Give Heaven a chance! (Heaven versus progressive reincarnation)

From the overwhelmingly-dominant atheist-materialism of our time and place; it is perhaps natural that people who feel the alienation of living in an (officially) purposeless, accidental, dead universe; will find themselves seeking relief from alienation and a snese of despairing futility. And will therefore find themselves trying to recreate the spontaneous paganism of the remote past, and (if remembered) of their early childhood. 

Such is the basis of that Neo-Paganism that has been a significant sub-theme of The West ever since the 1950s, and currently under the vast umbrella of New Age. 

I was in this phase myself around the early and middle 2000s; so I know that it has partial value of a psychologically therapeutic type - it does help somewhat with the aspects of alienation and meaninglessness. 

However, Neo-Paganism falls down when it comes to purpose in life; and without purpose, meaning tends to become just an emotion, and therefore ephemeral.

To summarize; the spiritual quest has two main aspects: participation and hope. 

Participation is the sense of being part of reality, of having a relationship with The World here-and-now. 

Hope is about purpose, it is to do with an ultimate "happy ending".   

The Neo-Pagan perspective finds hope in reincarnation; because people correctly realize that there Must be a continuation of our lives after death if there is to be objective meaning and purpose to our mortal life. 

And for reincarnation to be hopeful it must be progressive and positive: I mean that successive reincarnations must be believed to build cumulatively towards a qualitatively better life and world. 

If reincarnation is just an endless cycles of more-of-the-same, this is not hopeful; therefore to be hopeful the scheme of reincarnation must assume that reincarnation is a type of learning that stretches across many lifespans, and is aiming-at a kind of paradisal state of being. 

However, although progressive reincarnation is indeed hopeful; that hope is deferred a long way (in some case, such as that of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, a very long way) into the future. 

So our hope must be located beyond many, many reincarnations; since a large number of reincarnations are required before paradise can plausibly be established...

It being pretty obvious that spiritual-progress is not rapid; because spiritual progression can be observed - if at all - only by generalization of many persons across considerable sweeps of human history.

By contrast; (properly understood!) Christian hope is located much closer to now; much nearer than multi-resurrections. 

Because resurrection into Heaven happens after our mortal death - which may be soon, but is never further than some decades hence.  

Therefore, I am perhaps surprised that Neo-Pagans very seldom give Heaven a chance! Since, if heaven is true, it is a much more hopeful prospect than progressive reincarnation.

To my way of thinking; the only serious questions are related to what Heaven is really like, and whether it really is a possibility. Because if Heaven is like I believe it to be, and is indeed possible for anyone what really desires it - then:

Heaven beats reincarnation hands-down! 

Sea Monkeys! (And Primary Creation)

Like many boys of my generation, I came across Sea Monkeys in the classified ads section of American comics - in my case, superhero comics - with extraordinary illustrations and bizzare claims such as that above. I found the whole thing highly suspicious but fascinating; and wondered for years what Sea Monkeys really were. 

When my kids were small, I discovered for myself; because we raised and kept Sea Monkeys for more than a year; before handing the colony and equipment on to a neighbour.

What the Sea Monkeys actually are is a remarkly inexpensive (starting at only ten pounds) kit to grow and maintain a colony of multiple small creatures rather like shrimps; using various dessicated components that are reconstituted with water; and some special powdered food administered once a week.  

They grow very quickly, so this keeps the attention of kids rather well. But most of the Sea Monkeys experience is a game of imagination - as indicated by the illustrations! To enjoy Sea Monkeys you need to enter into the spirit of the thing. 

As always happened in our house, the kids wanted the pets, but fairly soon lost interest; and it was me who looked after the pets - mostly grumbling, but secretly I liked doing so (except for cleaning-out the tropical fish tank in later years - that was a real chore). 

To stimulate a further wave of interest, and for my own satisfaction, I expanded our Sea Monkey venture with a bigger and illuminated tank containing a pirate ship and treasure...

A later venture was with another kit growing a Trilobite-looking creature called a Triops. 

This was very interesting, albeit gruesome; because the Triops kit includes various other creatures that are intended prey for the carniverous Triops to devour, plus several Triops only one of which survives as the ultimate winner. 

The great advantage of the Triops is that is looks great, and grows Very fast (shedding its skin) to about two inches long; whereas the Sea Monkeys max-out at only about half an inch or usually less. 

The dis-advantage is that the Triops has a very short life cycle of about three weeks, I think - terminated by a horrible death when it turned inside-out. 

Luckily I saw this first, and therefore the kids didn't!

I was reminded of all this by my daughter, who is a high school science teacher, telling me that she has started a Sea Monkey colony in her tutorial group classroom, and some of her eleven-twelve year old kids are really enjoying the experience. 

A plus for Sea Monkeys is that the colony can be kept going for a long time - years; so apparently they live "forever". 

What is actually happening is that Sea Monkeys are dying; but reproducing and being replaced by the next generations - enabled by proper care and fuelled by food (and perhaps light).  

It strikes me that this is an analogy for what I term Primary Creation: the creation we inhabit as mortal beings here on earth. 

To the outsider view, if we regard humans as interchangeable and replaceable, then the continuous and inevitable changes and losses from entropy (degenerations and death) the System or colony can be balanced or exceeded indefinitely by continuing "creation".

In other words; so long as divine creation continues, so long as God's energies are being added to the System; then Life-as-a-whole remains despite death (and despite evil). 

While, at the same time, every individual part of that System (every specific Sea Monkey) is always undergoing entropic decline in function and death. 

What Jesus did by the Second Creation, by making resurrection into Heaven a possibility; can be imagined by assuming that what appears to be the case when looking at the overall colony, really is true: that each individual Sea Monkey is immortal. 

Each Sea Monkey is everlastingly sustained as an incarnate being, by its own innate source of divine creative energy. 

And there is no need ever to add food or clean the tank! 

Just a few more weeks of blogging?

I have been informed by the host of this blog that, from December 16, almost everything I have ever written will be forbidden by the new content policy. 

This is the relevant section. 

Misleading Content 

Do not distribute content that deceives, misleads, or confuses users. This includes:

Misleading content related to civic and democratic processes: content that is demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in civic or democratic processes. This includes information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age / birthplace, election results, or census participation that contradicts official government records. It also includes incorrect claims that a political figure or government official has died, been involved in an accident, or is suffering from a sudden serious illness.

Misleading content related to harmful conspiracy theories: content that promotes or lends credibility to beliefs that individuals or groups are systematically committing acts that cause widespread harm. This content is contradicted by substantial evidence and has resulted in or incites violence. Misleading content related to harmful health practices: misleading health or medical content that promotes or encourages others to engage in practices that may lead to serious physical or emotional harm to individuals, or serious public health harm.

