious
objectivity. Only the divine-oriented
class of the proletariat will continue the progress of human evolution, and
they will do so not as the human equivalent on earth of demons, like the peasant
masses and, more especially, soldiery of the feudal and pre-feudal past, but as
Transcendentalists - angelic aspirants towards the post-Human Millennium ...
and beyond.