[00:00:00 - 00:00:04] The first minute or two the sound is a little raw but it gets cleared up real [00:00:04 - 00:00:11] fast so don't worry about the initial sound quality. John Steele on memory. KPFK [00:00:11 - 00:00:22] Los Angeles. Okay we have ignition. This morning we're going to explore a vast [00:00:22 - 00:00:29] array of stuff which has come to me over the years through various channels and [00:00:29 - 00:00:39] with no names and I'm really going to speak my mind I'm going to think it out [00:00:39 - 00:00:44] so it's not in any set form but there is a there is an order I want to go through [00:00:44 - 00:00:52] and it will be kind of a look at different elements of contracted mind [00:00:52 - 00:00:58] and extended mind so we can begin to see the juxtaposition of of the two how each [00:00:58 - 00:01:05] one defines the other. The element of [00:01:05 - 00:01:14] contracted mind I'd like to look at first before the extended mind aspect and [00:01:14 - 00:01:20] for those of you who heard me last year I'll briefly capitulate this idea of the [00:01:20 - 00:01:29] Kali Yuga as a set piece before I launch into the specifics. The Kali Yuga is the [00:01:29 - 00:01:35] age that we live in in terms of East Indian chronology there are four great [00:01:35 - 00:01:44] Yugas of time there is roughly speaking a golden age of that Yuga and then a [00:01:44 - 00:01:48] silver age and then a bronze age and then an iron age each one of varying [00:01:48 - 00:01:53] durations we won't get into the cosmological mathematics because they're [00:01:53 - 00:02:00] up for grabs allegedly the age that we live in now is the end of the cycle each [00:02:00 - 00:02:07] of these four ages is part of a cycle called a Maha Yuga. The Kali Yuga is the [00:02:07 - 00:02:15] dark age it's the iron age it's the age of Kali. Kali is the goddess goddess of [00:02:15 - 00:02:23] dissolution of time and structures she clears the way for those impediments of [00:02:23 - 00:02:33] evolution that have arisen. Now in the Kali Yuga what occurs is in terms of [00:02:33 - 00:02:38] time very interesting because the Tibetan translation for Kali Yuga [00:02:38 - 00:02:44] literally means the dregs of time the dregs of time what does that mean it [00:02:44 - 00:02:50] means the bottom of the barrel of time it means that time has reached a density [00:02:50 - 00:02:55] a certain temporal density and this temporal density can actually be felt [00:02:55 - 00:03:03] somatically in the body now what is the definition of temporal density temporal [00:03:03 - 00:03:09] density means we have too many events per unit of time to fully assimilate in [00:03:09 - 00:03:14] our everyday life that means that you've got to pay the bills and take the kids [00:03:14 - 00:03:18] out and go to the doctor and wash the clothes and put out the cat and you know [00:03:18 - 00:03:25] do everything it's an unending array of tasks that have to be accomplished and [00:03:25 - 00:03:29] just when you think you've finished them all new ones magically arise you are [00:03:29 - 00:03:38] never finished now so the Kali Yuga has this this idea of a temporal density and [00:03:38 - 00:03:45] I want to explore that in several different ways here one of the things [00:03:45 - 00:03:51] that occurs in the Kali Yuga one other aspect which is an interesting [00:03:51 - 00:03:55] concomitant to the temporal density is that there is a seasonal [00:03:55 - 00:04:01] disequilibrium in other words oh the climate and the seasons go out of whack [00:04:01 - 00:04:06] rain doesn't fall at the right time snow doesn't fall at the right time there's a [00:04:06 - 00:04:11] seasonal imbalance this is one of the aspects in terms of the Kali Yuga this [00:04:11 - 00:04:18] climatic disequilibrium and what I'm pointing to is when you get a temporal [00:04:18 - 00:04:22] disequilibrium you know temporal dent high temporal density and there is at least [00:04:22 - 00:04:27] a correspondence to a climatic fluctuation and as people like Padmasambhava [00:04:27 - 00:04:33] and other great teachers have said this climatic disequilibrium is part of the [00:04:33 - 00:04:42] Kali Yuga now one of the aspects in terms of again of Eastern thought that [00:04:42 - 00:04:58] occurs in the Kali Yuga is a how shall we say is a time window narrows in this [00:04:58 - 00:05:05] kind of density scenario and so what happens you last night the Miller light [00:05:05 - 00:05:10] beer ad was mentioned I will mention another beer ad which may bring back some [00:05:10 - 00:05:14] memories quite a few years ago in America there was a Schlitz ad Schlitz [00:05:14 - 00:05:19] beer of Milwaukee and it showed these macho guys on the sailboat and the spray [00:05:19 - 00:05:24] coming out and it said you only go around once in life so grab all the [00:05:24 - 00:05:31] gusto you can so the idea was since you know this was it you had to have as good [00:05:31 - 00:05:38] a time as possible right now so the idea encapsulated in this ad is many [00:05:38 - 00:05:43] different values first of all is the idea that there are no past lives and [00:05:43 - 00:05:48] there are no future lives this is it and therefore you've got a hedonistically [00:05:48 - 00:05:55] explode in the moment and just really grab everything possible now this the [00:05:55 - 00:05:59] value inherent here is that you'll go for short-term games and to hell with [00:05:59 - 00:06:06] anything possible long term so this means rip off anyone have war as long as [00:06:06 - 00:06:14] you profit in the immediate moment grab all the gusto you can now back to [00:06:14 - 00:06:19] Buddhism for a moment in the one of the sutras the la cavantara sutra one of the [00:06:19 - 00:06:27] Buddhist sutras there is a wonderful teaching and this is not tantric [00:06:27 - 00:06:32] Buddhism it's Mahayana Buddhism but it's still the same basic set and one of the [00:06:32 - 00:06:39] teachings in there goes as such for those of you who my work is on memory so [00:06:39 - 00:06:43] I have this great interest in the subject it says when the triple world is [00:06:43 - 00:06:49] surveyed that's past present future by the body satha he perceived that it [00:06:49 - 00:06:53] existence is due to memory that has been accumulated since the beginningless past [00:06:53 - 00:07:00] but wrongly interpreted now it is this concept of memory that is wrongly [00:07:00 - 00:07:05] interpreted that I want to take a good hard luck at here and before we get into [00:07:05 - 00:07:12] that a few more notes here the word memory in Sanskrit comes from the word [00:07:12 - 00:07:19] vasana vasana and it's a beautiful word because it has several different nuances [00:07:19 - 00:07:26] it means a memory which is transmitted from one life to another either [00:07:26 - 00:07:32] consciously or unconsciously usually unconsciously memories habit patterns [00:07:32 - 00:07:37] that are generated within one life are called samskaras it's different from a [00:07:37 - 00:07:46] vasana the son is have a cross life connection now the one of the secondary [00:07:46 - 00:07:50] meanings of this word vasana is very appropriate to one of my other interests [00:07:50 - 00:07:55] and that is fragrance because the secondary meaning of the word vasana [00:07:55 - 00:08:00] means if you have an empty perfume bottle even if it's completely empty the [00:08:00 - 00:08:06] smell always remains of that scent in that bottle in other words the scent [00:08:06 - 00:08:10] pervades even when the vessel is empty and this is what the in the Sanskrit [00:08:10 - 00:08:17] language very mixture of great technical precision and great poetic insight you [00:08:17 - 00:08:24] have this idea that a past life memory is like it's like the the smell which [00:08:24 - 00:08:28] goes through time the smell memory goes from one life to another even though the [00:08:28 - 00:08:37] bottle is empty now in this word also means habit energy the sauna means habit [00:08:37 - 00:08:45] energy and this word habit energy in Tibetan bachar is a term for it it's like [00:08:45 - 00:08:52] a trace like the smell like the trace and the teaching in the sutra is that [00:08:52 - 00:08:58] these traces they build up after a while to the extent where we begin to nucleate [00:08:58 - 00:09:04] an ego around them like I get up every morning and I do this and I eat that and [00:09:04 - 00:09:10] you get this whole kind of an axis of a moment with the Buddhist call an axis of [00:09:10 - 00:09:14] the moment begins to generate this I the subject begins to generate from [00:09:14 - 00:09:24] habitual action repetitive automatic hypnotic you know action now the [00:09:24 - 00:09:30] therefore one of the ways one of the strategies to deal with this nucleation [00:09:30 - 00:09:39] around this moment of subjectivity is to learn how to shall we say die to oneself [00:09:39 - 00:09:44] and this is in the perennial philosophy and the mystical philosophies known as [00:09:44 - 00:09:49] the tradition of unknowing of unknowing like the 14th century English mystic [00:09:49 - 00:09:53] work the cloud of unknowing and this whole process I want to look at in a [00:09:53 - 00:10:00] moment I just wanted to