Manipulated media: media that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm. Misleading content may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand this context. In some cases, no amount of context will allow this content to remain on our platforms.

As can readily be appreciated, if enforced this outlaws (by the mainstream socio-political standards that will surely be applied) not only most of what I have written, but almost everything of any value I have ever read online. 

Well, 16 years of daily blogging is not a bad run! And I cannot say I am surprised; since this is part of a top-down long-term and ongoing global project of omni-surveillance and micro-control; and I already inhabit the most censored polity in the developed world. 

But I suggest that those readers who value any particular aspects of this blog might be wise to make personal copies quite soon; because it is not likely to be around for much longer. 

Personal understanding is a spiritual virtue; when we work things out, think things through for ourselves

Our task in this mortal life includes that of understanding; meaning that we understand by working things out and think things through For Ourselves. 

If we look at the way the world is, life is not clear and easy, it is not straightforward, there are many external obstacles and we ourselves are usually poorly constituted to do that which ought to be done. 

We don't clearly know what ought to be done, and insofar as we decide what ought to be done we are not made such that doing what ought to be is easy. Quite the contrary! The world is confusing and we are confused; our will is easily misled, vacillating, and pretty feeble!

If we assume that this is not an accident but instead part of the basic design; then we may infer that the way that things have been set-up by God in this divine creation. 

We are not good at doing what ought to be done and really needs to be done, even when we are able to discover what that is. 

I therefore assume that the first-line, the main and preferred method by which we are supposed to navigate through life; is for people to work out for themselves what they ought to do, and how to do it. 

And insofar as we can do this appointed task of understanding in any domain of existence; I think the experience improves us as people - improves both temporarily in a mortal context, and potentially in an eternally resurrected future. 

That, at least, has been my experience. I spent a great deal of my childhood and early adult life learning what other people said and wrote about academic matters, science, medicine; but I did not do what I was supposed to do and really think for myself, really understand, until my early 30s. 

I was a lecturer in epidemiology when one of the first things I worked-out was what is happening when we randomize and take an average; as happens in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).  

Lots of people were saying that an RCT was the best form of evidence for effectiveness of a medical intervention, and the larger the RCT the better. But in all my reading and questioning, it became evident that nobody (literally nobody I could find, and I looked hard) had actually thought out what randomization was doing in this context, why large numbers were supposed to be better, and what happened whne results were averaged and the averages applied to the treatment of individual patients. 

I had to work this out for myself, from my experience as a scientist and doctor, and by thinking hard about things. 

Once I had understood, for myself, it soon became obvious that nearly-everybody had misunderstood what was going on in RCTs, did not grasp the intrinsic and unavoidable problems of averaging, and the effect of striving for ever larger numbers in trials. 

Most of what people "know" about most things is merely obedient parroting of authorities, and there is zero understanding. 

High intelligence and encylopaedic knowledge do not help at all, of themselves - because without genuinely personal understanding rooted in an individual act of working-out; expertise merely leads to more convincing wrongness, elaborate pseudo-justifications, and armour-plated error. 

Of course, this was only a tiny but of understanding I developed; but even so, it was enough to change me fundamentally. 

I would say that (when I have done this, which is only a few times) it has been one of the few life-experiences that I am sure were fundamentally Good For Me. 

It was enough to let me see the difference between real understanding and parroting.

It was a generally applicable skill of discernment; that revealed that nearly-all of "expert" discourse is nothing more than mosaic work; the assembling of secondhand assertions. 

I could not recommend highly enough the long-term spiritual value of thinking things through for yourself, to attain a personal understanding of whatever is most important to you. 

What is interesting and motivating - eternally? Answer: Qualitative addition to divine creation. (More about Heaven)

In considering Heaven, we need to consider what Heaven is, and whether we personally want it. 

I have written before that I believe Heaven is the Second Creation in which all inhabiting Beings have been resurrected such that they live only and entirely from Love; and what this means, in practice, is that Heavenly life is essentially a matter of "Creating" - by which term is meant each Being as an individual adding to divine creation, in harmony with God's intentions and methods. 

"Adding" to creation should be understood in a qualitative sense - with each Being adding a new kind of thing; not just adding more and more of the same kind of thing that already exists. 

Quantitative addition, adding more and more of the same kind of thing, soon gets boring; even here on earth and over a mortal timescale. 

This is why consumerism is addictive: people "need" more and more "stuff", always seeking novelty - feel bad if they don't get more; but get less and less satisfaction from each unit of consumption.  

But it does not add-up, people are never lastingly gratified - we get used to consumption and "more stuff" loses its effect, so that we have to increase the dose to get the same effect. 

Exactly the same applies to sex; as is evident from the behaviour of those who focus their lives on getting ever-more sex with ever-more desirbale persons and succeed. Gratification fades inevitably, desire declines; and the need for novelty always escalates into "experiments", boundary transgressions, and perversity. 

Quantitative addition is therefore a negative-motivation: we need to continue doing something so as not to feel worse; but getting it does not accumulate to feeling overall better.  

Heaven, by contrast, is a positive-motivation. More and more of that which is qualitatively added to creation builds to greater and greater joy. 

An analogy is deeply-loving relationships with family and friends; we cannot have "too much" of these, and more is cumulatively better.  

In Heaven; our valuation of love and of creating does not fade; it remains continually rewarding and motivating, and as love and creating develops. 

In contrast; here in mortal life on earth this ability to love and create inevitably and always is eroded, sooner or later; eroded by entropy - by degenerative change in ourselves leading towards death of every mortally-incarnate Being.

(In mortal life; we ourselves inevitably eventually become incapable; and we are only sometimes capable, and seldom fully capable.) 

Love and creation are also and always tainted by evil; because we are not wholly-aligned with divine creation; and our strivings are inevitably corrupted to some extent (sometimes very fully) by pursuing selfish, manipulative, exploitative gaols. 

(This, I believe, is pretty much what Jesus meant by stating that All Men are "sinners" - No Man is fully and always completely-aligned with God's motivations and with the nature of divine creation.) 

(Indeed; sustained life in mortal conditions actually depends upon parasitic exploitation of other Beings - Life is competitive, Life lives-on death. Evil is unavoidable in this First creation. Mortal life - without Second Creation - is tragic in a classic sense: its flaws are intrinsic, and lead to the unhappy-ending of death.)

 

Such is the nature of First Creation of God - and the desirability of the Second Creation of Heaven via Jesus Christ, when in Heaven there is no entropy and no evil. 

Heaven solves the problems of entropy and evil; and enables life to become rooted in love and creation - because our-selves have been transformed by resurrection. 

