Mysticism and Life-Embracing Philosophies.

It wasn't too long ago when I was dabbling in Eastern mysticisms. It was only about 3-4 months ago, actually, but Satyr's videos as well as the philosophy of Ragnar Redbeard, and Nietzsche woke me up out of the nihilism of most of those ear tickling mysticisms. The two major mysticisms that interested me the most were Advaita Vedanta ( Brahman Absolute ) and Taoism ( Lao Tzu ).

In Advaita Vedanta, the followers believe that the ultimate reality is Brahman. Brahman is akin to what Westerners call " God ". But I think this Brahman is a more mature, profound version of God in comparison with Yahweh.

Those that subscribe to Advaita Vedanta are ontological monists, i.e., they believe that the universe, ultimately, breaks down into a non-dual, eternal, static reality called " Brahman ". This reality is pure consciousness - God consciousness.

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A major popularizer of this mystical school of thought and way of life is Shri Ramana Maharshi.

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Taoism, as prior mentioned, is the other mysticism that I deeply admired.
Lao Tzu was the originator. He referred to the ultimate reality as the Dao/Tao which translates into " The Way ".

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I was heavily involved in mysticism for years. I would go out into the wilderness and meditate often. I was even planning on going on a long term expedition by myself ( with a tent and camping gear ) throughout the Himalayas and or Canadian rockies to get in touch with nature an then eventually, build my own little hermitage on some mountain top to live a life of solitude and serenity - contemplating existence. But then, as prior mentioned, I was awakened to the anti-nature underpinnings of these schools of thought; they are riddled with slave morality, egalitarianism, anti-egoism, anti-pride, anti-power, anti-virility, and anti-life sentiments. Nietzsche, Ragnar Redbeard, and Satyr made this truth very clear to me. As a result, I abandoned these mysticisms and my life long plans to be a roaming mystical hermit.

I suppose the reason why I am making this post is because I desire to have some sort of mysticism to live by. I feel like I have lost touch with that creative, Dionysian side of me. I used to have vivid dreams, essentially, every night when I was a mystic, but now it rarely happens. Maybe I should create my own form of mysticism - a sort of Nietzschean, " Might is Right" mysticism that incorporates meditation as well as my virtues of power, strength, lust, passion, and egoism. I think it would be cool to pick the good things out of these mysticisms and incorporate them into my survival of the fittest philosophy. It will be a sort of pantheism ala Will to Power. Imagine if Nietzsche, Ragnar Redbeard, and Lao Tzu had a threesome and begot a baby. That baby would be my new philosophical mysticism.

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What do you guys think? Any solutions? And do you follow any mysticisms?

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I suppose the reason why I am making this post is because I desire to have some sort of mysticism to live by. I feel like I have lost touch with that creative, Dionysian side of me. I used to have vivid dreams, essentially, every night when I was a mystic, but now it rarely happens.

I'm similar. I used to draw and daydream a lot when I was younger. It was an escapist urge. I miss it, but now I'm more worldly in that wallowing in fantasy no longer interests me.

It's probably an improvement, not a loss.

I sculpt now. More tangible.

I wouldn't consider my desire for mysticism as a form of escapism - quite the contrary, actually. I was trying to immerse myself in reality, with the universe. I wanted to feel one with everything. But most mystics do use mysticism as a form of escapism, no doubt.

Pagan mysticism is more real, and for this reason more profound.
One does not wish to escape self, but immerse one's self in self.

To Know Thyself is to know your past, it is to know nature, your nature.

Worshiping nature is worshiping your self within it, and all that makes you possible.
The Greeks had Stoicism. The desire to improve self, to build upon the past, not to deny and denounce it, as nihilistic asceticism teaches.
Asceticism to become more durable, more able to endure, and by enduring to experience much more of existence.

As I child I used to commune with nature simply by listening to the leaves rustling, the birds chirping, the water trickling, by own breathe and heartbeat.
This, too, is a form of meditation.

Natural mysticism is the awareness that the perceived is but a representation, and that reality can only be experienced in part.
The pagan gods were a way of acknowledging this human limitation.
They kept man humble, but also totally engaged in their own sensuality.