set that out now with it with the idea of memory wrongly [00:10:00 - 00:10:05] interpreted we can begin to look at a bit of present times through this filter [00:10:05 - 00:10:13] you see we live in an age at which we are virtually hoarding memory computers [00:10:13 - 00:10:18] are based on the idea like you look at women in terms of their vital [00:10:18 - 00:10:22] measurements where you look at computers in terms of their vital measurements in [00:10:22 - 00:10:26] terms of their memory capacities this one has so many bits and this one has [00:10:26 - 00:10:30] more bits and this one can process those bits faster and faster the memorial [00:10:30 - 00:10:38] capacity is really the key to these the strength of a computer now the the [00:10:38 - 00:10:45] trouble is with this is that the there is and I'm generalizing much of what [00:10:45 - 00:10:51] computers do is wonderful I'm not putting down computers per se but there [00:10:51 - 00:10:57] is a an emphasis on the acquisition of memories that can be stuck into the [00:10:57 - 00:11:04] computer and what too many memories do after a while whether they are in a [00:11:04 - 00:11:07] currency because if they're in a computer even if they're in a computer [00:11:07 - 00:11:12] they have to be in a programmer's mind even in a real chunk style they have to [00:11:12 - 00:11:16] be some level of recursiveness in the company even in the programmer's mind [00:11:16 - 00:11:21] you know how much he offloads into the computer itself there has to be some [00:11:21 - 00:11:26] level of memory of what's inside so the more that's inside the computer the more [00:11:26 - 00:11:30] that has to be in the mind of the of the programmer it's a great reduction but [00:11:30 - 00:11:37] still you begin to set up a great array of memories that is auxiliary to what [00:11:37 - 00:11:43] would be needed for ordinary life now what begins to happen is that with this [00:11:43 - 00:11:49] tremendous array of memory storage and we have you begin to clog a system a [00:11:49 - 00:12:00] system becomes constipated by actual too much hoarding of memory now this [00:12:00 - 00:12:07] hoarding of memory sets up a kind of a psychological density and as a system [00:12:07 - 00:12:14] becomes clogged it becomes brittle that is to say it cannot react quickly to [00:12:14 - 00:12:19] crisis situations because it is overloaded with choices and information [00:12:19 - 00:12:24] there's too much information every time that something happens now in the modern [00:12:24 - 00:12:30] world the reaction time is stunted to such a point by the vast array of [00:12:30 - 00:12:34] information processing technology that people cannot react like that anymore in [00:12:34 - 00:12:40] real critical decisions everything is so rationally displayed in terms of its [00:12:40 - 00:12:44] memorial capacity and yet with all this memorial capacity and all this [00:12:44 - 00:12:49] incredible telecommunications the world is coming apart at the seams I mean it's [00:12:49 - 00:12:53] we're balanced and we're as the Tibetans say we're licking honey from [00:12:53 - 00:12:59] the razor's edge in terms of our information acquisition it's actually [00:12:59 - 00:13:04] and this is memory wrongly interpreted this vast collection of memory as though [00:13:04 - 00:13:11] more is better that's just the assumption that we're working under now [00:13:11 - 00:13:17] the more memory that you accrete you see paradoxically you set yourself up more [00:13:17 - 00:13:22] for what in systems terms we call the likelihood of a runaway system a runaway [00:13:22 - 00:13:25] system is it like a snowball going down the hill getting bigger and bigger and [00:13:25 - 00:13:29] more progressively out of control and the more you develop memory look wrongly [00:13:29 - 00:13:35] interpreted in terms of vast acquisition the more likely you are to go into a [00:13:35 - 00:13:40] runaway system because your reaction time is cut your direct perception your [00:13:40 - 00:13:50] direct unmediated by vast information technology is cut and this likelihood of [00:13:50 - 00:13:55] a runaway system occurs and this is what happens you see in things like [00:13:55 - 00:13:59] this all this conjugate stuff you have this incredible information technology [00:13:59 - 00:14:04] of the NSC computers and the CIA computers and the DIA computers and all [00:14:04 - 00:14:08] these things and what happens is that you lose control of who's you know who [00:14:08 - 00:14:12] is in charge it's Olly North is running the ball this way and Colby is running [00:14:12 - 00:14:16] the ball this way and everyone's kind of what we call in systems theories again [00:14:16 - 00:14:21] you begin to generate institutions within institutions and this happens [00:14:21 - 00:14:25] when you get this memory wrongly interpreted to such a point where there [00:14:25 - 00:14:36] is clarity disappears of the overview now what further begins to happen is that [00:14:36 - 00:14:42] this memory wrongly interpreted begins to generate the tootin is the footnote [00:14:42 - 00:14:46] there are two types of unconscious mind I want to point out here one is what I [00:14:46 - 00:14:51] would call unconscious unconscious and that's when you're asleep at the wheel [00:14:51 - 00:14:58] it's like you're dead drunk it's like you're numbed there's no sensation okay [00:14:58 - 00:15:04] that's unconscious unconscious then contrast it to that there's conscious [00:15:04 - 00:15:09] unconscious now the link of conscious unconscious is really shamanic [00:15:09 - 00:15:13] consciousness it's where there is a bridge between the conscious mind and [00:15:13 - 00:15:16] the unconscious mind it's what Jung would call the transcendent function [00:15:16 - 00:15:22] there's a bridge between these two realms now most people are walking [00:15:22 - 00:15:27] around as all the perennial philosophy say we're in a state of sleep we're [00:15:27 - 00:15:31] walking around in a state of unconscious unconscious it's what good G calls we're [00:15:31 - 00:15:38] all asleep we're sleepwalkers and this unconscious what happens then is this [00:15:38 - 00:15:45] there's an unconscious mental mass is generated by memory wrongly interpreted [00:15:45 - 00:15:51] in other words what begins to happen is conversely to what Terrence was talking [00:15:51 - 00:15:58] about last night the idea of a living conscious memory what gets generated is [00:15:58 - 00:16:05] what what William Burroughs would call language as virus is generated you see [00:16:05 - 00:16:09] this is where language goes out of control it's just the opposite to a [00:16:09 - 00:16:15] living language and what it's what I call an unconscious mental mash mass [00:16:15 - 00:16:19] proliferates in the environment and it means that there's all these kind of [00:16:19 - 00:16:25] invisible habit patterns and invisible kind of runaway systems linguistically [00:16:25 - 00:16:36] on a sub vocal voice in the environment and whereas what as one of my teachers [00:16:36 - 00:16:44] has said that at a certain point habit patterns become solidified in the [00:16:44 - 00:16:50] environment and in the body now this is something that and this is from the [00:16:50 - 00:16:57] Tibetan point of view this is something actually that Norbu said that habit [00:16:57 - 00:17:02] patterns get solidified and the great illustration of this in terms of for [00:17:02 - 00:17:09] example in a tantric thought is there's a great Indian Mahasiddha Saraha who was [00:17:09 - 00:17:24] the the arrow maker and he taught the idea that memory it can exist in many [00:17:24 - 00:17:30] states it's like water water can be very fluid and that at a certain point it can [00:17:30 - 00:17:36] become ice and become solidified now that's the shift from natural mind and [00:17:36 - 00:17:41] natural memory to memory wrongly interpreted when it solidifies and when [00:17:41 - 00:17:45] it's when when it solidifies the mind stops it gels like that and that's what [00:17:45 - 00:17:54] this sensation of ego comes from this nucleation so this idea of a of an [00:17:54 - 00:17:59] unconscious mental mass as the eye or the idea of virus and language as virus [00:17:59 - 00:18:07] is something that we kind of have to be aware of it's the idea that words have a [00:18:07 - 00:18:12] life of their own it's like people's minds the the subvocal voice it [00:18:12 - 00:18:17] oftentimes you think well I'm in charge and the sub vocal voice is going I [00:18:17 - 00:18:21] want this I want this I want is what they but it's called monkey mind it's [00:18:21 - 00:18:24] like it's going here and here and here and you are saying I don't really think [00:18:24 - 00:18:30] that but something else this and that's this automatic mind is going off and [00:18:30 - 00:18:36] that's this language is virus memory wrongly interpreted gone organic now one [00:18:36 - 00:18:46] of the aspects of why that there's this great accumulation of memory is it's the [00:18:46 - 00:18:52] idea the illusion is that the more memory we have the more control and [00:18:52 - 00:18:58] manipulation and prediction of reality we will have if we can manage memory and [00:18:58 - 