In Heaven; qualitative creation happens spontaneously, because each Being is unique and wholly-aligned with God and creation; such that our personal creation is therefore necessarily in harmony with God and other Heavenly Beings; and our creation is the manifestation ("expression") of that "something unique" we we all are and always have been. 

I regard it as a fact that we each are, and always were, unique Beings - so there is no need to strive for "originality"; because insofar as we are true to our-selves, we will be original. This is how and why all creation in Heaven is qualitative. 

"The Problem" - solved by Jesus - was not originality, but to make it such that our native originality is harmonized with that of other Beings and of God. 

So what is lastingly interesting and motivating in Heaven, as on earth, is Loving Creation; but in Heaven this is "pure" and uncontaminated by entropy and evil; such that eternity is eternally added-to by qualitatively-new, unique, individual activity. 

Conspiracy Theories - either true but partially, or else inversions of reality

I've often written positively about the category of explanations known by the PSYOP-manipulated slur-term of Conspiracy Theories (CTs). 

My understanding of CTs is quite simple: (As of here and now, and for some decades) All official and promoted narratives are false because deliberately misleading (because always intended to manipulate and control, never to inform).

(Even though all deliberately misleading CTs contain some truth, these correct facts or valid interpretations are deployed to manipulate; such that the net-message is always untrue.) 

We may sometimes know in broad terms what is instead true; but we can almost never know exactly and in detail how official narratives are false...

We cannot know the specifics of what is true; both because we personally do not have access to detailed accurate information and do not solidly-know honest individuals who do have such access, and/or because no accurate and valid information exists. 

(Because everybody at a high level in officialdom is untruthful, all the time, indeed compulsorily so and thus is The System constituted; so all information is lethally compromized at source. Only in those rare situations when nearly-everybody is seeking and speaking truth, can we trust "information"; only then is "information" of positive value for understanding the world.) 

So how are individual and specific conspiracy theories to be regarded, in broad terms? 

Well; each of the many Conspiracy Theories is either true but only partially true. "Partially" exactly because there are so many CTs with some validity...

Or they they are deliberate inversions of what officialdom regards as reality - such CTs are merely a part of mainstream official manipulation.  

For example, all the CTs that explain "who is really in charge" are either true-but-partially-true - because there are several, and variously overlapping, groups of people constituting the actual leadership class. 

In that sense "all" genuine CTs are "true"; but none are The Truth. 

(Not even my own favourite CT of Normans cannot be regarded as The Truth about the UK leadership class. There are several, indeed many other such groupings; and many more individuals and groups have been co-opted to the Norman-approved agenda.) 

Or else they are official manipulations that amount to factual inversions (as with the imagined power of "Far Right" or "white nationalist" groups) or themselves intel-PSYOPS (such as "Flat Earth"). 

Another PSYOP is when a true-but-partial CT is promoted by officialdom as a totally-true CT, exactly because this is so easy to discredit. This accounts for the preponderance of subsidized and promoted monomaniacs in the mass/ social media!   

In broad terms we know that the individuals and groups officially in-charge are (to varying degrees) on the side against God, Jesus, and Divine Creation (whether or not they are actual members of Team-Satan, they function as allies of that negative-agenda!). 

And ultimately; this which we can know, is all that we really need to know.  

 

Could Chapters 15,16,17 of the Fourth Gospel be interpolated?

I have for some years been fascinated by The Fourth Gospel (called The Gospel of John) - and re-reading it again I was struck by the sense that three chapters in between Jesus's last meal with his disciples and leaving to the garden of Gesthemene, had the quality of an interpolation. 

The first clue is that Chapter 14 ends with "Arise, let us go hence"; and Chapter 18 begins with "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples." On the face of it, it seems as if 14 should lead straight onto 18. 

I also notice that substantively Chapters 15 and 16 do not add anything core to the teaching; but function more like a commentary - an elaboration and re-explanation on what went before. 

And similarly Chapter 17 (which takes the form of an extended prayer) mostly has Jesus asking for what he has (apparently) already promised.

So I would mildly conclude that Chapters 15-17 are likely not based on writings by Lazarus: author of the now lost but original and contemporary eye-witness account that was "Fourth Gospel". 

Does this kind of "analysis" matter? Well, it might, for some people, at some points. 

The most important aspect of reading the Fourth Gospel (or Scripture, more generally) is that we get from it the most important, vital, knowledge of Jesus and the main "things" he did and taught. 

By my understanding this is only very seldom achieved because people fail to focus on IV Gospel and get their core guidance from other parts of the Bible - this means that "Christianity" has-been and is serious misinterpreted. 

Secondly, any attentive, active, positive personal engagement with Scripture is almost bound to become something of a living (and, we hope, direct) interaction - including discernments and evaluations of many kinds. 

But, exactly because it is alive and present, what is significantly valuable for me/ here/ now might well (and unavoidably) be a matter of indifference - or negative - for other people, in other circumstances...

Such is the nature of all communication, because of its intrinsically indirect and symbolic nature. 

Note: Of course, as usual with the Fourth Gospel, there are beautiful and lumious sentences even among those parts that are apparently later additions, and some inauthentic parts perhaps helpfully emphasize the core teaching such as Chapters 15-17. And there are lovely, poetic, aspects to the words; even when sections contradict the essence of the message! 

The Heat Death of the Universe?

Even as a kid I heard about the Heat Death of the Universe, and I later learned more during my studies of physics up to A-Level. 

The cap was put upon Heat Death by the general adoption of the Big Bang theory of the origins of the universe - not just in professional physics, but also as a Western cultural dogma.  

But really, the idea is not derived from physics, but it arose as a consequence entailed by our society's fundamental operating assumptions; our whole way of reasoning in public discourse.

The basic idea as I grasped it in childhood was that the end point of everything would be when every-thing that existed had cooled down to reach the same degree of (extreme) coldness...

Or that there was a finite amount of hot material in an infinite empty-cold universe, and therefore that all the warmth would be diluted-out... 

Or that energy came from heat differences, and these differences would diminish until no more energy transfer was possible to keep things moving. 

Another way of thinking about Heat Death is that it is the inevitable outcome in reality as it is described by Science (ie: with a capital letter, the discourse and mode of thinking that is "science") - because Science regards "entropy" as the fundamental and ultimate source of all energy, heat, and life. 

In other words, for Science everything is fuelled by "entropy" in a parasitic fashion. The universe began with a source of heat and energy; and ever since, that is being used-up.

Or; for Science there is just so-much "Life", and life necessarily feeds on life - so that at some point all life shall be consumed. 