Satyr, have you ever experimented with psychedelics? And what are your thoughts on using them for the purpose of self-understanding? E.g., whenever I smoke Marijuana ( rarely ) I always have very introverted, crystal clear experiences of what is going on in my subconscious mind. All of my anxieties and problems seem to splash right in my face. During these experiences, I feel terrified, but after the high is gone, I feel refreshed and like I have a better understanding of myself. That's the only reason I even smoke marijuana every blue moon - to figure out what is going on deep down within me.

Primal Rage wrote:

Satyr, have you ever experimented with psychedelics? And what are your thoughts on using them for the purpose of self-understanding? E.g., whenever I smoke Marijuana ( rarely ) I always have very introverted, crystal clear experiences of what is going on in my subconscious mind. All of my anxieties and problems seem to splash right in my face. During these experiences, I feel terrified, but after the high is gone, I feel refreshed and like I have a better understanding of myself. That's the only reason I even smoke marijuana every blue moon - to figure out what is going on deep down within me.

I do not advocate the usage of any ingredient that inhibits lucid thinking.
But some organic methods are available to break down modern inhibitions and open up the psyche to a more honest perception.
Mushrooms, for one.

Addiction of any sort is a crutch.

Mushrooms work wonders. They are more tranquilizing and comforting in comparison with my brash marijuana experiences. I feel very in tune with universe when I use them.

Do you meditate at all? Like Taoistic type meditation where you detach from thoughts and abide in the " silent observer" and just be aware of surrounding external and internal phenomena?

I sometimes meditate by immersing my consciousness in sound, a sensation like wind on my skin, sun on my face.
A communion with nature.

How difficult today it is to be simple, to be with nature, the trees, mountains, to chopping wood and cooking meals.  Different thinkers draw the line between science and religion, in different ways.  Jung drew it along the frontier between the conscious and the unconscious minds. There is another world beyond the common world and that is the psyche.  It expresses itself in the language of myth and religion is about that inner world and about the task of bringing the inner and the outer worlds into harmony.

Our dreams, our art, our fantasies, are carrying messages from our psyche that point out to us the path of our own future spiritual fulfilment.  One could easily say all religious ideas are equally valid, as human expressions of psyche life and all religious truths are simply psychological.  God is the God image within the human psyche. Jung said  "What we are to our inward vision, and what man appears to be sub specie aeternitatis, can only be expressed by way of myth.

The human intellect can never answer the question, still less give any proof of God, but if one realises religion is truly human and one sets aside the supernatural, then perhaps one can bring back the idea that the knowledge of God is really self knowledge.  This knowledge of God means an integration of wisdom and harmony with oneself and nature, which our psyches are pursuing all our lives.  Religious naturalism has a lot to teach us.

We cannot make any final judgement about ourselves, or our lives, because at best we never know how it has all come about, the life of man is a dubious experiment, it is a tremendous phenomenon and it is so fleeting that it is literally a miracle that anything can exist and develop at all.  

This world is a transitory one.

Only the sensation of power increasing gives people satisfaction. Various religions and philosophies can trick people into that sensation, but not honestly. This is why the psychopath is the superior being, as it's not stunted by delusions and recognizes the real relationships between things.



In reality everybody is just the puppet of the same entity. Don't let it delude you grandeurs of ego and such. Treat everything as a game, in which you much succeed. With the only goal of maximizing self interest. That's my thinking anyhow.

There Will Be Blood wrote : " Only the sensation of power increasing gives people satisfaction."

I agree; this is especially true for me when I lift weights in the gym and achieve a new personal record in the squat, deadlift, or bench press. A feeling of euphoric rage comes about as if I just overcame an enemy combatant ( in this case, the enemy is the barbell and weights ).

And great movie you referenced. Patrick Bateman is the ultimate yuppie haha. Many of the so called " civilized" people in the world are like him, that is to say, snide, fake, materialistic, and neurotic.

There will be blood wrote: "this is why the psychopath is the superior being, as it's not stunted by delusions and recognizes the real relationships between things.

