Burrows

I just watched The Pilot [of A Brave New World] and noticed a running image of your work : The Human Centipede.

GM: (laughing) You know I haven’t seen Human Centipede. I can’t watch horror movies.

Well my guess is that those forms of one long continuous being, which looks like A Centipede, is your visual description of A Self, moving through Time, which you said you learned in Kathmandu in 1994 as How Things Actually Are. How does this experience still interact with Your Life?

GM: We can’t see any direction in Time. 

We can’t see Back, and 

We can’t see Forward. 

We can Remember Back 

and Imagine Forward, 

but that’s it. 

We’re trained to feel like ‘Individuals’ so we don’t actually see ourselves as the extended processes that we are, shapeshifters who transform through decades from small, plump baby things to large and horny muscular teenagers, to hard-working, middle age adults, and finally desiccated seniors dying on beds. 

If we sped that up and showed one human life over ten minutes, it would be a body horror werewolf transformation more outrageous and horrifying than any seen onscreen.

But to me it’s like the color of the sky, it’s so self-evident that to see a bird fly past the window is to imagine its skipping solid trail through the medium of time.  In Time, We are all Connected, there’s just no denying that. There’s nothing mystical about any of this. I’m talking about stuff that is Simply Real.

Imagination can give you the ability to look backwards and forward. So, when you run it backwards, think how your grown-up mature body was once smaller, less massive, less capable of interacting with the environment – that’s real. Run it back to the beginnings of life on earth ad it’s clear that we all are one thing. A Singular organism made of many parts, just like a human body with its billions of individual skin cells – which die and fall from the body every day.

So, what does that mean? If people learned this in school, if we understood and accepted, we were all the same fucking thing(!) it might help prevent The Collapse into mad Division that’s occurring, just now. It’s just a Matter of Perspective that could change everything.

But The Organism We’re Part of might be sick, who knows? 

When cells in A Body turn against one another and The System that supports them starts breaking down, it’s cancer…

You had the gnostic experience. To just hear it or read it is one thing but when you have the experience that seems to be the most convincing thing.

GM : Well, it seems to become self-evident. It’s really like someone turns your head around in Plato’s Cave and you realize that there’s A Light and someone’s doing Shadow Figures with their fingers. Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.

And it’s ‘Oh, of course’! Of course! There’s no denying it. 

But I guess to have that experience is its own confirmation. It’s like living by the sea all your life, then having to explain that to someone living inland who’s never seen The Ocean and doesn’t believe an ocean could exist because they’ve never seen one.

To me it can be confirmed intellectually by just Thinking about Time and how You are Embedded in Time --

You Know You Had to be Six Years Old to be here. 

So, Where The Hell is ‘Being Six’? 

A.) In The Village.

A.) It's be-hiiiiiind YOOOU...!!

A.) Behind The Walls.

A.) Some where -- 

Beyond The Sea.

Well, 'Being Six' exists,

in a Time Direction 

that You Can’t See 

or Point to, 

but it’s still there. 

 

To misunderstand that is equivalent to Flying from Los Angeles to London, then, after touching down at Heathrow, insisting that Los Angeles no longer exists!

And once You’re Truly Aware of Time 

as The Medium 

through which We Transmit Our Physical Signal, 

then there is no denying 

that Your Personal Track  winds its way,

Back into Your Mum 

and She goes back to Her Mum 

and it all goes back to 

That single Dividing Cell 3 1/2 Billion Years ago. 

 

To me, that’s just basic mechanical shit. That’s not Mysticism. 

I’m not interested in ghosts and spirit worlds. 

If I’m going to have Transcendence, I want to be able to Touch it.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

What is the meaning of The Virgin Birth? 

In India, there is This System of The Kundalini, 

as it’s called, the idea of The Centres, 

Psychological Centres up The Spine. 

And they represent the psychological planes 

of concern and consciousness and action. 

The first is at the rectum, 

and this is that of alimentation. 

 

The Serpent represents this, 

you know, a travelling oesophagus

going along just eating, eating, eating, eating. 

And all of us are — we wouldn’t be here 

if we weren’t eating. 

