In our rapidly disintegrating world, it seems apropos to touch on the work of theoretical physicist David Bohm and the implications of a gross misapprehension of reality pointed to apocalyptic collapse (or worse.) If Bohm is correct in his ‘implicate order’ of things, we don’t have long to reverse and straighten out the damage of Cartesian-Platonic philosophy underwriting modern science and our social paradigm. The revised-expanded essay “Reality Check” (with references)
Apocalyptic essay on cross-cultural observations
I know most of my readers are into the ‘intelligence’ stuff, nonetheless I lose some readers and gain others depending on the political moment. When the sublime criminal Obama left office and I turned my guns on the morons surrounding Trump, there was (to some extent) a change in my audience’s political demographic. My satire has no doubt also ‘expelled’ certain people who otherwise might have continued reading at this site. None of the preceding has ever effected the material I produce, I call things as I see it in the geopolitical moment and poke at our would be ‘leaders’ with a sharp stick of ridicule if only because the court jester tradition is in danger of dying in the era of political correctness. My native sense of responsibility rebels at the thought.
For those who had been unaware of a certain biographical fact in this reporter’s shaping and evolution, it just so happens my mentality’s most stringent beliefs are derived from many years immersion in a pocket or remnant of Native American language community where pre-Columbian thought was still within reach. These ideas are as different to Western thought as the Earth is to Mars. More importantly is, when fluency in this sort of thinking is attained, one is never tempted to return to Western.
It’s not easy to translate this sort of thinking to Western language, in fact outside of one Native teacher (of mine, personal ), [1] I grade most (nearly all) attempts I have seen to translate high concept a rank fail. Maybe I will fail too, but here goes with trying to bring a greater perception across.
“Hopi and other Native Brothers [nations] were warned no man should bring anything down to Earth from the moon. It would imbalance natural and universal laws and create more severe earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, hail storms, season changes and famines. This is now happening. Most men have strayed from their life plan shown to them by Massau’u [a native concept of messiah, different to Western.] These signs tell us we are nearing the end of our life patterns. We are coming to the time of the Purifiers, the high kachinas commissioned by the Great Spirit to stop man’s destruction of self and nature” -Thomas Banyaca [2]
First, these sort of ideas don’t literally translate if one considers in Native American language generally, and Blackfoot language more specifically (example given), mostly it is the verbs carry the important information (do the heavy lifting), whereas nouns are few(er) and less important, in circumstance of perception which is largely based on, and conversation reflects, process. As example, with the process of heat, the important information is the degree of intensity, or one could say the state of its activity across a spectrum, while the vessels containing it, for instance the nouns kettle or stove, would be a detail and in most instance altogether unnecessary to the sentence structure (a case of the obvious.)
Interestingly, these languages (as opposed to Western) do not appear to struggle much with some of the more paradoxical questions raised by quantum mechanics, particularly noting the work of theoretical physicist David Bohm attempting to replicate a language of process based on his awareness of the Hopi (and other languages.)
“We’re not used to thinking about process. We communicate with an object-based language. David [Bohm] invented a thing called “rheomode“–language in which we speak to each other in a flowing mode. There are some ancient languages which do this–Hopi Indian and some others. In his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order, you’ll find a chapter on language, in which he discusses this rheomode. It didn’t work, because we were still thinking of objects” -theoretical physicist Basil Hiley [3]
From the Native side, it was an action anthropologist, Dr Karl Schlesier, in his ‘The Wolves of Heaven’ based on many years fieldwork, drew the conclusion Cheyenne Shamanism not only confirmed Bohm’s theory, but surpassed his elementary understanding of the implicate order. [4] [5]
Despite that relatively few grasp this, there must be a reason behind the convergence, it can’t just be some freak occurrence. With the preceding in mind, I’ll attempt to expand on the Hopi Thomas Banyaca’s words.
What the ancients (as proposed by Banyaca) were referring to is very likely string theory [6], a concept in its’ infancy in the Western understanding. The indigenous understanding is everything is interconnected by a vibrational web with phenomenal properties that can be established via a careful, focused, long-time intensive training in observation.
In this view, when you bring a moon rock back to earth, it recalls not an isolated history of the Moon created by an early, large asteroid impact with Earth (Western science view) but awakens (shakes awake or invigorates a previously sleeping or dormant, not dead) PROCESS. In short, this act is like sending a message inviting a large asteroid impact (or similar effect) because all is inter-connected process without static element but multiple living elements (cells) of a greater organism (cosmos) in various states of activity (process), whether asleep, awake or somewhere between (‘between’ misconstrued as the many ‘gender’ of the native languages as interpreted by Westerners.)
The ‘earth shaking’ is the web awakening awareness (not merely ‘memory’ which is but one element) of a time of great flux and it is that consciousness-awareness is in state of re-initiating process. What had been a long time calmed down or still ‘string’ has been ‘vibrated’ into action similar to web delivering information alerting or awakening a spider but this is alert of waking process coordinated in multiple phenomena.