I don't think all sociopaths recognize the ultimate social dynamics of human beings. I think many of them simply don't care about others. But this doesn't necessarily require an intellectual understanding of the falsity of objective morality and such. E.g., crips and bloods ( the gangs ) can be considered to be sociopathic, but many if not most of them are rather ignorant intellectually. They wouldn't be able to hold philosophical conversations on objective morality, nihilism, etc; they would seem clueless. But then there are those that are truly sociopathic in practice and have an intellectual understanding of social dynamics, survival of the fittest, might is right, etc. These types are more complete and noble, in my eyes.

I often frequent a large hill in a park a few miles from my home in order to perform hill-sprints as a form of high intensity interval training (a simple yet timeless exercise which is impossible to master or 'outgrow'). When I am stressed or anxious, I prefer to do this routine very early in the morning while there is no company except a surrounding darkness. This silent lightless scene is where I have had some of most exhilarating and stimulating training sessions.

When I have completed my training, designed to leave me heaving for breath, and stand proud and exhausted over the summit, I turn around to face what is beneath me. The view from this hill happens to overlook the centre of my city. In my eyes it both is and symbolically represents the absolute epicentre of a terrifying cultural and psychic decay which I cannot help but experience given the period of my existence.

I close my eyes, take a seat on the ground or descend into a deep squat and calm myself. At this point my focus becomes totally introverted. I try and take the deepest breath that I can as slowly as I can and maintain complete concentration until I am not just re-nourished with air but have done so ignoring all outward stimuli. I become a motionless, inactive entity within a fluid and interactive environment.

I sometimes do this for close to half an hour, although, I couldn't precisely tell you given that I shut everything out. At first, concentrating on breathing slowly is extremely difficult given that my lungs are so deprived from the exercise, but later, after you have recovered, the challenge is to simply maintain an introverted focus. I sometimes think only of the breathing itself, or, if my mind does wonder,  I force myself to think, very softly, never negatively, and always deliberately centred on myself and no other human, about whatever thoughts do involuntarily enter my head. Often I think of natural scenes: a dense rainforest, a savannah sunset, a misty mountain-top, a deep green rolling meadow below hills. Other times I hazily picture the people of the past and the birth and death of cultures long before my day. These visions often send shivers down my spine as I am swallowed up into a feeling of timelessness but also of emptiness and a futility. I am here for so short a time, in so small a place in a giant, evolving reality which will one day cast me into non-existence. I am humbled beneath the stars which I can perhaps see better in my mind’s eye than I could in the polluted environment of the city. The fumes from the cesspit leave no chance for me to follow the skies as men did in antiquity. When you have mastered taking a very slow breath you may find, as I do, a very calm and peaceful feeling deep within. A centring of the self; brought about by limiting my own energetic output.

These two techniques alone (sprints, meditation) could easily do some weak and physically tame or inhibited men a world of good. Conquering that hill for that final time, brings about joy, relief and pride in harmony (as well as the aforementioned exhaustion - expect to vomit if you are a beginner). It is a taxing and rewarding habit which, when adhered to, adds muscle, builds character and will remove any excess weight. There is no higher level of physical intensity which can be achieved than in a sprint. Adding the hill is proven to burn fat (why do you think those man-size hamster-wheels known as treadmills always have a gradient for their pre-programmed fat-loss routines?) and creates a resistance which is comparable to the stimuli experienced in an Olympic back squat. This effect builds muscle and helps to correct postural imbalances and weaknesses.

But the most satiating part of this ritual comes after the exercise and after the inversion/meditation.

When I feel my body become restless from my forced denial of reality around me I take a few more disciplined breaths, deep and low. And then, after exhaling for the final time in this state, lungs empty, I open my eyes as wide as I am able…. and I focus on the city before me.

Then I scream.

I scream as if it was my dying day or moment, or as if it were my foes. At that moment, I embrace the fiercest part of myself as a man and know of the hateful and violent nature of the human beast. I look upon the erections of men in the form of skyscrapers and streetlights and vehicles in the otherwise dark night and I howl and scream in the most fearsome and bloodthirsty manner I am capable of rendering from within. I stare at the hateful and degrading monument to slavishness and cowardice that is this city and its structures and I know that ‘they’ (whoever) would gladly see me sheepish and domesticated, stunted and Inhibited, weak and submissive, mindless and soulless.