And then the second,  

The Second Centre

is at The Sex Organ Centre, 

and that’s The Urge to Procreation. 

The Third Centre's called, 

is at The Navel, and this is where 

You Eat and Want to Consume. 

And it’s not the alimentary eating, it’s 

The Mastering and Smashing 

and Trashing of Others, do you see? 

This is the aggressive mood.

Now, The First is an Animal Instinct, 

The Second is an Animal Instinct, 

The Third is an Animal Instinct, 

and these three centres are located  

in the pelvic base, do you see. 

The next one is at the level of The Heart, 

and this is The Opening of Compassion.

 And there you move out of 

The Field of Animal Action 

into a field that is 

properly human and spiritual. 

Now, in each of these centers there is a symbolic form. 

At the base, the first one, there is the form of the lingam and yeni, the male and female organs in conjunction. 

At The Heart Chakra, there is again The Male and Female organs in conjunction, but in Gold. 

This is The Virgin Birth. 

It’s the birth of spiritual man out of the animal man. 

Do you understand?

BILL MOYERS: 

And it happens?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

When you are awakened at the level of The Heart to Compassion and to 

suffering with the other person. 

That’s the beginning of Humanity. 

And the meditations of religion properly are on that level, 

the heart level.

BILL MOYERS: 

You say it’s the beginning of Humanity, but in these Stories, that’s the moment when gods are born, 

The Virgin Birth, it’s a god 

who emerges from that chemistry.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Yeah, and you know who that god is? It’s you. 

All of these symbols in mythology refer to you. 

You can get stuck out there and think it’s all out there, and so you’re thinking of Jesus and all the sentiments about how he suffered and all; 

what that suffering is, is what ought to be going on in you. 

Have you been reborn? 

Have you died to your animal nature and come to life as a human incarnation?

BILL MOYERS: 

Why is it significant that this is of a virgin?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, it is that the begetter is The Spirit. 

It is a spiritual birth. 

The Virgin conceived of The Word, through The Ear.

You.

By any analysis, 

Evil should always win. 

Good is not a 

practical Survival Strategy — 

It requires 

Loyalty, Self-Sacrifice 

and er, Love. 

So, WHY does Good prevail? 

What keeps The Balance between 

Good and Evil 

in this appalling universe? 

A simile (/ˈsɪməli/) is a figure of speech 

that DIRECTLY compares TWO Things.

Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between Two Things using comparison words such as “LIKE”, “as”, “so”, or “ than”, while other metaphors create an implicit comparison (i.e. saying something “IS” Something Else).

This distinction is evident in the etymology of the words: simile derives from the Latin word similis (“similar, LIKE”), while metaphor derives from the Greek word metapherein (“to transfer”).

PICARD: 

'For now we see 

but through A Glass, Darkly'

DATA: 

Sir?

PICARD: 

He said He's A Mirror.

DATA : 

Of You, sir?

PICARD: 

Yes.

DATA: 

..…I Do Not Agree —

Although you share the same genetic structure, the events of Your Life have created 

A Unique Individual.

PICARD: 

If I had lived His Life, is it possible 

I would have rejected My Humanity?

DATA: 

The B-4 is physically identical to Me, 

although his neural pathways are not as advanced. 

But even if they were,

He would not be Me.

PICARD: 

How can you be sure?

DATA: 

I aspire, sir, to be Better Than I am. 

B-4 Does Not. Nor Does Shinzon.

There is Good and There is Evil. 

I left Gallifrey to answer A Question of my own : By any analysis, Evil should always win. 

Good is not a practical survival strateg — It requires Loyalty, Self-Sacrifice and er, Love. 

So, WHY does Good prevail? 

What keeps The Balance between Good and Evil in this appalling universe? Is there some kind of logic? Some mysterious force? 

BILL: 

….Perhaps there's just A Bloke. 

Old Grandfather : 

A bloke? 

BILL: 

Yeah. Perhaps there's just some bloke, 

wandering around, putting everything right when it goes wrong. 

Old Grandfather : 

Well, that would be a nice story, wouldn't it? 

BILL: 

That would be The Best. 

