Strange Days
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2025 3:07 am
Douglas Mercer
March 15 2025
This dissertation elaborates on a modern, analytic version of the ontology of idealism, according to which a phenomenal consciousness is the ground of being
Mr. Kastrup uses the example of a psychiatric condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a metaphoric framework for describing how differences in subjective experience—across various sentient beings—can arise within a unified field of consciousness, which is his proposed ontological ground. Someone diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) manifests—within their own mind—two or more distinct personalities, each of which remains (to some degree or another) in the dark about the existence of the others. These distinct personalities are called dissociated alters.
In the same way—Mr. Kastrup proposes—within the mind of God (i.e. the ontological ground of transpersonal Consciousness) there exist a multitude of sentient beings, each with its own subjective experience—and each of which (to some degree or another) has forgotten their shared origin within the unified field of Consciousness.
Dissociation is when a cognitive bridge is not present or is no longer present; when the bridge resumes its function we speak of integration, of completing the psychic process. That is when the requisite associations, which have always existed, are finally recognized and completed.
***
A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation, or a social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow a wave of action in the fashion of an epidemic as it spreads through the population. The English suffix mania denotes an obsession with something. The suffix is used in some medical terms denoting mental disorders. It has also entered standard English and is affixed to many different words to denote enthusiasm or obsession with that subject. Cambridge Dictionary has defined mania as a very strong interest in something that fills a person's mind or uses up all their time.
In our day when some idea becomes extraordinarily popular it is said to go viral, indicating that so rapid is the acceleration through the population that the idea seems to living, or have a life of its own. Something is said to be infectious if it is likely to spread or influence others in a rapid manner. Once again the spread of an idea is likened in our language to a virus or disease, that is a living thing.
Folie a deux (French for madness of two), also called shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. This delusional belief can be held by multiple people or by entire populations. Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of symptoms through a population where there is no organic infectious agent responsible for contagion. It is the rapid spread of signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group which has no corresponding organic causes that are known.
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is the process of arousing social concern over an issue, usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs, mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community.
A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of circumstances or events; and is also known as synchronicity.
***
In the years leading up the Event outlandish coincidences and synchronicities will occur, texts will be consulted in relation to them, and connections and correspondences and logical bridges will rapidly be made. At first it will be the rare and the few who begin to notice the eerie interlinking and interlocking and the interconnection and they will outline the history of the phenomenon as it is traversing the course of thought; naturally at first these essays will be ignored and will be marginal; over time more people will come to pore over these texts and give them a wider audience.
When they begin to catch greater attention the masses will of course dismiss this as another esoteric fad; but eventually a series of other texts and other events will seem to show correspondences which will be more and more difficult to marginalize as the idea whose time has come will emerge clearly into the light; that is it will become irrefutable. Then what at first seemed to be disparate and random will begin to be viewed as ordered, as the dissociations and fragmentation will come to be integrated by a series of associations and logical bridges in a final text which will spread at ever accelerated speeds throughout the population.
***
Critical Mass refers to the point at which a sufficient amount, size, or momentum of something is reached to produce a particular result or effect. It signifies the tipping point where a change becomes self-sustaining or a goal becomes achievable due to cumulative effort or influence.
Threshold for Change: Critical Mass represents the minimum amount required to catalyze a change, shift, or transformation within a system, market, or community.
Impact and Influence: It emphasizes the power of collective action or accumulation, where small incremental contributions or actions lead to significant outcomes.
Self-Sustaining Momentum: Once Critical Mass is achieved, the change or trend tends to gain momentum and continue without further external intervention.
The words and ideas of the secretly organized will begin to seem to many to be so obvious, to be so nonrandom, that it cannot simply be chance, that is we can no longer be considered to be imagining it. This process has been going on from time out of mind in the course of thought; and when the connections begin to converge an overwhelming accumulation will occur when everything is read in the light of everything else; and the phenomenon will take on a life of its own.