So I scream with a clenched fist and a crazed mind. I would guess that it usually last a few minutes. When it feels natural I sometimes swipe and lash out at the darkness with venom and without technique (I have trained to fight). I sometimes jump and leap with rage as I howl and often allow my body to move freely and be guided by my own animalised state, trusting that what comes is an undeniable part of my soul, and by extension, my past. On a few occasions, I have noticed that the sounds I make actually serve to exacerbate my frenzy and produce a state of self-inflicted terror. Often I embrace tears along with the dark thoughts and fantasies which accompany them.

If you try this you will know when to stop. At a certain point you will be incapable of maintaining the intensity required to make it worthwhile. I use these techniques or rituals as a form of grounding the physical self. The way I see it is that every challenge a given day might bring will require a mentality or behaviour which is between and not beyond these parameters: the motionless and humbled introvert, or, the furious and invigorated beast alive and defiant. In retrospect the whole endeavour serves not just to ground me, but to remind me of what I am. I must choose my setting with great care in order that I might avoid the cowards and the drones that could not understand or would be unnerved by the very sight of me in my element. It reminds me that I must achieve my goals and express myself from among them, hidden but always lurking with ferocious intentions.

I can attest that on a night with a full and bright moon, this experience is spiritually and physically enthralling. Even (especially?) if no other senses or detects you, YOU will know what transpired and what resides within. That, less rational, more beautiful part of yourself: far beyond the self which succumbs to neurosis and anxiety caused by an emasculating modernity and its corrosive memes.

Give it a try… unless of course you are scared of the ‘darkness’.

All altruism is the product of the selfish gene. The gene can malfunction hence psychopaths. Only tribal animals are capable of evolving into highly intelligent minds through empathetic introspection. Once intelligence is achieved i see no reason why the lizard brain shouldn't be activated as it is a more honest mode of being. What I'm saying is the feeling of pleasure by pleasing others is a sign of a not yet fully intelligent tribal animal. As it has no conception of the real mechanisms at play responsible for its sentiments. Likewise religious ecstasy is the product of delusional power considerations.

So on topic of mutant psychopaths. From my perspective they have more virtuous emotional incentives. More rational and less clouded minds. Remarkably refreshing and interesting as apposed to narcissistic personalities who only seeks ego boosts or phlegmatic nurture dependent personalities and so forth.      

Now at some point in history the genes fucked up because they created the potential for memes that could over ride the genes. I have a suspicion that memetic sociopaths gave rise to the genetic ones. We now have the capability to not play by genetic or by extension societal guidelines.
To overcome it all hence the Übermensch.

It's pretty funny the recent Superman movie got it all wrong. It gave reference to Plato's Republic. Because Plato is considered the father of all totalitarianism equivocating him to Zod and his genetically predetermined society. Then in the middle of the movie the Kryptonian woman proclaims to Superman that she is superior due to her lack of a sense of morality. So let me get this straight. The so called Übermensch is freed by his genetic enslavement only to be in the chains of a memetic one?

PR - You strike me as someone who is dissatisfied and in search of something. Realize that the problem does no lie in the state of the world or the situation your in, rather the expectations you have of it. Personally i couldn't care less if the world was nuked tomorrow or not. I'll have a good time till oblivion hits.

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I prefer competitive computer games. It gives me a false sense of achievement. At the highest levels of play you delve into a state of flow, in which all responses just become automatic. Very soothing. First on of the best guilds in World of Warcraft, then playing Grand Master in Starcraft 2, now more casually Dota 2.

Strongarm88, great comment. I can tell that you have a lot of passion. And you are very good at using words to illustrate a vivid image. I am definitely going to try that hill exercise sometime; that sounds like quite the experience especially when you are finished and scream with an intense rage as if you were in some kind of primeval battle. I bet that is extremely euphoric and even glorious. I like your style, man.