These interconnected process(es) can be interpreted as varying states of graduating androgyny, over a spectrum of acceleration-de-acceleration in relation to time, with male representing acceleration and female de-acceleration (of time.) The male principle (common sense-action) when over-emphasized (or separated, cold rational) becomes destructive, whereas the female principle (serene-determined) over-emphasized (or separated) will morph into chaos. Either and/or both in extreme state of agitation point to process that will ultimately result in decay. This violence leading to decay will not only reflect in a form of A to B sequence but also can be observed as simultaneous phenomena even while observable in linear form where male initiation works out as destruction = chaos = decay, and female initiation reflects as chaos = destruction = decay, with either followed by birth that is not necessarily ‘rebirth.’
Whenever one manifests in exaggerated form, awakened process will seek correction as a matter of immutable law, whether expressed on the small or grand scale of events. In the case of a grand scale destruction-chaos event, what follows decay will be a new expression, or a birth which is not a rebirth, but imperatively a new birth (new form.)
That said, an extraordinary case of acceleration-de-acceleration pulling in opposite direction risks tearing the fabric of time (ripping apart the web.)
The parallel universe(s) ‘inferred’ by quantum mechanics (Western science almost certainly won’t survive to understand due to causing implosion) could be seen in the light of the preceding with the following metaphor:
Presume for just a moment our brains (we each have a pair) are self-expressed models of parallel universe in mirror image (facing each other.) Each of these universe has a character, principle and laws expressed as female and male, respectively. To sustain in orderly fashion there must be kept a close balance, and so we must keep a center of consciousness (self-aware state of equilibrium) to accomplish this, and further, suppose we are ‘the gods’ (per Jesus ‘don’t you know you are gods’) charged with keeping the balance in good order. As ‘custodians’ of our small cosmos (Earth), whether in the individual, the community, the nation or our collective cosmos (because we are possessed of creative consciousness that can and does initiate process via ‘the web’), it is critically imperative to locate aware-action in, and restrict these actions to, a space where balance is maintained and that requires a rigorous self-discipline and self-restraint where disturbance is kept in a minimal state.
Destruction and renewal are easily consequence of disturbance of ‘the web’ that were unnecessary, and a fact brought on by simply not paying attention can initiate these things, on the small or grand scale. The metaphor of the “Purifiers“ or “high kachinas” speaks to the grand scale.
This goes to the crux of theoretical physicist d’Espagnat’s observation concerning consciousness and the fact human awareness cannot be ‘disconnected’ from the awareness of ‘objects’, despite this ‘disconnect’ has become the innate cultural belief of Platonic thinking (modern psychology.)
Here we arrive at:
A: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” -Alfred North Whitehead [7]
+
B: ”The [Plato’s] doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment” -Bernard d’Espagnat [8]
=
C: nouns or millennia destructive process ‘objectifying’ language, projecting individual identity onto pieces of one’s surroundings, or dis-integrating environment; a result of the isolated projection of self or (ego) individuation by Western humanity exclusive of integration to a sentient, aware surrounding, where all environment had been/should be, social. [RTW]
The result of this ‘separation’ (delusion of independence) is, Western science blind to the obvious staring them in the face. In the absence of experiencing clear observations, they are constrained to ‘inferring’ aspects (what they cannot see) concerning the nature of reality, piecemeal, as opposed to integrated, native view. Because they are nevertheless part and parcel of what they must sense but cannot see, understand or experience holistically, the Western mentality is condemned to ‘experiment’ in a state of thirst ‘to know’ that can never be quenched. This is a radical state of disturbance (blowing things up, smashing things apart) with consequence that cannot be shunted aside but must be accommodated, even to collapse and perhaps humanity gone out of existence. Some (ancients in the native traditions) say ‘there are always a few’ (survive), others (ancients in the native traditions) say ‘there is no promise’ (of survival.)
As a matter of fact, we have been here before. The oral histories point to a range of events that should be consistent with man abusing his powers in the past. The Hopi record multiple ‘renewal’ events, the Navajo have their stories and others, inclusive of the Plains Ojibwa & Blackfeet (my primary understanding.) These stories should be consistent with certain evidence ‘high’ civilization had been erased or otherwise brought up short and curtailed in their behaviors in other areas of the world, for instance records laid down in Hindu civilization:
“Vishnu incarnated as the Brahman Parashurama in this era because there were too many warlike Kshatriyas plaguing the Earth, and he therefore had to wipe out most of the world’s warriors. However, some of the Kshatriyas survived or more were created, and their population grew again” [9]
Finally, whether you believe Man went to the Moon, or when he will arrive, is unimportant; the Hopi warning is relevant in other (and many) respects.
