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I spend more time goofing off on the internet than I do actually *doing* things, particularly things that would help me out of the situation I'm stuck in. The internet, more often than not, feels like an escape, a method of avoiding harsh reality, a tool for the hungry ghosts to keep me from leaving the chapel.
I'd say more, but I just thought of something to go Google...
I'd say more, but I just thought of something to go Google...
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 1:15 PMah yes...the dry embrace of the world wide web...
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 1:18 PMI've memorized the hymns, and have my own well crafted ass-groove in a pew. A pew made of wood. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 1:39 PMMy pew has a built-in tuckaway toilet. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 7:28 PMNice! Too much investment for me. I go with Depends. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Thu, December 28, 2006 - 8:11 PMhonestly though..I learned a lot from my Tribe experiences. and more to come. .... -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 4:12 AMAgreed Bell - and it has tremendous benefits - the online library, and community.
But if we spend all our time reading and learning, and never applying, and *actually* learning, we may as well plug in to the matrix anyways.
Information only helps so much before it becomes yet another addiction. One that people have *very* little difficulty justifying, much less perceiving.
At least, such has my experience shown me... -
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 7:38 AMa virtual life is no substitute for the real thing -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 7:47 AMMaenad... that's an interesting thought and I'd like to rephrase it in a slightly different way as a question: Is media a "real" part of our life? -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 9:20 AMre: "Is media a "real" part of our life?"
excellent question.
for me, the creation of media is more real than the passive absorbtion of media (one reason i make films). -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 10:11 AMI think media is a real part of our life, which is what gives it the insidious power to disconnect us from our direct awareness of that life. I would certainly distinguish the creation of media from media itself. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 10:25 AMits funny that the internet forces us to confront these questions where as other forms of communication did not.
i think its because of the "real time" factor, plus the ability to "create" yourself, plus the relative closeness we can actually achieve via forums and pictures and you tube links.
i know for me, when i'm feeling a bit agoraphobic and having trouble relating in the 3d world, my internet relations fill a lonely space and allows me to connect without the threat of having to take care of each of you whole people in your weightiness, and knowing that i can always get up, walk away, make more coffee, take a long shower, space out on the football game, and none of you will really mind at all. you'll be there when i get back.
and i am addicted to the idea exchange on that level.
so its just another form of communication, no less "real" than any other, still actual people, conveying some part of themselves, still connecting..... this idea of the virtual being unreal annoys me. it is not unreal. it just IS what it IS, no more no less.
as for chapeling online?
sometimes it helps me work it out for use offline
sometimes it manifests 3d meetings with all the physical sensations included
sometimes i just need it all to be a cerebral cocoon; a place of pure dream
the internet is a wonderful chapel indeed. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 12:06 PMfor millions of people home computer screens act just like altars. what transpires before the screen is nothing less than a kind of quasi-religious ritual communion with nonlocal deities of virtuality.
this religious act (and any act becomes a religious ritual when it's done religiously) substantiates from the virtual to the real as more consciousness is projected out of body and out to the nether regions of cyberspace. at this point any previous distinction held between the virtual and the real is blended and eventually vanquished.
this confused state of "virtual mind" is like putty in the hands of genius advertising agencies producing and selling virtual content for the virtual consumer. from virtual property you can buy and own to virtual likenesses of yourself (or your more glamorous alter ego) to go on virtual vacations and adventures with other virtual buddies and lovers, the future of VR commercial technology is now.
warning: imagination death precedes loss of soul. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 12:26 PMand this is why you are a quirky filmmaker dude! :)
i just wish those damned virtual vacations were as restorative as the real ones.
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 12:36 PM"this confused state of "virtual mind" is like putty in the hands of genius advertising agencies producing and selling virtual content for the virtual consumer. from virtual property you can buy and own to virtual likenesses of yourself (or your more glamorous alter ego) to go on virtual vacations and adventures with other virtual buddies and lovers, the future of VR commercial technology is now. "
I agree... Now, do you think that the online audience is any more or less confused/distracted/puttified than the television viewing audience, or the book reading audience, or the sports audience, or... ? -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 12:49 PMbeing a member of all groups mentioned, i would say none are less whatever you said....
it all depends on content and the determination of the individual absorbing it.
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 1:16 PM*Now, do you think that the online audience is any more or less confused/distracted/puttified than the television viewing audience, or the book reading audience, or the sports audience, or... ? *
To the extent that they are consumers of those media, no. It is the consumption aspect that renders us passive dummies. Consuming as opposed to creating.
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 5:29 PMre: "Now, do you think that the online audience is any more or less confused/distracted/puttified than the television viewing audience, or the book reading audience, or the sports audience, or... ?"
Most definitely audiences and audience experience differs depending on content quality and levels of interaction of whatever is being audited. I can watch one bad film and feel as if two hours of my life were taken awayfrom me and wasted, and watch a great film and feel as if those two hours made my life on earth better than it was before.