00:19:02] keep it you know on tap so we can push a button therefore we'd be able to [00:19:02 - 00:19:06] manipulate reality better with all this memory that we've got there and the [00:19:06 - 00:19:14] external forms of computer banks and books and everything else and we begin [00:19:14 - 00:19:17] to hoard memory because we feel it will give us prediction and control and [00:19:17 - 00:19:22] manipulation of reality the Central Intelligence Agency stop and think of [00:19:22 - 00:19:26] that for a moment Central Intelligence Agency what does it do it gathers [00:19:26 - 00:19:31] information about everything in the world except the natural intelligence of [00:19:31 - 00:19:35] the people who are in the organization there's nothing to do with self [00:19:35 - 00:19:48] knowledge Intel intelligence of the other not of self knowledge now the idea [00:19:48 - 00:19:55] of this memory wrongly interpreted brings us to an interesting model here [00:19:55 - 00:20:04] again in the Buddhist framework we talk about that thought or memory as the [00:20:04 - 00:20:10] teaching goes as sara teaches and in his what he calls the Royal song the Doha's [00:20:10 - 00:20:18] and these are kind of like poetic teachings he teaches that memory arises [00:20:18 - 00:20:27] emptiness abides in emptiness and then dissolves back into emptiness or as he [00:20:27 - 00:20:34] teaches memory arises from non-memory what he calls non-memory abides in [00:20:34 - 00:20:42] non-memory and then sinks back dissolves into non-memory now this cycle of [00:20:42 - 00:20:51] arising abiding and dissolving is the cycle of all thought and this cycle is [00:20:51 - 00:20:59] also two other analogs that we can give to it it is the basic nature of today [00:20:59 - 00:21:05] what prigogine calls dissipative systems things arise they abide and they dissolve [00:21:05 - 00:21:09] and they arise in a slightly different form and then they abide in a slightly [00:21:09 - 00:21:15] different form and is it they dissolve now dissipative systems a footnote on [00:21:15 - 00:21:20] this is much more ancient than prigogine what all he's done is brought it into a [00:21:20 - 00:21:30] contemporary mode in the early forms of my interest of archaeology we find it [00:21:30 - 00:21:37] embodied in the idea of the triple goddess that is to say the and the the [00:21:37 - 00:21:43] triple goddess is exemplified by the three phases of the moon and that is to [00:21:43 - 00:21:49] say there's a new moon there's a full moon and then there's the waning moon [00:21:49 - 00:21:54] and then they go back to a fourth phase which people rarely really recognized [00:21:54 - 00:21:58] and that is the state where moon is not visible at all that is really the true [00:21:58 - 00:22:04] emptiness and this dissipative cycle is mirrored in the arising of thought [00:22:04 - 00:22:11] abiding of thought and dissolving back into now well the reason I bring this up [00:22:11 - 00:22:20] is the following is that in the paradigm of memory as it's like that in the 20th [00:22:20 - 00:22:26] century memory is left at primarily from the point of view of Western psychology [00:22:26 - 00:22:32] only in one of these three phases that is to say it's like that principally in [00:22:32 - 00:22:38] the middle phase the abiding phase and we do not look at where memory comes from [00:22:38 - 00:22:42] or where it goes to only in a psychoanalytical sense we look at your [00:22:42 - 00:22:47] childhood memories and stuff like that but we do not really consider the idea [00:22:47 - 00:22:52] of emptiness or of non memory as an origin point we all we look at this kind [00:22:52 - 00:22:58] of psychoanalytic history as our way but not as real emptiness so we have a [00:22:58 - 00:23:03] focus only on one phase the abiding phase that is the face of how do what [00:23:03 - 00:23:07] memories operate in the ordinary everyday visible world how do we operate [00:23:07 - 00:23:14] in that form and this is where memory wrongly interpreted generates itself and [00:23:14 - 00:23:18] proliferates right in this gap of only looking at the middle phase of the [00:23:18 - 00:23:25] dissipative cycle because you neglect the arising and dissolving you begin to [00:23:25 - 00:23:28] get an overbalance and that's why it gets brittle that's why it gets [00:23:28 - 00:23:35] constipated because the cycle is left at and only only one part of it [00:23:35 - 00:23:46] okay now the next thing that I would like to look at is the idea that one of [00:23:46 - 00:23:51] the characteristics of the Kali Yuga another one besides this temporal [00:23:51 - 00:23:58] density is the whole concept and this is something I've been developing from my [00:23:58 - 00:24:02] doctoral thesis for years but it's progressively comes into more focus is [00:24:02 - 00:24:11] the idea of object proliferation object proliferation now let me give you a [00:24:11 - 00:24:16] brief history of objects to put you in the picture the first man-made objects [00:24:16 - 00:24:21] that we have are three million years old these first objects are found in Africa [00:24:21 - 00:24:30] and they are very small they are they are like hand axes and a pounding tools [00:24:30 - 00:24:35] and things like that with a minimal of modification to them very minute [00:24:35 - 00:24:40] minimally modified and as an archaeologist I happen to study this in [00:24:40 - 00:24:45] great detail and detail the kind of generation of tool making and what [00:24:45 - 00:24:50] progressively begins to happen after another million and a half years of no [00:24:50 - 00:24:56] new and improved models can you imagine you know any car the car industry with [00:24:56 - 00:25:03] the same model for a million and a half years what begins them the first [00:25:03 - 00:25:09] innovation is symmetry that's the first innovation in tool making is the idea of [00:25:09 - 00:25:14] some degree of symmetry and then you begin to get into chipping and flaking [00:25:14 - 00:25:21] as sharpening and gradually you finally begin it we get into what we call [00:25:21 - 00:25:25] micro geometry tools you get into very very small tools that are very precise [00:25:25 - 00:25:32] and and the kind of needlepoint stuff and very very finely made things about [00:25:32 - 00:25:41] 30 40 thousand years ago and it's about 30 or 40 thousand years ago again where [00:25:41 - 00:25:46] you begin to generate the first symbolic objects that's where you go from [00:25:46 - 00:25:52] functional to symbolic objects and when you make this leap language is you know [00:25:52 - 00:26:00] afoot as soon as you begin to get symbolic objects and with symbolic [00:26:00 - 00:26:07] objects and language everything begins to escalate because in the in the [00:26:07 - 00:26:13] scenario of objects as it were what begins to happen is roughly we have the [00:26:13 - 00:26:18] Neolithic Revolution which is about nine ten thousand BC some people put it a few [00:26:18 - 00:26:22] thousand years earlier later but it's irrelevant in the Neolithic Revolution [00:26:22 - 00:26:26] essentially before we were hunter-gatherers we were nomads we [00:26:26 - 00:26:31] followed herds of different animals the caribou and the deer and the bison and [00:26:31 - 00:26:35] the mammoth we followed the seasonal growth of plants to wherever they [00:26:35 - 00:26:44] occurred we followed nature and we did not own nature now what gradually began [00:26:44 - 00:26:51] to happen in the Neolithic Revolution someone had a bright idea and that is [00:26:51 - 00:26:58] that we could domesticate crops and animals we did not have to follow we [00:26:58 - 00:27:05] could take something and plant it and with this planting we could stay in one [00:27:05 - 00:27:11] place we would not be at the kind of whims of this grand seasonal variation [00:27:11 - 00:27:18] and our animals we could domesticate animals that is to say we did not have [00:27:18 - 00:27:24] to go hunting all the time we would take we would begin to domesticate cows and [00:27:24 - 00:27:31] keep them in pens and sheep and goats and things like that would begin to [00:27:31 - 00:27:37] occur and you know it's a wonderful invention for many people the idea of [00:27:37 - 00:27:43] stopping this nomadic life others were not so sure that this was a great idea [00:27:43 - 00:27:47] because there was a great virtue in the nomadic life in many ways as well but [00:27:47 - 00:27:52] history rolled on and what began to happen is as you begin to settle and to [00:27:52 - 00:28:04] nucleate you began to generate objects for the first time in a different scale [00:28:04 - 00:28:09] than just hand axes and cutting tools just the bare essential tools you began [00:28:09 - 00:28:16] to make tools more permanent holding tools now instead of transporting water [00:28:16 - 00:28:22] and ostrich eggs that were biodegradable in a very neat sense you would begin to [00:28:22 - 00:28:29] make longer lasting objects of clays and potteries and in other words the half [00:28:29 - 00:28:34] life of your objects would begin to increase the idea of permanent objects [00:28:34 - 00:28:41] instead of kind of a throwaway culture began to accrete and as these objects [00:28:41 - 00:28:49] began to accrete you began to gradually through the years to make decorations on [00:28:49 - 00:28:55] them and art on the objects and this made the objects more valuable quote [00:28:55 - 00:29:03] unquote whatever that meant at the time and these objects had the very strange [00:29:03 - 00:29:10] effect on people's minds as they acted like an attractor matrix for the human [00:29:10 - 00:29:17] mind on which to see even further possibilities for the proliferation of [00:29:17 - 00:29:22] even more objects that is to say once you made a bowl well we can make a [00:29:22 - 00:29:27] better bowl and we're bowl with a spout and then a bowl whether this on it and [00:29:27 - 00:29:34] one with greater capacity and then so on and so forth object proliferation began [00:29:34 - 00:29:38] to form it began to be a mirror to which the mind could say well we've done this [00:29:38 - 00:29:44] but we can do this better before you extract it from nature now you were on [00:29:44 - 00:29:49] this kind of reflection process so that was one dynamic that began to occur [00:29:49 - 00:29:58] object proliferation in the generation of even more objects now I should say at [00:29:58 - 00:30:05] a footnote right now before I go on with this scenario the average home the [00:30:05 - 00:30:13] average home has in it today 300,000 objects in it put that in your pipe and [00:30:13 - 00:30:21] smoke it and that means that you have to deal with the ID the location and [00:30:21 - 00:30:28] function and care of all these objects so therefore a lot of your mental [00:30:28 - 00:30:37] activity is tied into this object array environment okay now what happens let's [00:30:37 - 00:30:40] go back to the Neolithic for a moment you see then we have very few objects [00:30:40 - 00:30:45] it's gone from a few pots and bowls and a few digging sticks and spears and what [00:30:45 - 00:30:51] have you and and furs and beads and things like that to 300,000 I mean the [00:30:51 - 00:30:57] the proliferation that has to go with that you see the concomitant [00:30:57 - 00:31:01] proliferation is the secret of this process is when you begin to generate [00:31:01 - 00:31:07] objects you have to have a concomitant and corresponding memory for every [00:31:07 - 00:31:15] object that you own whether it's online or not it is the point is that we don't [00:31:15 - 00:31:21] keep the 300,000 memory online all the time it's we chunk things we say it's in [00:31:21 - 00:31:25] the garage it's in the bedroom it's in the den it's in the kitchen we have a [00:31:25 - 00:31:34] chunking by by spatial kind of labeling but on the whole what happens is as soon [00:31:34 - 00:31:36] as you have an object you have to have a memory of that object otherwise the [00:31:36 - 00:31:39] object is useless you can do it you don't know where you put it in that way [00:31:39 - 00:31:43] you can't use it so you have to have some corresponding memory now in terms of [00:31:43 - 00:31:48] ownership what begins to happen is very interesting as soon as you begin to have [00:31:48 - 00:31:55] this object proliferation you begin to have to have the generation of a noun a [00:31:55 - 00:32:00] linguistic noun has to come into being for the generation of that object this [00:32:00 - 00:32:11] is a spear thrower this is you know my water bowl this is this is my fur to [00:32:11 - 00:32:17] keep me warm this is my talisman whatever it is you have to have a [00:32:17 - 00:32:26] corresponding noun for every object that is generated now with this kind of [00:32:26 - 00:32:31] generation of noun the converse of this most curious thing begins to happen is [00:32:31 - 00:32:39] and it is the generation of pronouns and begins to occur this is my object this [00:32:39 - 00:32:45] is your object this is his object this is their object when you are in nature [00:32:45 - 00:32:52] there was no pronouns there was just this vast undifferentiated participation [00:32:52 - 00:32:57] mystique no differentiation of subject and object therefore no pronoun so [00:32:57 - 00:33:03] pronouns are generated from nouns and nouns are generated from objects so you [00:33:03 - 00:33:08] get this linguistic matrix beginning to occur and it occurs in this kind of [00:33:08 - 00:33:16] unconscious proliferation again language is virus now what begins to happen is [00:33:16 - 00:33:23] again the the possibility of runaway systems and as Morris Berman a cultural [00:33:23 - 00:33:27] historian pointed out recently you begin to get what we he calls commodity [00:33:27 - 00:33:32] fetishism fetishism the idea now in the old days when objects for example [00:33:32 - 00:33:37] certain totemic things in the Indian Northwest were made they were meant to [00:33:37 - 00:33:42] degenerate with weather after they were made they were the masks and the things [00:33:42 - 00:33:46] like that were left to weather and disintegrate to dissolve in the [00:33:46 - 00:33:52] dissipative cycle back into nature they arise they abided and they dissolve they [00:33:52 - 00:33:58] were not kept as objects of art you see what we have done is taken these objects [00:33:58 - 00:34:03] and got into the abiding phase memory wrongly interpreted and we fixate there [00:34:03 - 00:34:12] and we keep that going so you get this very kind of interesting scenario [00:34:12 - 00:34:19] arising now let's take a look at this in terms of the media how this can be put [00:34:19 - 00:34:26] to us in a very entertaining and insightful way there was a film that was [00:34:26 - 00:34:35] made I don't know maybe seven eight years ago something I don't know maybe [00:34:35 - 00:34:39] it was more than that ten years ago called the gods must be crazy how many of [00:34:39 - 00:34:45] you saw this film I figured a lot of you and I'll give you a brief recapitulation [00:34:45 - 00:34:50] of this film because it's a wonderful teaching film basically the scenario [00:34:50 - 00:34:55] happens there's an airplane flying over Africa and two of the guys in it one of [00:34:55 - 00:35:01] his drinking Coca-Cola and he takes finishes the bottle and he throws it out [00:35:01 - 00:35:05] of the plane they're over the middle of nowhere he throws it out and it lands [00:35:05 - 00:35:14] near a Bushman hunting party as chance would have it and the Bushman then see [00:35:14 - 00:35:20] this bottle and it is the introduction of a new and novel object into the [00:35:20 - 00:35:26] culture when this object comes in first it is met with wonder and awe and the [00:35:26 - 00:35:32] multifarious uses of it are then discovered first of all you could put [00:35:32 - 00:35:38] things in it as a container that was very durable it was a wonderful container for [00:35:38 - 00:35:44] water second of all you could roll things out like a roller then you could [00:35:44 - 00:35:48] blow in it and make wonderful sounds with it then you could you know all these [00:35:48 - 00:35:52] objects were generally all these uses for the object were seen but what began [00:35:52 - 00:36:00] to happen is that everyone wanted to use it all the pronoun thing began to arise [00:36:00 - 00:36:03] as soon as this object was introduced and what began to happen in this little [00:36:03 - 00:36:09] world where there was peace and harmony was discord tremendous sense of discord [00:36:09 - 00:36:12] I want it I want to know it fights began to break out over who was going to use [00:36:12 - 00:36:21] this Coca-Cola bottle exactly this Coca-Cola had occurred so the thought [00:36:21 - 00:36:26] was and this is brilliant they the Bushman wisdom still prevail they thought [00:36:26 - 00:36:32] that God's must be crazy to have given us this object it causes havoc and in [00:36:32 - 00:36:36] this society so one of them was given the task to take this Coca-Cola [00:36:36 - 00:36:40] bottle to the edge of the world and get rid of it get this object out of here [00:36:40 - 00:36:45] we got enough objects that's essentially what they were saying okay so in a [00:36:45 - 00:36:50] microcosm in this film is this wonderful teaching about how an object a single [00:36:50 - 00:36:56] object in this case can take a very harmonically based culture and throw it [00:36:56 - 00:37:02] out the window young said speaking of our current era knowledge of the internal [00:37:02 - 00:37:08] world of the psyche was eclipsed by the external world of objects the very same [00:37:08 - 00:37:13] insight nor we got hooked on objects the more that we began to lose the kind of [00:37:13 - 00:37:21] internal world now it's interesting that in terms of the very first writing ever [00:37:21 - 00:37:26] discovered it's a favorite kind of point that come up archaeologically it's not [00:37:26 - 00:37:31] some mystical writing about Moo or Lemuria or channeling or anything like [00:37:31 - 00:37:37] that the first writing ever discovered is a Sumerian tax receipt okay it's 4500 [00:37:37 - 00:37:43] BC and it's a tax receipt because what it is saying is you have dealt with these [00:37:43 - 00:37:50] objects and we want to keep a record of them so that we can find out what the [00:37:50 - 00:37:55] trend the as it were the karmic trajectory of this object now this is [00:37:55 - 00:37:59] what begins to happen with objects record-keeping grows as an industry for [00:37:59 - 00:38:03] all you have to keep a memory for every object record-keeping grows in [00:38:03 - 00:38:08] proportion to object proliferation today the biggest interesting on the face of [00:38:08 - 00:38:12] the earth is record-keeping that's what computers do more than anything else [00:38:12 - 00:38:16] besides their creative uses they do more than anything else is inventory [00:38:16 - 00:38:20] record-keeping and they're doing it they're keeping track of objects and [00:38:20 - 00:38:26] events connected with objects these the transactions and interactions and [00:38:26 - 00:38:32] transformations of objects that's what is being kept records of so record-keeping [00:38:32 - 00:38:37] goes out of this proliferation of this object array so in a sense you see you [00:38:37 - 00:38:42] get an extended mind an unconscious extended mind is generated through this [00:38:42 - 00:38:51] generation of objects and what it begins to generate then is the idea of shall we [00:38:51 - 00:38:56] say a left brain memory now a left brain memory you see corresponds to the middle [00:38:56 - 00:39:01] phase of the dissipative cycle that is to say the abiding phase of memory [00:39:01 - 00:39:07] memory and the world that we can see and this again is the realm where if you [00:39:07 - 00:39:12] overload it memory wrongly interpreted begins to proliferate now let's take a [00:39:12 - 00:39:20] little bit a closer look at this idea of the kind of the metaphysical arising of [00:39:20 - 00:39:27] the way that we see the world the density of objects density of objects in [00:39:27 - 00:39:34] an environment creates a corresponding density of memory that you through [00:39:34 - 00:39:41] record-keeping and in turn this density of memory generates the density of time [00:39:41 - 00:39:48] temporal density is a function of memorial density and memorial density is [00:39:48 - 00:39:53] a function of object density you will notice that those cultures that have the [00:39:53 - 00:39:58] fewest objects live in the dream time you look at the Australian aborigines [00:39:58 - 00:40:03] with their minimal object array and you see that they live in a completely [00:40:03 - 00:40:09] different time frame they live in a dream time the Bushmen the same as your [00:40:09 - 00:40:17] object density memorial density temporal density occurs it sets out this extended [00:40:17 - 00:40:28] unconscious array of time time is generated and this generation of time [00:40:28 - 00:40:36] the density of time has a further aspect to it which is very interesting because [00:40:36 - 00:40:42] of the transactions and accounting for all these objects the emphasis is is [00:40:42 - 00:40:49] placed on ever on short-term memory because there are more objects and more [00:40:49 - 00:40:54] transactions and interactions therefore the short-term and where did I put this [00:40:54 - 00:40:56] and what did I do with this and what happened here because there are more [00:40:56 - 00:41:02] things your short-term memory has to be more active and your short-term memory [00:41:02 - 00:41:07] has to be more active also in terms of crisis situations whenever you have a [00:41:07 - 00:41:11] potential crisis going on which is now pretty much non-stop in the world at [00:41:11 - 00:41:19] large so the short-term memory has to keep track of everything and again the [00:41:19 - 00:41:24] short-term memory takes place in this middle phase your short-term memory has [00:41:24 - 00:41:29] to be more active also in terms of crisis situations whenever you have a [00:41:29 - 00:41:33] potential crisis going on which is now pretty much non-stop in the world at [00:41:33 - 00:41:41] large so the short-term memory has to keep track of everything and again the [00:41:41 - 00:41:46] short-term memory takes place in this middle phase of memory abiding in this [00:41:46 - 00:41:51] middle phase and this means that memory arising and then we're dissolving this [00:41:51 - 00:41:58] is right brain memory this gets left out and this means that far memory memory of [00:41:58 - 00:42:02] past lives that's where the schlitz ads comes in you only go around once in life [00:42:02 - 00:42:09] well that's smack in the abiding phase of the dissipative cycle again you see if [00:42:09 - 00:42:17] you if object proliferation short-term memory in terms of I've looked at memory [00:42:17 - 00:42:22] I've read so much material on memory for the past 10 years on the experimental [00:42:22 - 00:42:25] psychology aspects of man just to see what's in these people's minds they are [00:42:25 - 00:42:31] looking at ever a smaller and smaller increments of memory short-term memory [00:42:31 - 00:42:37] it's like really where it's at and for many people short-term memory is like a [00:42:37 - 00:42:44] paradigm in itself there's a it's like corresponding to the search for the atom [00:42:44 - 00:42:48] as the lowest common denominator in the physical world short-term memory is the [00:42:48 - 00:42:54] lowest common denominator in the memorial world you you look for this the [00:42:54 - 00:43:01] accuracy and the way that short-term memory works as a kind of hypothesis [00:43:01 - 00:43:07] that contributes to reality now I should say as a footnote to that the idea of [00:43:07 - 00:43:13] what is known in the memory trait is stml short-term memory loss which is the [00:43:13 - 00:43:19] one of the signal attributes of altered state this is one of the first thing [00:43:19 - 00:43:24] that happens to memory is short-term memory loss now many people in the [00:43:24 - 00:43:29] investigation of memory luck it's the the real traditionalists and memory [00:43:29 - 00:43:35] research luck at short-term memory loss as past a logical you lose your short [00:43:35 - 00:43:39] your mind you're losing your mind if you lose your short-term memory watch out [00:43:39 - 00:43:45] keep control stay in the abiding phase where it's safe let's accumulate some [00:43:45 - 00:43:50] stay in control it's all that kind of thing don't let go whatever you do don't [00:43:50 - 00:43:55] let go of your memory or you will just melt you'll evaporate but the real [00:43:55 - 00:44:01] secret is is that that's the ploy stay with memory because memory is control [00:44:01 - 00:44:05] the point that's how the CIA looks at it and all intelligence agencies I look at [00:44:05 - 00:44:09] memory is controlled but the fact the secret is of the perennial philosophy [00:44:09 - 00:44:17] that if you die to yourself that if you unknow learn the art of unknowing that [00:44:17 - 00:44:22] if you learn the art in in Tibetan which is called trauma which is non-memory [00:44:22 - 00:44:28] what happens then is that you do not lose your mind actually you come into [00:44:28 - 00:44:33] what Jill was talking about yesterday primordial mind or nature of mind this [00:44:33 - 00:44:39] is has no pronouns you see this has no hooks of personality to it so we [00:44:39 - 00:44:43] memory is used as a control device that's why when you take classes at [00:44:43 - 00:44:48] school you're asked to regurgitate in early school wrote mnemonic because see [00:44:48 - 00:44:52] this is a way of hooking you into control and predictability this kind of give me [00:44:52 - 00:44:56] back what I gave you now give that right back no nothing new just give that right [00:44:56 - 00:45:01] back to me this is you get the highest marks on your test for regurgitation so [00:45:01 - 00:45:07] the idea of short-term memory loss as a as a gateway it is actually a gateway [00:45:07 - 00:45:14] into a different dimension the dimension of God the dimension of the over mind of [00:45:14 - 00:45:17] the over self whatever you want to call it atman-brahma it doesn't matter it's [00:45:17 - 00:45:21] different spelling for the same phenomena the same phenomena is [00:45:21 - 00:45:26] primordial mind it really doesn't matter what you call it but if you control [00:45:26 - 00:45:30] short-term memory as a kind of a sphincter and you don't let anyone [00:45:30 - 00:45:34] through that or yourself through it you're lost in this abiding phase when [00:45:34 - 00:45:38] you go into the through the rabbit hole as it were a short-term memory through [00:45:38 - 00:45:42] short-term memory loss but you've got to go through it with awareness if you go [00:45:42 - 00:45:46] through it unconscious unconscious you're finished I mean you're you're [00:45:46 - 00:45:50] you're drunk you're stoned you can kill yourself in that form you have no [00:45:50 - 00:45:54] awareness you have no clarity but if you go through with awareness or clarity [00:45:54 - 00:46:04] that is the entrance to as I say the two phases of the dissipative cycle that [00:46:04 - 00:46:09] are neglected the arising and the dissolving aspects you begin to see the [00:46:09 - 00:46:15] entire dissipative nature of the mind now one other thing about the objects [00:46:15 - 00:46:22] here is that if you get stay on the object level you see objects fixated [00:46:22 - 00:46:27] tension they fixated tension and they generate kind of reactive automatic mind [00:46:27 - 