Life in the Labyrinth
by E.J. Gold
BK017
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Life in the Labyrinth
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La vida en el laberinto
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This second book in the The Labyrinth Trilogy is the classic work on new-shamanism. E.J. Gold penetrates the secrets of traditional esoteric practice, particularly alchemy and shamanism, and presents techniques for expanded perception and attention that work in everyday contemporary life.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Unknowingly we voyage in a labyrinth, a macrodimensional maze of living electrical force, cloaked by a thick layer of ordinary life. Our most serious obstacle is the uncontrollable urge to convert everything to the familiar, to reduce it all to the level of the primate brain; to reject the living, breathing reality of the totality of all possible attention.
2. MAZE BRIGHTNESS
When we awaken a higher learning process, we no longer exhibit confusion and disorientation in the macrodimensions. Through special internal processes which we can learn, we are able to penetrate far beyond the ordinary spectrum, into the macrodimensions, resembling consensus reality in form, but radically different in other ways, perceivable only with long, difficult training of the non-machine attention.
3. THE ULTIMATE PUZZLE
The labyrinth, as could any maze, has puzzle-like characteristics; obeying the rules of puzzle-solving should, if the laws of the maze are understood and the signs are read correctly, enable us to voyage consciously as well as remembering previous passages and having a connected overview which takes into account everything we have ever learned in the maze.
4. THE KEYS TO ELEGANT VOYAGING
The keys to elegant labyrinth voyaging are generally those little, nagging, insignificant items which we would ordinarily dismiss as inconsequential; one such key is the rudder with which we steer ourselves through the labyrinth.
5. NEURAL NETWORK PROJECTIONS
Our knowledge of the environmental world is entirely dependent upon synaptic processing of organic perceptions which come to us at the speed of light; still, this is not fast enough to be in the present; bypassing these organically bound perceptions can provide us with the possibility of direct unfiltered views of the real world, unencumbered by the brain and its significances.
6. THE ILLUSION OF TIME
As we upscale into the macrodimensions, we soon discover that what really prevents us from living macrodimensional life in the timeless, eternal state is our extreme psychological dependence upon the ordinary flow of time as measured by clocks; it is hard to accept time as a function of space and not a linear flow through events.
7. THE MYSTIC VISION
The veil is not in the mind, but in the heart. Only the heart will lift the veil. When this happens, when we have softened and ripened, we will find ourselves to be at the very heart of the labyrinth, for which we have longed all our lives.
8. LIGHTNING HANDLERS ALWAYS CRACKLE
We work to develop what remains after personal annihilation, because only that is truly able to work. To understand love is to dissolve the self and the subjective mysteries of appearances into it.
9. THE ART AND SCIENCE OF INVOCATION
All macrodimensional invocation is focused on the activation of corresponding resonators between chambers until they vibrate in sympathetic unison. We also have the ability as a being to self-invoke, to expand our morphology into a space where we are not.
10. DATA RETRIEVAL IN THE HIGHER DIMENSIONS
Shamanism was first developed thousands of years ago to satisfy macrodimensional needs, something rejected because it is not focused on common primate goals, subject only to higher laws beyond the reach or ken of the human world.
11. SHAPESHIFTING UP THE TOTEM
Voyaging back and forth between the human and other dimensions, using powerful mental and emotional equations to produce a tangible construct, a totemic ladder, a dimensional elevator, the voyager shapeshifts through the totemic morphologies up, down or both at once.
12. ENCOUNTER WITH THE SIMURGH . A SCHOOL EXPERIMENT
In the course of several centuries, it is only rarely that a large group of individuals may be able to openly organize penetrations into macrodimensions and explorations of sectors of the labyrinth ordinarily inaccessible to individuals or small groups.
13. THE INITIATION OF THE ABSOLUTE
The Absolute is fragmented into an infinite number of parts which take the shape of a multi-dimensional labyrinth. The Absolute in the form of the Creation is the labyrinth through which we are voyaging. The Great Work is an attempt to bring the corpse of Creation to the most profound state of livingness.
14. THE LABYRINTH VOYAGER.S QUATRAIN
All phenomena is illusion.
Neither attracted nor repelled,
Not making any sudden moves.
My habits will carry me through.
15. GOING MACRODIMENSIONAL
Often when we think that we are at our best, we are at our worst, and when we believe we're at our worst, we are at our best, bat we can be assured that if we are in the macrodimensions with presence and attention, always and automatically our functioning in the Work chamber conforms to law; we cannot help but be correct.
16. LIFE IN THE LABYRINTH
We work to overcome our fears of seeing the horror of the situation and to achieve the Heart of the Labyrinth where we are able to perform a special kind of work, view the Creation as a whole, and put life into it, if only momentarily.
17. BRINGING CREATION TO LIFE
The effort to bring Creation to life is never-ending. At first distant, the actual possibility of performing this task will be achieved again and again during our work in the labyrinth. This talk is a reconstruction of a successful group voyage.
EPILOGUE: THE POWER OF ATTENTION
Having made several attempts at penetrating the labyrinth, we will return to our starting point, asking ourselves what the shamanic voyager's secret is. The answer is simple . everything depends upon attention. It is a tool which we all possess; the rest is up to us.
AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD
APPENDIX I: MACRODIMENSIONS: A MATHEMATICAL MODEL -- by David Christie
APPENDIX II: MACRODMENSIONS: A PHYSICAL PERSPECTIVE -- by Dr. Claude Needham
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD -- A SERIOUS WARNING TO THE READER
Should we put references in the text to see appendix? If this were a university text, I might consider it; a course of abstract study and abstract interest... but this book is for serious voyagers, those who rea11y do intend to use these ideas, who aren't going to read a paragraph or two, nod thoughtfully, wander off to some coffeehouse and tear it apart along with Kant and Hegel for a few hours, then wander back home in time for the late night movie.
Further, I don't consider it my responsibility to rectify the failures of whatever education system you might have had the misfortune to endure in your forrnative years as a young, upcoming primate.
Having spent two miserable semesters teaching remedia1 third grade elementary leve1 English to adult university students who should have been exploring the mysteries of Beowulf in the origina1 text, singing the Song of Roland, softly chanting the Canterbury Tales, arguing first folio and second quarto alterations in Hamlet and following the intricacies of Philip Jose Farmer, Ezra Pound and Dorothy Parker, I feel that I've more than paid my debt to society, and you're welcome to it.
I am by laws much higher than any primate law, constrained to introduce these ideas to those who come to me in genuine necessity, but nothing in the rule-book says it has to be spoon-fed in monosyllabic, monocultura1 and mono-fonous truck-driver language... so it isn't.
In studying these ideas as presented here, you would be wise to be armed with a dictionary and a healthy education, although nothing in this material is beyond second-year college level English, and the few literary, mythological and philosophical referents – which were intentionally kept to a minimum except where necessary to the sense, germane to the concept or alexipharmic to the destruction of an elegant pun – are well within the grasp of the average high school graduate. If they aren't, perhaps you ought to consider returning to the high school from whence you came, and registering a complaint or enrolling in a night course, whichever seems most a propos... that's borrowed French for copacetic.
Admittedly, this text is a formidable prospect for those with an unsure grasp of the English language, for who the idea of a athalete with a perculator whose on his way irregardless to a realitor because he want's to avoid nucular conflict is a whole nother thing.
If you found the previous paragraph disturbing, this book is probably for you; if it looked a11 right, maybe you should consider curling up with a good Harlequin novel... if one can be found.
Briefing Notes:
Main Themes:
Shamanism as a Science and Art: The text posits shamanism as a formal system for navigating and interacting with macrodimensions - realms beyond ordinary human perception.
Macrodimensional Voyaging: Detailed exploration of techniques and concepts related to traversing these higher dimensions, including:
Invocation: Techniques for aligning oneself with specific macrodimensional chambers through focused attention, morphological shapeshifting (assuming the form of macrodimensional entities), and resonant activation.
Shapeshifting: Altering one's morphology (shape and form) to match the topological configurations of macrodimensional entities and chambers to gain access and presence.
Attention as a Tool: Emphasis on cultivating and directing attention, exceeding ordinary human capacity, as the primary means of navigation and interaction within macrodimensions.
The Nature of Reality: The text challenges the common perception of reality, suggesting it's a function of the active neural network and limited by our current dimensional perspective. Time is presented as a spatial dimension perceived differently from higher dimensional levels.
The Absolute: Exploration of the concept of the Absolute, a force described as undifferentiated void, the source of creation, and existing in a complex relationship with its creation.
Most Important Ideas/Facts:
Chambers and Dimensions: Macrodimensions are structured as chambers, each with unique qualities, moods, and inhabitants. Access is gained through specific techniques like invocation and shapeshifting.
The Illusion of Time: Time is not a linear flow but a function of space, experienced differently from higher dimensional perspectives. The text introduces the concept of the "eternalized moment," achieved through accelerated information processing.
The Role of the Shaman: Shamen act as intermediaries between ordinary reality and the macrodimensions. They possess the potential to perform higher dimensional functions and influence the creation through specific practices and disciplines.
The Importance of Morphology: The ability to alter one's morphology is crucial for navigating macrodimensions. By assuming corresponding forms, shamen can access and interact with specific chambers and entities.
The Power of Attention: The cultivation and direction of attention is paramount for macrodimensional voyaging. By exceeding ordinary human capacity for attention, shamen can perceive and interact with higher realms.
Love as a Force: Love is presented as a potent force, akin to electricity, that can be shaped, channeled, and used by skilled shamen for various purposes, including accessing higher dimensions.
Key Quotes:
On the nature of reality: "Reality as we ordinarily perceive it is determined by only that part of the neural networking which happens to be momentarily active"
On time: "If we correctly perceive time as a function of space, completely contained in the present dimensional level and perceivable as a spatial dimension in the next higher dimensional level, we will see each existing as a total Ding-an-sich"
On the Absolute: "The Absolute has presence and attention, but not existence, a state quite apart from anything knowable to the human primate consciousness"
On invocation: "All macrodimensional invocation is focused on the activation of corresponding resonators between chambers until they vibrate in sympathetic unison."
On shapeshifting: "Virtually any chamber can become accessible by using the technique of morphological shapeshifting corresponding to the topological configuration of one or another macrodimensional inhabitant."
On love as a force: "If we understand the mechanics of fluidics, or the dynamic principles behind the flow of electrical force-how electricity is shunted, controlled and used to modulate itself-then we may be able to visualize how a shaman works with the force of love."
Overall Impression:
The text presents a complex and challenging framework for understanding shamanism and its role in accessing and interacting with realms beyond ordinary perception. It emphasizes the need for rigorous training, mental discipline, and a willingness to challenge conventional notions of reality. The author's writing style is dense and highly metaphorical, demanding a high level of reader engagement and interpretation.