When I was a kid this all seemed compelling, but I was troubled by the thought that in a universe that was eternal going backwards, a universe that had always existed; then the Heat Death could not be true (or, at least, not inevitable), or else it would already have happened. 

Nowadays, I regard the Heat Death idea as a reductio ad absurdum of the assumptions of Science; in other words, I think Heat Death is a correct inference from the basic and bottom-line way that Science as a mode of discourse was set-up in the 17th century. 

To refute Heat Death entails revising the basic assumption of Science; which is that in Science God, and especially divine creation, are excluded from permissible explanations. 

In other words; a valid refutation of the Heat Death idea entails assuming the reality of Divine Creation. 

Divine Creation might be assumed explicitly, or implicitly; it might posit a personal God or posit an abstract deity - but one way or another a purpose and genuinely creative creation must be introduced; and that creation must also be assumed to constitute an inexhaustible, eternally-self-renewing source of "energy". 

This, for example, is assumed by the last rival to the Big Bang theory, the Steady State theory (of Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold) - which posited an everlasting "creation" of the expanding-universe in the centre, that compensated for the everlasting "dilution" of that universe at the edges. 

The Steady State theory was (whether probably consciously, as with Hoyle, or apparently unconsciously as with Gold and Bondi)  "smuggling" deism back into Science, which was why it had a bad reputation among the mainstream scientists even when it was performing very well as a predictive model.  

My conclusion is that if Science is regarded as a true and complete description of reality, then the Heat Death is indeed inevitable. 

But in reality Heat Death is not inevitable; and the reason is that the basic assumptions of Science leave-out divine creation. 

Since divine creation is real, then Heat Death need not happen. 

Lancet windows and the Early English gothic style

Relatively tall, thin, pointed "lancet" windows are characteristic of the Early English style of gothic church architecture, built roughly in the 1200s. 

Here are examples from Holy Cross church in Haltwhistle, Northumberland. 

It can be seen that this earliest gothic (pointed-arch) style emphasizes height, and saves on glass; but does not allow very much light into the church. 

Then again many of the earliest churches were modelled on caves - and it was only later in the gothic era that church architects decided that light was godly, and exploited advances in building techniques and cheaper glass to make walls that were mostly window (relying upon buttresses to support the weight of the roof). 

In Northumberland, Early English is well represented; and was also often emulated by Victorian church restorers and new church/ chapel builders (sometimes with a round, instead of pointed, arches).

Although Norman-style architecture is closest to my heart (round arches, massive pillars, zig-zag decorated - Durham Cathedral is my favourite-ever building); I am very fond of the austere and simple EE style. 

I find EE induces a distinctive mood of spiritual yearning that feels somewhat "holier" than the effect of being stunned and overwhelmed by the more in-your-face and obvious charms of the later gothic styles.  

Early English was indeed that last major pre-Victorian period of church building, or at least church survival, around here. 

Because after Edward I ("Hammer of the Scots") there were frequent wars with Scotland that triggered the breakdown of large scale society, and the rise of the violent Border Reiver clans occupying a broad swathe of disputed territory. 

The ensuing poverty and disorder meant that from approximately 1300-1600 (England and Scotland were "united" under James I in 1603) few Northumbrian churches were built. 

So we have only a few examples of the later Decorated (1300s), and Perpendicular (1400s) styles of medieval church architecture.  

After the dissolution of the monasteries and Reformation (mid 1500s) there was a surplus of eccestiastical buildings, so there was relatively not much church building nationally, until after the Industrial Revolution and ensuing population growth of the 1800s. 

So around here (and with notable exceptions) "the old stuff" is Norman (mostly 1100s) and Early English - then we jump into Victorian. 

 

Agatha Christie

Hugh Fraser as the loyal and intrepid Hastings, David Suchet as Poirot in the TV adaptations

I was almost completely uninterested in "whodunnit" mysteries until just a few years ago. 

Apart from devouring Sherlock Holmes as a teenager, I think I had only read a volume of Simenon's Inspector Maigret, and a few of Dorothy L Sayers's Peter Wimsey novels (of which The Nine Tailors is much my favourite).

Then, as a family, we watched all of the Agatha Christie Poirot TV series starring David Suchet, and also the Miss Marple series starring Joan Hickman. These are both superb light entertainment, and I began to become curious as to the books themselves. 

Lately I have read (or listened as audiobooks*) quite a few (albeit less than half) of the Christie volumes featuring Poirot and Marple; and some of the one-off books such as The Pale Horse, The Seven Dials, and Ordeal by Innocence. 

Despite remembering from the TV adaptations who was the killer in most of these novels, I found them to be extremely enjoyable for their deft, varied and clearly-differentiated characterizations; and for the insight, wisdom, and goodness that lies behind them - and therefore apparently emanates from the author herself: Agatha Christie. 

This goodness deserves comment, because few authors are able to depict good, interesting, and likeable characters - presumably because not many authors have enough such traits, or else they are too feeble!

My only significant criticism is understandable and indeed unavoidable; which is that many of the murders are unbelievably (to me) complicated. 

This, I presume, arises because the simple plots with straightforward methods of killing were rapidly used-up by earlier Murder Mystery writers. 

But while the methods are sometimes convoluted, the plots have a very sastifying economy and progression. 

In a book like Ordeal by Innocence (and there are many others) Christie rapidly sets-up a "closed" situation with a finite number of characters; the implications of which then get unfolded step-by-step; exploring (what feels like) all possible personal permutations of the characters in terms of their interactions. 

With the denouement, the intricate structure locks into place with a very satisfying sense of completeness.

Since Christie was so prolific, and kept a generally high standard of quality throughout, I anticipate a good deal of enjoyment yet to come. 

 

*Hugh Fraser, as in the above picture; is a superb, indeed exemplary, audiobook reader of Christie.

Magical thinking under the veil of materialist mechanisms

One of the theses I have harped-upon here is that metaphysics is primary, and all "evidence" and reasoning happens within metaphysical assumptions (despite that these assumptions may be unconscious, or even denied). 

An example come from my earlier life, especially in my late twenties and thirties - during which I developed strong interests in all kinds of transcendental, religious, and Christian matters... But I remained metaphysically a materialist-atheist. 

For example; I believed that the thinking and aspirations of individuals and small groups could have a large and positive social influence, even when these were operating in obscurity. 

That intense study or conversations on a particular theme, or themed formal and ritual activity, might nonetheless affect "the world" in a very general way. Even when these conversations and rituals took place privately, in an unworldly or cut-off context. 

On the face of it, this was a magical way of regarding the world; in that it acknowledged that individuals, groups, symbols, ritual activities and the like had power that extended beyond their particular situation.

Yet when it came to the question of how such activities exerted their power; I would have resisted strongly any explanation of a spiritual kind. 