Old Grandfather : 

But the real world is not a fairy tale. 

BILL: 

You dash around the universe trying to figure out what's holding it all together, and you really, really don't know? 

Old Grandfather : 

You know me in The Future. 

Do I ever understand? 

BILL: 

No. I really don't think you do. 

Everyone who's ever met you does. 

You're amazing, Doctor. 

(hugs him) 

Never forget that. 

Never, ever. 

Old Grandfather : 

Well, that's very kind of you. 

BILL: 

We just needed to understand you, Doctor. 

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

What is the meaning of The Virgin Birth? 

In India, there is This System of The Kundalini, as it’s called, the idea of the centers, psychological centers up the spine. 

And they represent the psychological planes of concern and consciousness and action. 

The first is at the rectum, 

and this is that of alimentation. 

The serpent represents this, you know, a traveling esophagus going along just eating, eating, eating, eating. 

And all of us are — we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t eating. 

And then the second, the second center 

is at the sex organ center, 

and that’s the urge to procreation. 

The third center’s called, is at the navel, and this is where you eat and want to consume. 

And it’s not the alimentary eating, 

it’s the mastering and smashing and trashing of others, do you see? This is the aggressive mood.

Now, the first is an animal instinct, 

the second is an animal instinct, 

the third is an animal instinct, 

and these three centers are located in the pelvic base, do you see. 

The next one is at the level of The Heart, 

and this is the opening of Compassion.

 And there you move out of 

the field of animal action 

into a field that is 

properly human and spiritual. 

Now, in each of these centers there is a symbolic form. 

At the base, the first one, there is the form of the lingam and yeni, the male and female organs in conjunction. 

At The Heart Chakra, there is again The Male and Female organs in conjunction, but in Gold. 

This is The Virgin Birth. 

It’s the birth of spiritual man out of the animal man. 

Do you understand?

BILL MOYERS: 

And it happens?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

When you are awakened at the level of The Heart to Compassion and to 

suffering with the other person. 

That’s the beginning of Humanity. 

And the meditations of religion properly are on that level, the heart level.

BILL MOYERS: 

You say it’s the beginning of Humanity, but in these Stories, that’s the moment when gods are born, 

The Virgin Birth, it’s a god who emerges from that chemistry.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Yeah, and you know who that god is? It’s you. All of these symbols in mythology refer to you. 

You can get stuck out there and think it’s all out there, and so you’re thinking of Jesus and all the sentiments about how he suffered and all; 

what that suffering is, is what ought to be going on in you. 

Have you been reborn? 

Have you died to your animal nature and come to life as a human incarnation?

BILL MOYERS: 

Why is it significant that this is of a virgin?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, it is that the begetter is The Spirit. 

It is a spiritual birth. 

The Virgin conceived of The Word, through The Ear.

BILL MOYERS: The Word came like a shaft of light.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. And now, the Buddha was born from his mother’s side, at the level of the heart chakra. That’s a symbolic birth; he wasn’t born from his mother’s side, but symbolically he was.

BILL MOYERS: But the Christ came the way you and I come.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes, but of a virgin.

BILL MOYERS: Which is a power greater than…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And then, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, her virginity was restored. So nothing happened physically, you might say. It’s not a physical birth. It’s symbolic of a spiritual transformation, that’s what the virgin birth is about. And so deities are born that way who represent beings who act in terms of compassion, and not in terms of the lower three centers.

Purity

Giles: 

I cannot believe that you are Fool Enough to do something like this! 

Xander: 

Oh, no, I'm twice The Fool it takes to do something like this. 

Jenny keeps staring at him while she plays with her necklace.

Giles: 

Has, uh... 

Has Amy tried to reverse The Spell?

Xander: 

I get around Amy 

and all she wants to do 

is talk honeymoon plans. 

Jenny: 

(steps toward Xander) 

Rupert, maybe 

I need to talk to Xander alone. 

Giles: 

(pushes her back)

Do you have any idea how serious this is? 

People under a-A Love Spell, Xander, 

are-are Deadly. 

They lose all Capacity for Reason. 