As I write this, an American space vehicle is orbiting an asteroid to study & determine whether (and if so, when) that particularly large space rock will collide with our planet. There is integrated to this ‘mission’ the intent to return a sample of that very asteroid to Earth, which in native view would be like giving that particular space body a scent to follow with purpose.
Relevant to this, the dinosaur extinction impact site, or Chicxulub crater, has been drilled several times over these past decades, most recently in 2016. [10] As well, archaeology is recalling (literally) past civilizational collapse inclusive of epidemics & the attending violence or social upheaval.
In the current era, the mind as shaped by Plato fences out self-sight, sense of place and understanding of the cosmos. What the Native side has failed to understand is, the modern mentality (taken collectively) is actually incapable of possessing the psychological tools necessary to grasp reality and the implications of the things they do. What the Native side DOES understand is, this erasure could be big, very big, along the lines of the dinosaurs erasure occurring 66 million years ago:
If this seems far-fetched, consider Western science is derived from a culture where two billion+ people ostensibly believe in “Virgin Birth.” In the case of Western ‘scientific atheism’, it is as simple as a matter of a delusional culture’s mentality swapping one misapprehension for another.
Updated 6 February 2019
Notes:
[1] Floyd ‘Tinyman’ HeavyRunner, Priest of Okan, Keeper of the Law of the Black Stone & Oral Historian (member of the Amskapi Pikuni or Montana branch of the Blackfeet Indians), my close acquaintance of over 30 years.
[2] http://banyacya.indigenousnative.org/un76.html
[4] https://www.bookdepository.com/Wolves-Heaven-Prof-Karl-H-Schlesier/9781492334217
[5] Karl Schlesier was my personal acquaintance when I’d resided outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early to mid 2000s. Over our extended conversation it was very clear he had a fluid grasp of Native American thought and agile understanding of their world view & perception of reality. His descriptions of Cheyenne phenomenal laws were outstanding and closely matched those of the Amskapi Pikuni (Montana Blackfeet.)
[6] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16950-string-theory-a-beginners-guide/
[7] https://classroom.synonym.com/did-plato-contribute-philosophy-21831.html
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_d%27Espagnat
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga#Parashurama
Ronald Thomas West 
Basic mistake, harsher: blunder. Secondary source Robinson on a secondary source Whitehead. Robinson is a fool, Whitehead a plagiarist. After all, if all of the history of philosophy is footnotes to Plato, that goes for Whitehead as well. d’Espagnat: in German, we call his quip Klugscheißerei. The crap spewed out by academics does not a history make, nor for certain is it philosophy. It is a “reception sociology”.
Had you told me you had read Plato yourself and accord these sources some credibility because they encapsulate conclusions you had reached yourself, we can discuss what you read and how you read it.
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The Republic was in my hands, although admittedly a very long time ago. Plato never made sense to me then, or after, until I had read Marimba Ani’s “Yurugu.” No doubt you could find extreme fault with me for that and all sorts of sins through my experiences negotiating the Western world and I’ll accept your characterization “blunder” on that world’s behalf, after-all they make the rules for the rest of us.
^ For example I’ve also been criticized for using this illustration as example of a misapprehension of reality, characterized as a misinterpretation of Plato’s thinking but it wouldn’t matter what illustration I’d used, someone in the ‘world of Plato’ could find fault with it.
Perhaps what should matter is there are people who see a phenomenal world the Western people cannot and whether there were ability to grasp the idea (on the Western side) there is reality whose details are understood by the one (non-Western) culture and by the other (Western) culture, not.
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“Plato never made sense to me then, or after,…” — Ok, that is a fair start. At this point, I can only deal with your own logic. If Plato never made sense to you, you cannot stamp him with the “western” category. Therefore, you cannot know that “Perhaps what should matter is there are people who see a phenomenal world the Western people cannot …” applies to Plato. If your current (apparent) logic of assuming that it does apply to Plato does not bother you, no problem. I am not a missionary because I am not a fan of fools’ errands. If it does, we can work it through. Or you can take the time — I am in no hurry — to work through the little article I sent you. Perhaps you will see what “western” scholars, a subset of “western people”, do not see. — I do not “tell” people what Plato says, on or below the so-called “surface.” It is a matter of seeing. Of course, it is also a matter of “giving an account” of what is supposedly seen, which is “logos” in Greek.
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Methinks you’re ‘making the rules’ (a favorite habit of European mentality, includes transplanted thought modes via colonialism found throughout the world) for the rest of us (certain non-linear indigenous thinkers.) But I should be lenient here; if you cannot know ‘our’ rules, either we’re stuck with ‘your’ rules or you will have to climb down and learn a different set of rules. So, what? We flip a coin? Whose rules?
“No individual is free to describe nature with absolute impartiality, but is constrained by certain modes of interpretation even when he thinks himself most free” -Benjamin Whorf
You have my email –
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