Instead my explanations were all of a material nature. 

In other words; I would explain all general effects in terms of observable communications, and their effect on psychology. 

For instance; a man thinking would, as a consequence of his thinking, communicate with other people by word, sounds, images - and these images would conceivably be registered and interpreted by at least one other person. 

And from there the communication might, potentially, be spread by other such channels of communication; maybe resonate with other people such that one person informs two others, in a geometric increase. 2,4,8, 16, 32 people would thus be informed - and soon enough there would be thousands, then millions who had been affected! 

Or perhaps inter-personal communications would be taken-up and even more rapidly amplified by mass media interacting with human wishes and motivations.

Plus the communications could be stored - perhaps in a magazine of book, or on an audio or video medium - and much later experienced and "activated" to start the above kind of geometric increase to exert general power. 

The point I would emphasize is that by such explanations, all past, present and possible spiritual phenomena could be and were explained on a material basis. 

And this will always be the case; because the metaphysical assumptions - in this case that there was no God, and no spiritual reality - will always be able to explain everything that happens and is real and needs explaining. 

Metaphysics can explain everything that happens that matters; because metaphysical assumptions are about the fundamental nature of reality: and thereby metaphysics dictates what counts as an observation, a fact, a valid mechanism, a conceivable or possible explanation. 

I think this way of materialistic thinking is very common - indeed almost universal, since we are all socialized into the metaphysics of aspiritual-atheist-materialism; and these are the assumptions that lie behind all public discourse of a significant, socially-functional, broadly-acceptable type. 

So we absorb this - mostly unconsciously - through childhood, and it is daily sustained and reinforced by the bureaucratic "System" the world of institutions such as government, law, media, corporations, education, medicine, science, police, military etc - and most of what churches actually do for nearly all of the time.  

And I repeat that this metaphysics cannot be refuted by any observation, by anything that happens. 

The only way we can break free from it is to have different metaphysical assumptions. 

In my case, this required that I become aware of my own assumptions, and aware that they were indeed assumptions - they were Not "facts of life".

They were prior assumptions; not inferences derived-from my knowledge and experience; nor derived-from the knowledge and experience of my society or institutions.   

This is why evidence or logical proofs of the existence of God, or of the validity of a particular religion or church, are ineffectual. 

This is why not even the LEGO Minas Tirith can compel an atheist materialist to acknowledge a personal deity and a providential universe! 

Bounded consumerism and the 1970s ideal of Voluntary Simplicity

In my late teens and twenties, I was an advocate and practitioner of what could be termed Voluntary Simplicity (VS) - with "simplicity" interpreted in a relative but not total sense. 

The idealistic and extreme advocates of VS were proposing a return to an essentially medieval feudal agrarian system; but medieval minus the Lord of the Manor and the Catholic church. In other words; pretty much the kind of society of many small farmers and craftsmen that was envisaged by William Morris in News From Nowhere. 

However, my less radical idea was to (more or less) stop overall economic growth, except for benefits due to improvements in (simple) technology* and methods - on the basis that by 1975 we had "enough" stuff; and indeed we should reduce our material needs in order to allow more discretionary time ad space for individual freedom. 

Thus; consumerism would not altogether be abolished, but would be "bounded". 

This also applied at the level of individual persons; whereby paid work was understood in terms of a "deal" whereby so much in the way of resources was traded for so much time and effort in labour; and the individual could - and I would have said should - reduce his wants in order to allow more time for discretionary activities. 

This is, of course, the attitude advocated by HD Thoreau in the Economy chapter of Walden. 

The activities to be pursued during the time and with the energies liberated by restricting material-wants were high-minded: things such as contemplating the natural world, reading and writing, doing arts and crafts, communal social participation in music and dancing - and the like. 

In short; a somewhat "Merrie England" sort of existence! 

When I eventually became a paid worker, this was exactly what I did in my own life. I had qualified as a doctor, and therefore could command a much higher-than-average pay-per-hour; but I chose not to maximize income by doing the full allocation of medical hours; but instead to trade-off about half the potential salary in order to get about double the free time. 

Such an attitude was actually fairly mainstream, or at least not unusual and fairly influential, in leftish (as I was) Britain of the 1970s - and (I later discovered) had a fairly well-known international advocate in the French economist Andre Gorz. 

It went with a tendency to eschew fashion, and the accumpulation of possessions; and expenditure on things like lavish cars and holidays.  

But through the middle 1980s, there was instead an almost society-wide return of aggressive consumerism; with a desire and expectation for participation in frequent rounds of fashion, technological novelties, and complexification of life - all of which was linked to higher social status. 

This has continued up to the present; and has transformed what is now called the "Green" movement from one based on "back to the land" deliberately simple agrarianism; to the current state-/multinational-/ multibillionnaire-/ bureaucratic-managerial-dominated compulsory-subsidized waves of techno-fashion. 

These technologies are by intent anti-nature, anti-farming; and in-practice focused entirely on pseudo-scientific and officially-mandated concepts such as CO2 climate, or the levels of other chemicals - the individual person is regarded as unable to make such evaluations; and is supposed to accept and obey these diktats without questioning.  

In terms of individual aspirations; the social ideal is very far from Morrisite, Thoreauvian, Voluntary Simplicity; but instead success is to work long hours for an ever-increasing salary to sustain ever-increasing and publicly-advertised consumption. 

"Leisure" is focused on the purchase and display of ever-changing fashions; and expensive pastimes such as owning high status cars and boats; participating in expensive sports; and travel to exotic locations. 

Even gardening has become ever more fashion-driven, expensive, and technological! 

And farming is aggressively demonized rather than idealized.

The whole area of food-production and consumption has been shaped by top-down media, NGO and government campaigns emanating from mega-corporations and using PSYOPS. 

So that farm animals are painted as an evil and destructive indulgence; meat-eating is wicked and to be abolished (for the masses) in favour of factory-made protein matter; and veganism is prescribed as spiritually virtuous - and has been orientated towards eating ever-more artificial and imported substances.  

A very far cry from the hopes and dreams of the neo-medievalists of the 1970s!

Such have been, over the past half-century, the dominant trend of choices and decisions made by Western Society and by most of the individual persons in these societies. 

While there was much that was unfounded and incoherent about the ideals of Voluntary Simplicity - and the whole notion lacked a basis in the strong motivations that only an active and spiritual religion can provide; what has replaced the seventies idealisations of nature and society has been a good deal worse! 

*My ideas of simple technology were influenced by EF Schumacher's "Intermediate Technology" as described in his book Small is Beautiful. 