00:46:33] that is memory wrongly interpreted so you fixate or you crystallize attention [00:46:33 - 00:46:39] through your objects this is my Mercedes and I'm going to put a I'm gonna put an [00:46:39 - 00:46:44] alarm system on it no one's going to get this and I hate people begin to build up [00:46:44 - 00:46:49] a paranoia about their valuable objects you say they become object hooked in [00:46:49 - 00:46:59] that sense one that will another aspect of this in terms of our particular time [00:46:59 - 00:47:05] is that people tend to get into hoarding this time in this age that we live these [00:47:05 - 00:47:11] 300,000 objects we have become temporal pack rats in a sense we are hoarding all [00:47:11 - 00:47:15] these objects in this sense we don't need all these objects you know all [00:47:15 - 00:47:19] these 300,000 objects we hoard them and one of the reasons that we hoard them [00:47:19 - 00:47:24] from a psychoanalytic point of view is that we think that that these will be a [00:47:24 - 00:47:30] buffer between us and death between us and extinction that if we hoard things [00:47:30 - 00:47:39] that they are a substitute for living time these objects and compulsive [00:47:39 - 00:47:44] hoarding and also a lot of people hoard when they get older actually is a [00:47:44 - 00:47:49] representative of trying to stave off death the people who are very rich often [00:47:49 - 00:47:52] accumulate tremendous arrays of things not just for pleasure but to actually [00:47:52 - 00:48:05] keep the idea of extinction at bay now if we look at objects from another point [00:48:05 - 00:48:19] of view that is to say from the one point is shall we say the participation [00:48:21 - 00:48:25] the mystical participation that is to say when there's no difference between [00:48:25 - 00:48:34] subject and object in primitive society participation mystique versus the idea [00:48:34 - 00:48:41] of the Buddhist or tantric teachings of detachment from objects and I want to go [00:48:41 - 00:48:44] into that for a moment we have a very interesting kind of what Ken Wilber [00:48:44 - 00:48:49] calls the pre-trans fallacy you begin to separate two things which look the same [00:48:49 - 00:48:55] but they're really not in the participation mystique there's a kind of [00:48:55 - 00:48:59] fusion of subject and object in the Zen tradition in the eastern kind of sense [00:48:59 - 00:49:06] you are taught to detach yourself from objects not not buying their whole seeing [00:49:06 - 00:49:11] them as they are but not becoming totally involved with them and there's a [00:49:11 - 00:49:17] subtle difference in this as Queen Nang the six patriarchs and patriarchs said [00:49:17 - 00:49:22] not to be defiled by external objects this is to be one with the unconscious [00:49:22 - 00:49:28] and that's capital U it's conscious unconscious he means that that is to be [00:49:28 - 00:49:34] detached from objects so they are present in consciousness when all [00:49:34 - 00:49:39] thoughts are discarded consciousness is cleared off from all its defilement so [00:49:39 - 00:49:43] on one hand you have this fusion of subject and object and the other one you [00:49:43 - 00:49:49] have the detachment like this not getting attached to objects okay now [00:49:49 - 00:49:52] there are some similarities between these two states and the participation [00:49:52 - 00:49:57] mystique you may not become attached but you don't consciously become detached [00:49:57 - 00:50:02] there's a subtle difference now if we go on with this a little bit it becomes [00:50:02 - 00:50:09] interesting because what young refers to is this or in the Zen tradition this [00:50:09 - 00:50:16] epistemological detachment the translation for it of we man of this [00:50:16 - 00:50:23] unconscious is the the word will me and and who means no and the end means [00:50:23 - 00:50:29] literally it has several nuances to it it means it means no memory or no habit [00:50:29 - 00:50:34] patterns it's most traditionally translated as no memory so when Ian [00:50:34 - 00:50:38] means no memory now in other words unconscious with a capital U or [00:50:38 - 00:50:44] unconscious or conscious unconscious means a state of no memory but what this [00:50:44 - 00:50:51] no memory is and it's very important is that it is a temporary suspension it is [00:50:51 - 00:50:58] not an obliteration of memory non-memory non-memory is is what long Chang Pa one [00:50:58 - 00:51:04] of the great masters of Tibetan Vajrayana thought I said the spontaneous [00:51:04 - 00:51:11] wizardry of the mind takes place out of emptiness or out of non-memory the [00:51:11 - 00:51:16] spontaneous wizardry and again the obvious by the very terms that he uses [00:51:16 - 00:51:23] akin to shamanism right there with the term wizardry non-memory is something [00:51:23 - 00:51:28] that you see a computer is very interesting a computer cannot unknow [00:51:28 - 00:51:34] this is a very important thing it cannot go into the unknowing mode it can if you [00:51:34 - 00:51:39] clear a computer's memory it's no temporary suspension you're that's it [00:51:39 - 00:51:44] the little I know about computers if you wipe the disk clean that's it you don't [00:51:44 - 00:51:50] just say okay forget this and then see what happens this is a uniquely human [00:51:50 - 00:51:58] function the ability to suspend and then see what happens now non-memory you see [00:51:58 - 00:52:05] is it teaches us the it shouldn't be cultivated for itself it should be [00:52:05 - 00:52:12] cultivated in conjunction with memory that is to say if you just because [00:52:12 - 00:52:17] you've given up them the abiding cycle and looked at the dissolve arising and [00:52:17 - 00:52:21] dissolving that's to substitute one thing for another you need the whole cycle the [00:52:21 - 00:52:25] middle phase is conservation of memory the others are the arising and [00:52:25 - 00:52:31] dissolution of memory so for memory to be its most its highest form you have to [00:52:31 - 00:52:37] have conservation and dissolution you need the dance between non-memory and [00:52:37 - 00:52:41] memory it's like saying the left brain is bad that's ridiculous the left brain [00:52:41 - 00:52:47] has a vital function it's what enables us to communicate and to exist in this [00:52:47 - 00:52:52] world in many ways and to make advances but it's where we become fixated at one [00:52:52 - 00:52:56] aspect of the dissipative cycle that amnesia sets in and then a runaway [00:52:56 - 00:53:03] system begins and we go out of control that's the dynamic of it so this [00:53:03 - 00:53:09] non-memory has to we have to learn how to look at it to oscillate it and in [00:53:09 - 00:53:15] sitting practice one of the most valuable things that I have learned in [00:53:15 - 00:53:22] from my altered states is the oscillation of memory and non-memory the [00:53:22 - 00:53:29] oscillation of attention and the release of attention and realizing and I always [00:53:29 - 00:53:34] see them and in an infinity cycle I always see them in this form like this I [00:53:34 - 00:53:38] don't know why my mind always takes it to this just this dance like this because [00:53:38 - 00:53:43] it moves to like memory and then just in it shifts the dissipative cycle and it [00:53:43 - 00:53:49] shifts and it shifts and this figure eight actually that it occurs eight is [00:53:49 - 00:53:54] it is called the lemnis gate in mathematics and eight actually is very [00:53:54 - 00:53:59] interesting this is a footnote eight is a number of Isis the goddess and eight [00:53:59 - 00:54:08] the goddess is the the great as it were the primordial mind the last thing about [00:54:08 - 00:54:14] objects that I would like to introduce now is that again objects in themselves [00:54:14 - 00:54:20] are not negative at all it is our reference to them that it is this [00:54:20 - 00:54:25] unconscious mental mass this linguistic flux and visible flux that makes them [00:54:25 - 00:54:28] what they are or aren't you see because there's a tremendous tradition in my [00:54:28 - 00:54:32] research and memory I was astonished to find I looked under the folktales [00:54:32 - 00:54:37] concerned with memory there is a tremendous array of folktales concerned [00:54:37 - 00:54:45] with magical objects that restore memory there is the magical stone the magical [00:54:45 - 00:54:50] drink the magical feather the magical flower the magical kiss the magical you [00:54:50 - 00:54:56] know footstool there are there are things which actually are encoded as [00:54:56 - 00:55:02] awakeners in the environment and this idea of awakening in the environment is [00:55:02 - 00:55:10] a very interesting one what it pertains to is the idea of the conscious [00:55:10 - 00:55:20] impregnation of the environment of mind specifically to awaken people and in [00:55:20 - 00:55:25] future states when they go by or interact with this object and to use [00:55:25 - 00:55:29] Rupert's framework this is the setting up of a morphic framework around an [00:55:29 - 00:55:33] object if you take an object and you sit with it and you meditate it and you [00:55:33 - 00:55:38] sleep with it and you dream with it and you use it in ritual