The degree of psychic corruption (confused/distracted/puttified) may have more to do with the degree of emotional engagement ais chieved, or not achieved, in the experience. All the better if media content elicits multiple levels of engagement and not just the visual cortex alone. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 5:55 PMThe degree of psychic corruption (confused/distracted/puttified) may have more to do with the degree of emotional engagement achieved, or not achieved, in the experience.
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thanx, well stated :)
love all-ways,
mem -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 5:57 PMps.
6) dance ~ two steps forward, one step back & twist
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 1:45 PMSherpa;
["warning: imagination death precedes loss of soul."]
For myself and others I have known the 'E-ticket' in to the Chapel at times has been very much that imagination death or what I now refer to as a Crisis of Imagination. The crisis really occurs when I or whomever cannot *imagine* things, events, people, relationships....different than they appear, or act. Or for me worse yet, I cannot *imagine* myself any different than {fill in the blank}. Also I ask "what am I devoted to" and where do I send devotional energy? If I am devoted to --------- then what has not recieved my attention?
Your post raises more questions for me and that is the creative process here blended with the consumer of this medium. So this post begs the question you did early on in CP. How do we call back our Soul? How do we wash off the Chapel flotsam and de-breed the Soul wounds to go back out into the light? My brain hurts : ) so good. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 5:44 PMre; "How do we call back our Soul? How do we wash off the Chapel flotsam and de-breed the Soul wounds to go back out into the light?"
No easy task.
It may be enough to begin by registering soul loss and/or imaginationn death and from there to examine their inextricable links. Much of the malady of depersonalization (soul loss), as I mentioned elsewhere, results from simply breathing too deeply the air of the times we are in. One especially toxic particle can be found in the hyper-active literalist meme.
As a whole, our thinking suffers from over-literalization that tends to trivialize the incumbent mysteries of being humang. We need to develop poetics and other linguistic models for addressing life's more ineffable impressions which, for me, express the vaster portions of human experience.
with that said:
1) use your imagination, not your intellect, to solve problems
2) take up singing (some can sing their soul back)
3) stop making sense of everything (or stop trying to)
4) bag your fixation with clarity
5) find a way to feel your body deeply -
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 6:26 PMRe: 1-5,
what this feels like and sounds like is something i am trying to return to; grounding and letting go. Sounds like a dichotomy or paradox, but for me both have to happen to make it click. I agree whether the zietgiest or the volksgiest, if i suck it in too deeply- i risk becoming .....(not the look I'm going for). Also, in your wisdom shared here, i hear the message --- !get outta yer head and back into the body! The singing - well, i can; but pity the poor souls within earshot. or as my Nazarene grandmother told me when i was young - 'just make a joyful noise'. I can also see the inside out, of it all too there is no real clarity and there is no real sense of everything. there just IS.
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 6:42 PM>>>stop making sense of everything (or stop trying to)<<<<
Thanks Sherpa!
another great Synchronicity!...Stop Making Sense...Talking Heads...Once In a Lifetime..a perfect Chapel song..IMO :)
www.youtube.com/watch -
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Unsu...
Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 6:54 PMthank you!! been awhile since seeing david byrne in action. If he doesn't have some frequent flyer miles to the chapel and back i don't know who would. but it ties well into Sherpa's post. the singing, the kinesthetics, all more than the head and more than the sum of the parts. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Sat, December 30, 2006 - 5:00 PMthere is no better teacher than life. no doubt.
the internet still has its purpose, we wouldn't be here if it didn't.
"quit making sense of everything (or trying to)"
I need to write that down and tape it up someplace.
I do this way too much-- until sacred and personal experiences become lost behind thoughts and rationalizations of them.
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Sun, December 31, 2006 - 4:56 AMThe sense thing applies here too.
But much *much* better than trying to make cents!
Not quite as good as making jokes, of everything...
Heh heh heh *scampers off*
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, December 27, 2006 - 3:12 PMBrothers and/or sisters, let us click together. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Fri, December 29, 2006 - 3:27 PMOne of us, one of us, one of us...
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Mon, October 26, 2009 - 4:04 PMHope it's ok to bring back this old thread...but I can certainly relate to the original post.
Apparently 'googling' or seeking new information stimulates the production of dopamine in our systems, which makes it hard to resist this kind of compulsive seeking even though we might know we already have more information than we need or can make use of.
www.slate.com/default.aspx
I can't say I really understand the process of soul loss or retrieval (and btw what is 'soul'?) but I do feel that I might project too much of my time and energy into my computer and online personas and feel kind of fragmented as a result, like I'm not quite fully present here or there... I'm thinking in order to find wholeness I need to quit altogether, and reclaim my time and my focus, somehow I need to do something wholeheartedly or not at all. The idea of 'escaping back into reality' makes sense to me.