Note: Some readers will notice that in my descriptions of neo-medievalism I did not mention Distributism, or the names of Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton. This is because I was not significantly aware of this 1920-30s movement during the 1970s, mostly because my perspective was coming out from atheism and the Left. However, I had read of Distributism in EF Schumacher's A Guide for the Perplexed, which I read on publication in 1977. Nonetheless; I had apparently more-or-less filtered-out this information, as being of little interest to me at the time - although I became very keen on it later when I had developed a more positive attitude to Christianity. 

Dying and agency: What happens to our "self" in the transition from mortal life to death?

Based on an understanding of the benefits of incarnation (embodiment) in this mortal life; it is possible to discern what happens during the transitional process of dying, and the situation of post-mortal existence (i.e. death).  

In dying we begin to lose consciousness, lose the ability to concentrate at the command of our will - we are losing our capacity to exercise freedom: losing agency. 

Dying can be understood as a process by which we are losing some of that agency we have (probably) gained in developing from a foetus and baby, through childhood and adolescence, to mature adulthood.

A young child is "in" the world of his experience; "diffusely aware" in contrast to the more detached and focused/ concentrated awareness of a (normal) mature adult. 

In dying and losing the effect of our functional body; we become more passive and reactive, more immersed in our spiritual environment, more accepting, more "childlike". 

It is because we are more passively a part-of things, more inclined to float-along responding to external influences, that we have less capacity to exercise agency. 

  

Dying can also be understood as a going-to-sleep into a world of dreaming; and also into a bewildering world of "psychosis" - through which we wander in a partial delirium. 

This harmonizes with the similar Ancient Greek and Ancient Hebrew conceptualizations of the state of the dead as (more-or-less) witless, will-less, demented ghosts; inhabiting Hades/ Sheol. 

Again the picture is one of the post-mortal self passively reacting-to the situation, rather than exerting agency and making choices. 

What does this change mean for salvation? In particular; how do these changes affect our capacity to choose Jesus Christ's offer of resurrected eternal life in Heaven?

It seems certain that dying - the dissolution of our body, and the loss of that enhanced agency which comes with incarnation - does have an effect on changing, and reducing, our agency...

If we further assume that dying is a process rather than an instantaneous event, then we can suppose that this decline of agency is a progressive dwindling.   

In the end our agency is reduced but not eliminated; since we know that the insane, children, and dreamers do have some independent capacity to evaluate, to choose.

If we recall the extreme Protestant idea that "the tree lies as it falls" - i.e. that salvation is completely determined by the state of the soul at the "moment" of death, and by our choice at that "moment" - we could perceive that there is some truth in the notion - insofar as our dwindling agency during dying will reduce agency and thereby affect our capacity positively to choose salvation... 

However; the above scheme also clarifies that after death is completed; our agency is diminished but not eliminated. 

This fits with the Catholic understanding that the fate of the soul after death (i.e. when the process of dying is completed) can be affected - and that the dead soul can in principle benefit from spiritual assistance, such as the prayers of the saved-and-resurrected dead and the prayers of still-living mortal s such as ourselves. 

Indeed, the greater sensitivity of the discarnate dead soul to "externals" - as seen in early childhood, or in the dreaming self, or in some states of psychosis/ delirium/ dementia - would mean that the dead soul may be especially able to benefit from the love of others - assuming that the dead soul is capable of love, and values love. 

On the other hand; a dead soul without capacity for love, or one who gives love a low priority, or who is dominated by non-loving motivations - would probably be more susceptible to evil temptations than during mortal life. 

This implies that it is a significant benefit to have chosen salvation - i.e. have made a commitment to follow Jesus to Heaven - during our mortal life. 

Choosing salvation during mortal life will enable us to make the choice in favour of resurrection while we retain the maximum agency, before the process of dying is complete, and before our consciousness and freedom have been reduced to the level of a fully discarnate post-mortal soul. 

What is the advantage for an essentially spiritual being, of temporary incarnation into this world, followed by the permanent incarnation of resurrection?

For those of us to who regard spirit as primary, as having existed first, with material incarnation as secondary and later and derivative - and especially if we believe there is a continued existence after mortal death - there is a need to explain why we are temporarily incarnated as mortal beings, here on earth. 

I suppose the "why?" comes from our belief that God the Creator is Good and loves us each individually; so that the answer must include that this mortal incarnation fits God's plans for creation and is also good for each of us an individuals. 

The problem is made even more difficult to answer by the uniqueness and varieties of individual persons, and the unique situation into which each individual is born. It is difficult to come up with both a true, and also a particular, general explanation. 

Yet the common feature is incarnation: although ultimately spiritual beings, we ourselves and this world have large material/ physical elements - despite the obvious limitations of this. 

So the question boils down to: what are the positive advantages of being material/ physically incarnated beings - living in a world with many other such beings? Including that this advantage is temporary, in the sense that we shall die, and our materialness with undergo dissolution. 

Further; for Christians, we need to explain why Jesus emphasised that after death (if we follow Jesus) we shall be resurrected...

Each individual person shall stay himself, and shall be reborn, yet not as a spirit, but instead as a "solid" physical/ material being - but this time an eternal and everlasting being that does not age, decay, or die.  

I think we must assume that it is better for us to remain an incarnate after death, that there are therefore significant advantages in being incarnated as compared with being and remaining a spirit. 

However, this matter is very poorly understood; and those who believe in the reality of spirits find it difficult to comprehend why it is better to be bounded and solid and to have a single perspective, than to be everywhere equally as a "pure" spirit presumably is. 

These may seem like strange reflections! Yet I think Christians need clear and comprehensible answers if we are to defend and explain our preference for and choice of resurrection post-mortally; over the alternatives such as becoming pure spirits, or having serial reincarnations. 

For myself, I assume that incarnation is the spiritual mechanism by which increased consciousness and freedom are manifested as the purpose and direction of divine creation. 

That the two go-together: that it is by incarnation that we become more free, more self-aware, more ourselves. 

Further; that these are also attributes of God the Creator, and of Divine Creation - such that Creation is directional - away from pure spirit and towards incarnation; and that this is the intention of God.

I assume that at first there can only be the kind of temporary and mortal incarnation which we experience here-and-now; but that the ultimate goal of God via divine creation is the eternal incarnation of resurrection - which was and is possible by the work and gift of Jesus Christ. 

Thus the answer to "what is the advantage" of mortal incarnation; is that it is a necessary step towards Gods purpose of a creation characterized by increasing consciousness and freedom.

A wrong and bad script = Wasted effort... Service to evil

Some things in life take tremendous effort: resources, planning and organizing - assembling many people with many skills in a particular place and time...