it begins to absorb [00:55:38 - 00:55:43] in psychometry we see that these vibrations are absorbed every object we [00:55:43 - 00:55:46] have absorbed some of our field that's why psychometrist can take a ring or a [00:55:46 - 00:55:49] belt [00:55:49 - 00:55:55] in a very unusual way one of the ways this is done in the for example in the [00:55:55 - 00:56:03] Gurdjieff tradition is then you take a place or an object and a good thing that [00:56:03 - 00:56:08] I use in many of the classes that I've taught if you take a doorway and you say [00:56:08 - 00:56:12] to your class or those people that you're dealing with every time you pass [00:56:12 - 00:56:16] this doorway you should wake up be mindful it's like the bell going off in [00:56:16 - 00:56:20] the retreat the meditation retreat every time you pass the doorway you have a [00:56:20 - 00:56:24] microsecond of increased awareness to that you were part of this universal [00:56:24 - 00:56:28] flux and that you are not just an ego any way you want to encode it but a [00:56:28 - 00:56:33] moment of heightened awareness when you pass this object then the art becomes to [00:56:33 - 00:56:38] impregnate an environment with conscious objects and then you as you begin to [00:56:38 - 00:56:44] impregnate your environment you begin to set up an extended mind field in the [00:56:44 - 00:56:48] environment which you react with when you go out into it and this is why for [00:56:48 - 00:56:52] the American Indian and the Dallas and all the other aboriginal peoples that [00:56:52 - 00:56:56] their environment was a conscious environment that Gaia was alive and that [00:56:56 - 00:57:01] when you went out you didn't just see you remembered that's what the dream [00:57:01 - 00:57:06] time was about all these ancestors the rainbow serpents and and the the great [00:57:06 - 00:57:10] whales and all the totemic beings you you were reminded that you were part of [00:57:10 - 00:57:17] this dream time of Gaia of this living entity anyhow let's stop here I've got [00:57:17 - 00:57:21] another subject let's break for about you know ten minutes but don't wander [00:57:21 - 00:57:26] too far because I want to keep the rhythm and we'll continue part two [00:57:26 - 00:57:38] meanwhile back at the source I want to go on to a another subject a very [00:57:38 - 00:57:46] valuable one that we should look at and that is one of the counters to the state [00:57:46 - 00:57:51] of kind of waking sleep or this runaway system this memory wrongly interpreted [00:57:51 - 00:57:56] one of the principal counters to it is to develop something called cross-state [00:57:56 - 00:58:01] retention cross-state retention I've talked about this before but I've done a [00:58:01 - 00:58:06] lot of thinking about it kind of since that time now cross-state retention or [00:58:06 - 00:58:15] CSR is based on the idea that most of the time when we are in an altered state [00:58:15 - 00:58:22] whether it's psychomemetic Lee induced or dream or emotional when we go back to [00:58:22 - 00:58:28] an ordinary state we don't remember there's a veil of forgetting between [00:58:28 - 00:58:33] going from state to state this is Rowan Fisher calls it state bound experience [00:58:33 - 00:58:40] in classical memory parlance it's called state specific memory that is to say if [00:58:40 - 00:58:46] you're one of the classic things for example and in Sufi story is that Nasruddin [00:58:46 - 00:58:51] he loses his key and while he's drunk wakes up the next morning can't find it [00:58:51 - 00:58:55] and he says what am I gonna do and he says well I'll get drunk again and he [00:58:55 - 00:58:59] stumbles off into the bushes again and finds the key because he's in the same [00:58:59 - 00:59:06] state this is just a an example by parable of the way that it works now [00:59:06 - 00:59:12] again in the dissipative cycle the abiding section the center one there's [00:59:12 - 00:59:18] the arising abiding and dissolving in the abiding cycle that's where state [00:59:18 - 00:59:22] specific memory in current research is focused in this area right here you [00:59:22 - 00:59:26] don't cross date you don't look at the transition between arising and abiding [00:59:26 - 00:59:31] and between abiding and dissolving and between dissolving and arising you don't [00:59:31 - 00:59:35] look at the transition you see in contemporary memory research you only [00:59:35 - 00:59:39] look at this abiding phase and some psychoanalytical history of early [00:59:39 - 00:59:45] childhood now cross state retention is most of us know when we have when we [00:59:45 - 00:59:50] have dreams unless it is an exceptionally vivid dream when we wake up [00:59:50 - 00:59:55] we know that we have dreamed but the dream disappears like the bubbles of a [00:59:55 - 00:59:59] wave going out after they just go pop pop pop and it dissolves because it's [00:59:59 - 01:00:06] like a different dimension there are the yogas of dream recall taught in the [01:00:06 - 01:00:11] Tibetan tradition there are yogas taught in African systems of shamanism that I [01:00:11 - 01:00:19] know of for dream recall there are many aspects of cross-state retention taught [01:00:19 - 01:00:24] in many different esoteric traditions in fact I would say that cross-state [01:00:24 - 01:00:34] retention is the essence of all shamanic and esoteric ways of thinking at heart [01:00:34 - 01:00:40] for example Eliade teaches that the shaman is the man who goes into the [01:00:40 - 01:00:44] other realms or the woman who goes into other realms but he is able to bring it [01:00:44 - 01:00:48] back you see this is what differentiates him from other beings he's able to bring [01:00:48 - 01:00:52] it back many people have altered state experiences and they're wow and next [01:00:52 - 01:00:56] morning while we I really can't elaborate on quite what happened but I [01:00:56 - 01:01:00] know it was fantastic it's what we call the limbic system flash you know that it [01:01:00 - 01:01:06] happened and you have it you have a rush but you can't elaborate it now the idea [01:01:06 - 01:01:10] of cross-state retention first of all is never taught to us in school I want to [01:01:10 - 01:01:15] bring this to a basic everyday life we're never taught any idea of cross-state [01:01:15 - 01:01:19] retention you're taught state-specific regurgitated memory you will not thought [01:01:19 - 01:01:22] the idea of remembering from what you're not even taught that you got other [01:01:22 - 01:01:30] states let alone remembering between them now the idea of this kind of [01:01:30 - 01:01:40] shamanic sense can be taught in many different ways it can be taught in for [01:01:40 - 01:01:48] example the idea of what is called holy reversal is one way in which cross-state [01:01:48 - 01:01:56] retention is is taught for example in the peyote ceremonies when the pre-chal's go [01:01:56 - 01:02:01] to the highland though as the parents were a kuta when it when they go there's [01:02:01 - 01:02:07] a certain point in distance where the everything must be reversed in terms of [01:02:07 - 01:02:11] language and act and symbol if you are right-handed you do everything with the [01:02:11 - 01:02:16] left hand if you if this is your friend you refer to him as your enemy if you're [01:02:16 - 01:02:19] walking along and it's a beautiful sunny day you'll say gee isn't the moon lovely [01:02:19 - 01:02:25] tonight the the reversals are a way of jarring the attention from fixated [01:02:25 - 01:02:32] patterns and this inculcates an unusual quality to the attention so that it is [01:02:32 - 01:02:37] remembered differently because of the reversal so this quality of reversal is [01:02:37 - 01:02:42] done in in many different traditions throughout the world that's just one in [01:02:42 - 01:02:49] particular in fact I mean I recall one that Rupert told me about once and that [01:02:49 - 01:02:54] is the tradition of holy in India isn't there reversal between master and [01:02:54 - 01:03:01] servant that's rather interesting and I think this probably arose not from just [01:03:01 - 01:03:07] kind of sense of some sense of equality but from some sense of awakening the [01:03:07 - 01:03:16] name itself might have something to do with that now if we look at another [01:03:16 - 01:03:23] aspect of this cross cross state retention to an offer to operate it fully [01:03:23 - 01:03:27] it requires a notion of the entire dissipative cycle how things arise how [01:03:27 - 01:03:32] they abide and how they disappear and and and the knowledge also that there is [01:03:32 - 01:03:38] always no matter what phase you're in that apparently that there that primordial [01:03:38 - 01:03:42] mind is there no matter what phase is showing its face whether it's the [01:03:42 - 01:03:49] abiding phase or the dissolving or the arising the primordial sense is always [01:03:49 - 01:03:56] there and if you have that sense the idea of cross-state retention is vastly made [01:03:56 - 01:04:00] much more easy but in turn but in practical terms really let's get you [01:04:00 - 01:04:04] know non theoretical from a practical terms the best way for cross-state [01:04:04 - 01:04:09] retention to work is the following