BILL MOYERS: There are women today who say that the spirit of the goddess has been in exile for 5,000 years, since the events that you…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, not that… you can’t put it that far back. 5,000 years. She was a very potent figure in Hellenistic times in the Mediterranean. And she came back with the Virgin in the Roman Catholic tradition. I mean, you don’t have a tradition with the goddess celebrated any more beautifully and marvelously than in the 12th and 13th century French cathedrals, every one of which is called “Notre Dame.”

BILL MOYERS: What about the virgin birth? Suddenly the goddess reappears in the form of the chaste and pure vessel chosen for God’s action.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, in the history of Western religions, this is an extremely interesting development. The virgin birth comes in by way of the Greek tradition. When you read your four gospels, the only one with the virgin birth in it is the gospel according to Luke, and Luke was a Greek.

BILL MOYERS: And there was in the Greek tradition images, legends, myths of virgin births?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All of them. I mean, Leda and the swan, and Persephone and the serpent, and this one and that one and the other one. The virgin birth is represented throughout.

BILL MOYERS: This was not a new idea, then, in Bethlehem and…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: No. What is the meaning of the virgin birth? In India, there is this system of the kundalini, as it’s called, the idea of the centers, psychological centers up the spine. And they represent the psychological planes of concern and consciousness and action. The first is at the rectum, and this is that of alimentation. The serpent represents this, you know, a traveling esophagus going along just eating, eating, eating, eating. And all of us are — we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t eating. And then the second, the second center is at the sex organ center, and that’s the urge to procreation. The third center’s called, is at the navel, and this is where you eat and want to consume. And it’s not the alimentary eating, it’s the mastering and smashing and trashing of others, do you see? This is the aggressive mood.

Now, the first is an animal instinct, the second is an animal instinct, the third is an animal instinct, and these three centers are located in the pelvic base, do you see. The next one is at the level of the heart, and this is the opening of compassion. And there you move out of the field of animal action into a field that is properly human and spiritual. Now, in each of these centers there is a symbolic form. At the base, the first one, there is the form of the lingam and yeni, the male and female organs in conjunction. At the heart chakra, there is again the male and female organs in conjunction, but in gold. This is the virgin birth. It’s the birth of spiritual man out of the animal man. Do you understand?

BILL MOYERS: And it happens?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: When you are awakened at the level of the heart to compassion and to suffering with the other person. That’s the beginning of humanity. And the meditations of religion properly are on that level, the heart level.

BILL MOYERS: You say it’s the beginning of humanity, but in these Stories, that’s the moment when gods are born, the virgin birth, it’s a god who emerges from that chemistry.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yeah, and you know who that god is? It’s you. All of these symbols in mythology refer to you. You can get stuck out there and think it’s all out there, and so you’re thinking of Jesus and all the sentiments about how he suffered and all; what that suffering is, is what ought to be going on in you. Have you been reborn? Have you died to your animal nature and come to life as a human incarnation?

BILL MOYERS: Why is it significant that this is of a virgin?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, it is that the begetter is the spirit. It is a spiritual birth. The virgin conceived of the Word, through the ear.

BILL MOYERS: The Word came like a shaft of light.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. And now, the Buddha was born from his mother’s side, at the level of the heart chakra. That’s a symbolic birth; he wasn’t born from his mother’s side, but symbolically he was.

BILL MOYERS: But the Christ came the way you and I come.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes, but of a virgin.

BILL MOYERS: Which is a power greater than…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And then, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, her virginity was restored. So nothing happened physically, you might say. It’s not a physical birth. It’s symbolic of a spiritual transformation, that’s what the virgin birth is about. And so deities are born that way who represent beings who act in terms of compassion, and not in terms of the lower three centers.

BILL MOYERS: If you go back into antiquity, do you find images of the Madonna as the mother of the savior child?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, what you have as the model for the Madonna actually is Isis, with her child Horus at her breast. This was the actual model for the Madonna symbol.