Consider performing a play in a theatre, when all this must be accompanied by the business of attracting and assembling a paying audience, seating them in comfort and according to regulations about fire and safety. We might add the mass transport system, electrical grid, water and sewage!

My point is that this is all futile, wasted effort, if the script of the play being performed is Bad, of low quality.

And when the play being performed is purposively Wicked in some fashion; all this colossal effort is not just wasted - but harnessed to service of an agenda of evil.

Indeed, the more impressive and compelling the performance, the more harm is done.

Vast resources and efforts in service to agenda items of the strategy of evil is a summary of The West, Now.

Such thoughts came to mind when attending an elaborate choral Evensong service in one of the most beautiful buildings in Britain: York Minster Cathedral; attended by a large gathering of (mostly) tourists.

And when the actual music being performed by the choir was Rubbish (with the exception of a short anthem by Victoria).

Consider all the human effort and skill involved, and the vast resources of beautiful church music available - and the choice instead to perform a low quality and actively unpleasant musical "script" to the large "audience".

But this is just a microcosm of how our culture is, and has been for many decades.

While it is a-good-thing for individuals to make efforts, learn skills, cooperate towards a difficult goal etc...

This is vitiated when these people are Not Even Trying to do Good scripts; when they instead actively prefer and choose Bad Scripts.

So ultimately, strategically; all this human endeavour contributes towards the subversion, destruction and inversion of What Is Good.

Ambivalence about The Beatles

It is not really possible for later generations to understand the central and dominating place that The Beatles had in British cultural life through the middle and late 1960s. And this can never be replicated because it was due to a particular and transient phase in society and technology. 

So, in this sense The Beatles are (for Brits, anyway) so much the number one pop group, that whoever is number two (and that is not at all obvious) is so far behind as for there to be no competition. 

And by my evaluation, The Beatles released a large number of very good singles, in many styles, across several years - as well as a fair bit of dire and dreary, pretentious stuff - especially in their later years. 

But also by my evaluation, Not One of The Beatles singles was what I would regard as first rate*. 

Which is an interesting combination!

Here we have what I regard as the number one band of all time, yet a band that never (IMO) released a first rate track!

A few examples of my first rate singles for that general era include Gimme Some Lovin by the Spencer Davies Group, Silence is Golden by the Tremeloes, Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd, Daydream Believer by The Monkees, Long Shot Kick de Bucket by The Pioneers, Liquidator by the Harry J All Stars... 

Many of these groups were, more or less, "one hit wonders" - never again attaining the same heights. 

This provides a clue. 

Pop music is - at its best - an almost accidental, but at any rate irreproducible-to-order, product of an ephemeral combination of youth, talent, and inspiration - attuned with a cultural moment. 

Most of the long-lived and culturally significant bands and artists - no matter how musically talented and productive of good quality - never released what I would evaluate to be a genuinely first rate single: Elton John is a clear instance.  

Also; despite The Beatles, the 1960s was Not the peak of pop music in Britain: that came afterwards, in the late 70s and early 80s. 

Why is the current Left so dominant and powerful?

Why is the current Left (i.e. the post mid-1960s New Left) so dominant and powerful? 

Since the mid-1960s the mainstream Left has transformed from its Old Left roots in communism and socialism, based on transformations of economic and social structures; to the new Left rooted in multiple, additive and fluid oppositions - anti-racism, feminism (anti-men), environmentalism (anti-CO2). 

And throughout by the many-faceted sexual revolution evolving through anti-family, anti-monogamy, anti-marriage, anti biological sex and sexuality, and now pan-societal chosen subfertility and extinction.   

How and why did this New Leftism swiftly so universally dominant that it overcame more than a century of Old Left socialism/ communism; and the New Left now includes and embraces all its mainstream would-be opposition ideologies such as Republican, Conservative, Libertarian, Nationalist* - even theocratic etc? 

This is an important question because so many who oppose the Left try to emulate and exceed the Left's power by studying and copying its methods. 

The reason for the pervasive, continuing, and (so far) unstoppable domination of the New Left is very simple. 

1. New Left is essentially oppositional. 

2. New Left is therefore essentially destructive, not constructive. 

3. It is much, much easier to destroy than to construct.

The weakness of the Old Left was that it was partially constructive, indeed utopian - the communists and socialists all had a (more or less detailed) picture of some kind of future and stable ideal society towards which they purported to be working. 

For example, a core ideology of the Old Left was economic equality - aiming therefore at a very highly equal "distribution" of income (especially), and also wealth (to vary degrees). 

(But not power! The Old Left invariably centralized power, so that the revolutionary class could control everybody else for their own good!) 

Another core objective of the Old Left was the imposition of public ownership of the means of production, usually by some version of nationalization or worker-control.  

The New Left has long-since abandoned any such constructive notions: there is no ideal future society being aimed-at, no utopia.

Because it has all-but abandoned even the intent, even the pretence, of construction; it is therefore very easy for the New Left to change society by opposing and destroying whatever it currently deems to be bad. 

Destructive change is vastly easier than constructive change, and when New Left is aimed-at a wide (and expanding) range of destructive changes; then destructive change of any thing the Lefts deems bad is perceived as an effective exercise of Left power. 

*There is no such thing as The Right in modern mainstream politics. All parties and organizations are now of-the-Left. This includes churches. 

In conclusion; the New Left is so powerful and has come to dominate the entirety of high-level institutional life in the West because it seeks and achieves destructive change; and destruction is quick and facile compared with construction. 

And this is, of course, why those who desire to oppose the Left cannot use the methods of the Left

...Because using the methods of the New Left is necessarily to pursue the agenda of the New Left. 

Contemplative bliss, or creative participation? An infinite perfect creation, or expanding creating?

Traditional religions and spiritual philosophies have "all" saddled themselves with underlying metaphysical assumptions that render significant-human-aspiration a delusion. 

When the power of God is infinite there is literally nothing for us to do. 

The offer is (perhaps) one of blissful contemplation of the perfection of an infinite creation. But because creation is perfect and infinite there is nothing for us to do about it. We cannot add to it in any way At All. 

Indeed even our obedience, adoration, and worship adds nothing since it is already a part of the whole. 

There is nowhere for an infinite perfect creation to go, nothing can really happen - indeed the only "sand in the gearbox", the irrational and inexplicable "fly in the ointment", is the apparently persistent human delusion that we matter at all! 

And that we even exist, as separate beings with a significant role to play.

Far too many Christians, and nearly-all other religions and philosophies, have painted themselves into a corner of personal futility. 

All possible human thought, action, achievement is pointless; because creation is already infinite and perfect. 

(And always was and always shall be infinite and perfect - some will add; diminishing our utter significance even further - if that were possible!)  