Strange days, indeed.
March 15 2025
This dissertation elaborates on a modern, analytic version of the ontology of idealism, according to which a phenomenal consciousness is the ground of being
Mr. Kastrup uses the example of a psychiatric condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a metaphoric framework for describing how differences in subjective experience—across various sentient beings—can arise within a unified field of consciousness, which is his proposed ontological ground. Someone diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) manifests—within their own mind—two or more distinct personalities, each of which remains (to some degree or another) in the dark about the existence of the others. These distinct personalities are called dissociated alters.
In the same way—Mr. Kastrup proposes—within the mind of God (i.e. the ontological ground of transpersonal Consciousness) there exist a multitude of sentient beings, each with its own subjective experience—and each of which (to some degree or another) has forgotten their shared origin within the unified field of Consciousness.
Dissociation is when a cognitive bridge is not present or is no longer present; when the bridge resumes its function we speak of integration, of completing the psychic process. That is when the requisite associations, which have always existed, are finally recognized and completed.
***
A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation, or a social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow a wave of action in the fashion of an epidemic as it spreads through the population. The English suffix mania denotes an obsession with something. The suffix is used in some medical terms denoting mental disorders. It has also entered standard English and is affixed to many different words to denote enthusiasm or obsession with that subject. Cambridge Dictionary has defined mania as a very strong interest in something that fills a person's mind or uses up all their time.
In our day when some idea becomes extraordinarily popular it is said to go viral, indicating that so rapid is the acceleration through the population that the idea seems to living, or have a life of its own. Something is said to be infectious if it is likely to spread or influence others in a rapid manner. Once again the spread of an idea is likened in our language to a virus or disease, that is a living thing.
Folie a deux (French for madness of two), also called shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. This delusional belief can be held by multiple people or by entire populations. Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of symptoms through a population where there is no organic infectious agent responsible for contagion. It is the rapid spread of signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group which has no corresponding organic causes that are known.
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is the process of arousing social concern over an issue, usually perpetuated by moral entrepreneurs, mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community.
A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of circumstances or events; and is also known as synchronicity.
***
In the years leading up the Event outlandish coincidences and synchronicities will occur, texts will be consulted in relation to them, and connections and correspondences and logical bridges will rapidly be made. At first it will be the rare and the few who begin to notice the eerie interlinking and interlocking and the interconnection and they will outline the history of the phenomenon as it is traversing the course of thought; naturally at first these essays will be ignored and will be marginal; over time more people will come to pore over these texts and give them a wider audience.
When they begin to catch greater attention the masses will of course dismiss this as another esoteric fad; but eventually a series of other texts and other events will seem to show correspondences which will be more and more difficult to marginalize as the idea whose time has come will emerge clearly into the light; that is it will become irrefutable. Then what at first seemed to be disparate and random will begin to be viewed as ordered, as the dissociations and fragmentation will come to be integrated by a series of associations and logical bridges in a final text which will spread at ever accelerated speeds throughout the population.
***
Critical Mass refers to the point at which a sufficient amount, size, or momentum of something is reached to produce a particular result or effect. It signifies the tipping point where a change becomes self-sustaining or a goal becomes achievable due to cumulative effort or influence.
Threshold for Change: Critical Mass represents the minimum amount required to catalyze a change, shift, or transformation within a system, market, or community.
Impact and Influence: It emphasizes the power of collective action or accumulation, where small incremental contributions or actions lead to significant outcomes.
Self-Sustaining Momentum: Once Critical Mass is achieved, the change or trend tends to gain momentum and continue without further external intervention.
The words and ideas of the secretly organized will begin to seem to many to be so obvious, to be so nonrandom, that it cannot simply be chance, that is we can no longer be considered to be imagining it. This process has been going on from time out of mind in the course of thought; and when the connections begin to converge an overwhelming accumulation will occur when everything is read in the light of everything else; and the phenomenon will take on a life of its own.
Strange days, indeed.