you see attention in the modern world [01:04:09 - 01:04:13] because of all the objects that we've got in it attention slides across the [01:04:13 - 01:04:18] surface of the mind of objects is this slide we never go in deep it slides [01:04:18 - 01:04:25] across the surface of the world now how do we counter that well for one of the [01:04:25 - 01:04:29] ways in the traditional schools like in the Gurdjieff tradition that is done [01:04:29 - 01:04:32] there's a tradition called self remembering and self remembering [01:04:32 - 01:04:38] literally means that you just like in mindfulness you take a moment any moment [01:04:38 - 01:04:45] you take this moment for example and you make it special by investing it with an [01:04:45 - 01:04:51] inordinate amount of intention and you see that just in a footnote to this [01:04:51 - 01:04:58] explanation the sequence goes intention attention retention if your intention if [01:04:58 - 01:05:02] your will is clear that you want to remember you will pay attention and [01:05:02 - 01:05:06] therefore your retention will be clear intention attention retention that's how [01:05:06 - 01:05:13] it works now if you want to raise consciousness by this cross-state [01:05:13 - 01:05:19] retention manner you take a moment and it can be any moment and you encode your [01:05:19 - 01:05:24] all of your five senses response to that moment in other words you take one [01:05:24 - 01:05:29] minute like right now you take a minute and first of all you look around you and [01:05:29 - 01:05:33] you don't try to encode everything this is something I've learned you look at a [01:05:33 - 01:05:38] number of key objects three four or five the mind can only chunk five plus or [01:05:38 - 01:05:44] seven plus or minus two objects at a time so don't try to chunk say more than [01:05:44 - 01:05:48] five to nine objects you look around say at people if you see what they're wearing [01:05:48 - 01:05:53] just generally then you look at your what you're sitting on and you feel it [01:05:53 - 01:05:59] and you see what is this texture feeling like so and then you do your smell like [01:05:59 - 01:06:07] I can smell tiger lily over here and then you can look into the sense of taste [01:06:07 - 01:06:10] what kind of taste in your mouth perhaps from breakfast or the coffee that you [01:06:10 - 01:06:15] you're just drinking or whatever it is and what hit what you stop for a moment [01:06:15 - 01:06:21] and you hear hear the flies you hear the birds you hear the sound between you [01:06:21 - 01:06:28] encode that and you begin to multi sensory in code over a one-minute period [01:06:28 - 01:06:33] and the way that it works in the phone you begin to encode all of those things [01:06:33 - 01:06:40] and the way that it works is the more things that you can encode a memory in [01:06:40 - 01:06:45] sensorially the easier it will be to recall the entire memory that's really [01:06:45 - 01:06:51] it in a nutshell so if you're able to have in these five sensory modes it's [01:06:51 - 01:06:55] very different than if you only if you just saw someone you only have a visual [01:06:55 - 01:06:59] sensory mode to recall from but you see the senses reinforce each other and if [01:06:59 - 01:07:03] you can reinforce them by your attention you're set now after the ten years I've [01:07:03 - 01:07:07] been working on my memory thesis I can put it down to a nutshell what it's all [01:07:07 - 01:07:11] about memory is a function of attention that's it it's the whole thing it's the [01:07:11 - 01:07:16] name of the game if you don't pay attention you don't remember that's [01:07:16 - 01:07:20] simple that's simple and of course if you don't have an intention you don't [01:07:20 - 01:07:25] have an attention so it's that intention attention retention is it is the memorial [01:07:25 - 01:07:31] cycle so what we do is we take that minute and you have to know how to [01:07:31 - 01:07:37] trigger yourself in that moment I usually when I give classes or something [01:07:37 - 01:07:45] do it in a way which is do you want to [01:07:45 - 01:07:56] say something okay the this sense of encoding is done by like a theme for [01:07:56 - 01:08:01] example the theme of water is given I'll say to a class we're gonna meet next [01:08:01 - 01:08:08] Thursday but next Tuesday I would like you or anytime before that any any time [01:08:08 - 01:08:12] that you see water in any form be it rain or washing up liquid or flushing [01:08:12 - 01:08:16] the toilet or taking a bath anytime you see water I wanted to remind you to take [01:08:16 - 01:08:22] a moment one moment and stretch it out and do that multi-sensory sensing and [01:08:22 - 01:08:26] then I'm gonna ask you all to tell your story of that moment I have them all [01:08:26 - 01:08:30] tell stories and of all these moments and you get these and see what I'm about [01:08:30 - 01:08:35] is slices of life every moment is special but it's only special because of [01:08:35 - 01:08:40] the attention invested in it and I've had them I mean these housewives that I [01:08:40 - 01:08:43] doubt adult education in England for a while these housewives and said well I [01:08:43 - 01:08:46] was washing the dishes and I remembered the water and I looked at and there was [01:08:46 - 01:08:50] the full moon and she just got excited and you know and then my husband came [01:08:50 - 01:08:54] home and the dog barked and you know and just think this little old moment became [01:08:54 - 01:08:59] special and many people did this we did this with all kinds of things all I'm [01:08:59 - 01:09:03] saying is that this costary tension is developed by multi-sensorial attention [01:09:03 - 01:09:08] within say a minute's framework and you have to be able to trigger yourself the [01:09:08 - 01:09:13] point is we're too lazy we walk through the world and we go like this but we [01:09:13 - 01:09:18] never just go like that that is to say you're walking by a beautiful flower I [01:09:18 - 01:09:21] mean I do this all the time and all of a sudden it catches my attention and I'll [01:09:21 - 01:09:25] sit with it I'll smell it and I'll see the ground that is coming out I'll hear [01:09:25 - 01:09:29] the ball let that be a cue anything can be a cue for you and you go into that [01:09:29 - 01:09:37] mode now one of the other things about cross-state retention that I'd like to [01:09:37 - 01:09:46] say and this really relates to the theme of the extended mind is the idea first [01:09:46 - 01:09:51] of all the idea of cross-state involves extension right in itself right to begin [01:09:51 - 01:09:59] with the idea there are two types of cross-state retention that I'd like to [01:09:59 - 01:10:07] look at and one of them is it's purely associative like this like like this [01:10:07 - 01:10:11] idea reminds me of this idea reminds me of this idea and it's this kind of glass [01:10:11 - 01:10:18] bead game type of thinking okay and that is one type of cross-state retention goes [01:10:18 - 01:10:24] autocatalytic after all it begins to breed more and more insights and it's [01:10:24 - 01:10:29] it's like the opposite of memory wrongly interpreted it's like memory rightly [01:10:29 - 01:10:35] interpreted when it goes cross-state now the other aspect of it is a Greek term [01:10:35 - 01:10:42] called an omnisis a and a M me S is an omnisis or and anyway you want to [01:10:42 - 01:10:48] pronounce it but anyhow what it an omnisis has again two meanings to it in [01:10:48 - 01:10:52] the classical Greek sense it means to be able to remember your karmic trajectory [01:10:52 - 01:10:57] as it were your past lives back like Pythagoras could remember when he was a [01:10:57 - 01:11:01] butcher and a candlestick maker and a this and a that he Pythagoras was known [01:11:01 - 01:11:05] for his ability to trace his karmic trajectory back and this is the idea of [01:11:05 - 01:11:10] an omnisis it is used today in psychoanalysis when talking about the [01:11:10 - 01:11:14] patient's past history they talked about a patient's kind of psychoanalytic [01:11:14 - 01:11:20] an omnisis tell me about your early childhood that type of thing but you see [01:11:20 - 01:11:25] at a certain point an omnisis just going back with I was a dishwasher and I was a [01:11:25 - 01:11:31] princess and I was a channel or whatever an ice skater this goes back and back [01:11:31 - 01:11:35] and back and it after a while see but his first realization his as it was [01:11:35 - 01:11:40] pari-nirvana beneath a bow tree what when he became enlightened it began when [01:11:40 - 01:11:45] he started going back in this karmic trajectory he went back 500 lives and he [01:11:45 - 01:11:48] was a this and a king and a queen and a this and a this and he was cruel and he [01:11:48 - 01:11:52] was happy and he was delightful and he was sad but what he saw and his great [01:11:52 - 01:11:57] genius was not the fact that he could go back life to life to life to life to [01:11:57 - 01:12:03] life as it were what he saw is that every one of these lives was in a sense [01:12:03 - 01:12:09] an illusory pearl on the necklace of primordial mind that is every one of [01:12:09 - 01:12:14] these lives although appearing separate