While I fully acknowledge that contemplative bliss is a very pleasant thing to feel for a while, it is negative and just does not constitute a purpose. 

Beyond contemplation is creation, and creative joy in a spirit of love is the greatest thing we can know - and far greater than a contemplative bliss that is (by its own definitions) irrelevant to reality. 

Surely we know this?

We know it, but our fundamental assumptions about the nature of infinite perfect creation far-too-often render our hope of creating into a mere delusion, of which we are supposed to rid ourselves.  

Yet we want to make a difference; and it feels as if this is possible! 

And those of us who have chosen to affiliate with the creator want to make a positive difference, we want to add to ongoing-divine-creation; such that "creation" needs to be replaced by something like "create-ing" to recognize it is continuous, open-ended, always expanding. 

Divine creating is always expanding, and we want to join with God and be part of that expanding. 

So: Divine creating must be expanding, potentially forever. 

Also, that expansion must all be Good - anything we and others add to creating it must all be in harmony with God's purposes...

Which means it must all be done from love. 

Which is where Jesus Christ comes in. 

On the one side ideas about God and Creation; on the other side Jesus and Salvation. 

Individual, serious, Christians must Make Sure that their assumptions about God and Creation do not logically-block their highest aspirations concerning Jesus and Salvation and our ultimate hopes for eternal life; because at present official Christian theologies of God nearly always do logically-block Jesus, Resurrection, Heaven. 

An experience of Original Participation: Thoreau's interactions with the Penobscot Indian Joe Polis in The Maine Woods

Henry David Thoreau's The Maine Woods is a posthumously-collected set of three essays about travels in that region in the middle 1800s. All are worth reading; but for me the best is the last: The Allegash and East Branch. 

Thoreau describes a river trip with a friend, for which they hired a Penobscot Indian called Joe Polis as their guide. Polis was reputed to be, and Thoreau confirmed this, an exceptional man; highly-regarded both among the Indians and the Whites for his wisdom and personal integrity, as well as his skill as a woodsman and river man. 

Thoreau knew a great deal about Indians; both from reading widely, interviewing experts, and by attentive and respectful personal interactions. 

His particular interest was the ways in which Indians thought and experienced differently from himself, and how this was the basis for their unequalled abilities described throughout The Maine Woods.  

From my theoretical perspective (influenced by Owen Barfield, and some aspects of Rudolf Steiner); I interpret Thoreau's fascination as with the different consciousness of Indians; especially the distinct residue of Original Participation (OP) that these woodland guides had as the basis underlying their crafts. 

Original Participation is a different way of experiencing oneself and the rest of reality (other people, the nature), of understanding and interacting with the world - although we may remember something of this from early childhood, dreams, or states of altered consciousness. 

OP is mostly spontaneous and un-conscious, due to the individual being immersed-in the rest-of-the-world, living as part of the world ("participation"). 

And from this OP basis came the Indian's remarkable navigating, surviving, and hunting abilities; for which the White Men would typically hire him.  

But in the case of Thoreau; Joe Polis was hired more or less on the excuse of being a forest guide; Thoreau really wanted to get to know Polis, and get to know how he thought. 

Polis was very suitable because although he retained the OP stance as required, he was also unusually accomplished in his interactions with the modern world: was literate, a devout Protestant, an effective leader, well-travelled. 

This was a basis for the collegial friendship that developed between Thoreau and Polis; and in addition there was evidently a natural liking each for the other - a recognition of some basic similarity.  

There is much else to enjoy about The Maine Woods, especially for those (like me) who have a romantic feeling for such places, and for the Indians who originally inhabited them. 

In actuality, living in the Maine Woods, or even going on a trip like Thoreau's, would be a horrible experience for me - not least because of the swarms of mosquitos and biting-flies. 

Yet; as a place to think about, to imagine; those Hiawatha forests, lakes, rivers are potent and positive stimuli; especially to the extent I can appreciate the distinctive consciousness of an Indian like Joe Polis.   

Hiawatha fishing for the sturgeon - an ahistorical but spiritually-true illustration that captures the atmosphere I recall from reading Longfellow's wonderful poem when I was aged about nine.  

A little Spanish chap...

In our organization we have a little Spanish chap who attends to all our training needs. 

We call him "Instruction Manuel". 

Music (like books, or medicines) can do harm, as well as good. The example of Mahler

Following-up on my post of a couple of days ago, where I described authors who did me some harm by being the wrong books at the worst time for me; the same can apply to music. 

This is all-too-obvious with respect to pop music - especially because it is most targeted at youth, and adolescence is the time of greatest vulnerability. 

From 1967 onwards, a great deal of pop music was calculated to manipulate youth into amplifying the spiritual harm of culture generally. This can clearly be seen in the lyrics, and even the music itself, of the most culturally significant group of that era in the UK, i.e. The Beatles. 

But just as some people regard books as A Good Thing, so people regard Classical music as necessarily beneficial - yet this is absurdly untrue - at least for those who are engaged-with and sensitive to music. 

The classical music culture in the UK is one in which it is regarded as high status to be able to appreciate all the great composers of all eras; and as a late teen and early adult I went along with this, such as always to be trying to appreciate all the high status composers - even when their music seemed to work on me like a poison, or made me (more or less) feel spiritually ill.  

This was the case for Gustav Mahler. In the 1970s, he was being rediscovered as a composer (during his life he had been famous mainly as a conductor) - and promoted to the status of Great, as Wagner's premier successor. 

But for all its musical excellences and strong effects; Mahler's music seemed to me then, as it still does when I occasionally hear it, toxic and cloying. Nonetheless I persevered, attentively working through his symphonies (especially) on LP, and attending a couple of live concerts. 

This stopped after I had bought a recording of Mahler's Tenth Symphony (completed by Deryck Cook) and fell asleep while listening to the slow movement; waking with a profound and powerful mixture of revulsion and misery. 

After this, I was forced to acknowledge that Mahler was bad for me. And that by persisting with listening I was pushing myself towards a feeling of hopelessness and despair. 

This was a realization that all Great Composers were not good - some were harmful by my intuitive estimation! 

More generally; this fits with the observation that anything which has a powerful enough effect that it might do good, for the same reason may do harm. 

This applies to drugs (and other treatments) in medicine; which is why there is no qualitative distinction between therapeutic effects and "side effects" - to be of possible benefit, a drug must have an effects on the body, much change physiology; and because it has an effect, it will do harm to some people nearly-all the time, and other people some of the time.   

It is only because Mahler is a powerful and effective composer, that his music was able to do me harm. 

To generalize again; it is talented artists, authors, musicians; who can do us the most harm. So, for our own good; we need to be able to distinguish between matters of virtue, and matters of ability and effectiveness.