I've definetly learned a lot from the internet, and feel lucky to have found peer groups here but I'm reminded of a quote from Alan Watts about psychedelic use - 'once you've got the message, hang up the phone'. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Mon, October 26, 2009 - 5:48 PM""Apparently 'googling' or seeking new information stimulates the production of dopamine in our systems, which makes it hard to resist this kind of compulsive seeking even though we might know we already have more information than we need or can make use of. ""
To me, surfing the net and absorbing reams of interesting but useless data amounts to a soul suck. I only go online when I have excess energy to drain. Otherwise, it's just another hungry ghost high. I need more physically active outlets to stimulate the production of dopamine, enorphins and seratonin -- my neuro-cocktall of choice. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Tue, October 27, 2009 - 2:00 AMI'm thinking seratonin or endorphins might also be released from emotional responses online, I guess it's a case of finding ways of getting these highs in ways that give maximum benefit to one's whole being, or in ways that help one achieve goals. I think wasting time really amounts to the same thing as wasting energy and I definetly want to avoid that sinking feeling of knowing i've just wasted another hour of my life achieving nothing on the internet. I want to have the freedom to be able to make conscious choices about how to feel good, rather than compulsively and unconsciously following addictions.
It seems a shame in a way to reduce things to simple chemical reactions but I'm finding it helpful to do so. I have noticed that sometimes when out walking I feel like breaking out into a jog and it feels great and definetely energizing - physical exercise is well known to be one of the most effective ways of releasing seratonin and also benefits the body. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Tue, October 27, 2009 - 4:10 AMChop up that seratonin and hotrail it
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Tue, October 27, 2009 - 11:25 AMI went to a talk by Robert Svoboda, writer of the intensely fascinating Aghora novels, here in Melbourne a few months ago, and he spent a bit of time talking about the embodied/disembodied, substantiation/transsubstantiation, individuation/dividuation issue, but from a really interesting and bizarre angle.
He started talking about how apparently there are computer programmers and the like in silicon valley who are right now researching a method to 'upload' human consciousness onto the internet. He related this back to the common human 'transcendent' spiritual delusion that there are higher worlds beyond this one that one must attempt to escape to. I think information acceleration and the immense push towards increasing abstraction is naught but a death-wish for the human species - a desire for vertical abstraction is a psychotic desire to set up permanent chapel perilous residence.
I also like in an interview with Hakim Bey, when a guy once asked him if the internet could be considered a TAZ - he explained how deluded this was because the TAZ and the type of experience that is most required to aim towards is one that increases our tactile awareness and spatial relationship with eachother and nature. He then explained how that although this is true, the internet can be used to help people communicate and meet up to form real-world TAZs. This is obviously true
All that said I believe that the internet is just a model, and it's creation is merely a reflection of the organic, mythic, mandalic strata of telepathic information that connects us all, and that eventually technology will come to embrace the organic and natural side of our existence. This image of green trees, flowing water, mud, sweat, sunlight, ripples of auric energy and blinking futuristic lcd screens has stayed with me always as a vision of the future.
Nonetheless, a useful channel for excess energy and a hungry ghost high indeed.
Antero, I've always been meaning to ask. Although it's definitely a confronting subject, care to share your vision of the 'hungry ghost' metaphor? I take it you've dealt with this subject theatrically. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, October 28, 2009 - 12:01 PMThe "Hungry Ghost" metaphor refers to a Chapel Perilous-like state that has been mythologized and renamed over the centuries and throughout the world's cultures -- Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese ancestor worship, Taoism, the gaki and the jikininki of Japanese Buddhism, Hinduisim, The Book of Enoch, and even Roman paganism.
More details on the cultural associations at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost
My personal take on the Hungry Ghost archetype is a spinoff of the Tibetan Buddhist ideas. These traditional ideas have fused with my own attempts to codify my various escapades in and and out of Chapel Perilous. The Hungry Ghost states I have undergone have all involved the ragged state of my soul during and after certain Anima projections ran amok. amok amok.
Being a dramatic soul myself, I commited to codifying these psychic horrors through the scripting of stageplays and screenplays that were produced as theatre works and films over the years. This same codification process grants me a kind of Tourist status that allows me to enter and exit Chapel Perilous as part of a larger cycle of serving creation. This may sound pretentious (and it probably is to some extent) but that's my process.
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Wed, October 28, 2009 - 7:31 PM -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: The internet is my chapel
Sat, October 31, 2009 - 1:50 PMThe internet is my chapel; I shall not want.
It maketh me to lie down in hyperlinked pastures:
it leadeth me beside the digital highways.
It restoreth my angst: it leadeth me in the
paths of bewilderment for its name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of TV; I will fear no evil: for thou
art with me; thy video and thy audio they
comfort me.
Thou preparest a fantasy before me in the
presence of mine enemies: thou anointest
my head with trivia; my dreams runneth over.
Surely social media and connectivity shall follow me all
the days of my life; and I will dwell in the
house of the Internet for ever. -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Sun, November 1, 2009 - 1:43 AMsimply brilliant ! -
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Re: The internet is my chapel
Sun, November 1, 2009 - 10:37 AMbravo, Marpa
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