BILL MOYERS: Isis? Tell me that story.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: This is a prime myth in this period of the Goddess as the redeemer, the one who goes in quest of the lost spouse or lover, and through her loyalty and descent into the realm of death, recovers him. Isis and her husband Osiris were twins who were born of the goddess Nut. And their younger relatives were Seth and Nephthys, who were also twins born from Nut. Seth planned to kill his brother Osiris, and he took Osiris measurements secretly and had a wonderful sarcophagus built that would exactly fit Osiris. So there was a hilarious party in progress one time among the gods, and Seth trots in this sarcophagus, and he says, “Anyone whom this perfectly fits can have it as his sarcophagus.” And everybody at the party tried, and when Osiris got in, of course he perfectly fit. Just at that time, 72 accomplices come rushing out and they clap the lid on, strap it together and throw it in the Nile.

Now, this is the death of the god. Whenever you have a death of an incarnation, a god like this, you’re going to have a resurrection, you can wait for that. So he goes floating down the Nile and is washed ashore in Syria. And a beautiful tree grows up and incorporates the sarcophagus in its own trunk. So this is this wonderful tree with a glorious aroma. And the local king has just had a son born to him, and he is also at the same time going to build a palace. The aroma of this tree is so wonderful, he cuts it down and brings it in to be a central pillar in the main room of the palace.

Poor little Isis, whose husband has been thrown into the Nile, starts this wonderful quest for Osiris, So she comes to the place where the palace is, and learns of the wonderful aroma and she suspects this is Osiris. And she gets a job as nurse to the just-born little child. Well, she lets the child nurse from her finger. And she loves the little child, and she decides to give it immortality. So she does this by placing him in the fireplace in the fire, to burn away gradually his mortal body. But being a goddess she could keep that from killing him, you understand. And when that would happen, she would convert herself into a swallow, and fly mournfully around the pillar where her husband is.

Well, one evening the child’s mother came in to this room while this scene was in progress, saw her child in the fireplace, let out a scream, and that broke the spell, and they had to rescue the child from incineration. Meanwhile the swallow had turned into this gorgeous nurse, Isis, and the nurse gave an explanation of the situation, and she said, “By the way, it’s my husband that’s in that pillar there, and I’d he grateful if you could just let me take it home.” So the king came in and he said, “Certainly.” So he removes the pillar, gives it to Isis and it’s put on a barge. So on the way back to the Nile, she removes the lid, the cover of the sarcophagus and lies on top of her dead spouse and conceives of her dead spouse this is an image that occurs in Egyptian art all the time, out of death comes life and all this kind of business and when they land she in the papyrus swamp gives birth to her child Horus with the dead Osiris beside her.

This is the motif for the Madonna, actually, it becomes the Madonna. In Egyptian symbology, Isis represents the throne, the Pharaoh sits on the throne of Isis, as the child sits on the mother lap. And when you look in the cathedral of Chartres in the west portal, you will see the Madonna as the throne with the little child Jesus as the world emperor on her lap: That is the same image that’s come over.

BILL MOYERS: And you say the Christian fathers took this image?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Definitely, and they really say so. You read the second letter of Peter, and he says those forms which were merely mythological forms in the past, are now incarnate and actual in our savior. There was a mythology of the savior, the dead and resurrected god, and it’s associated with the moon, which dies and is resurrected every month. And you have the three nights dark, and you have Christ three nights in the tomb, and three days in the tomb, and all this kind of thing. It’s an intentional saying, that which was merely talked about is now fact. And no one knows what the date of Christmas ought to be, but it’s put on the date of the winter solstice, when the nights begin to be shorter and the days longer, the birth of light. And so there is an idea of death to the past and birth to the future in our lives and in our thinking all the time. Death to the animal nature, birth to the spiritual, and these symbols are talking about it one way or another.

BILL MOYERS: So when the…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And the goddess is the one who brings it about. The second birth is through the second mother. Notre Dame de Paris, Notre Dame de Chartres, our mother church, we are reborn by entering and leaving a church.

BILL MOYERS: And it doesn’t mean physically, it means…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Spiritually.

BILL MOYERS: That there’s a power that’s unique to the feminine principle.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: It can be put that way. You can… it’s not necessarily unique to her, you can have rebirth through the male, also. But using this system of symbols, the woman becomes the regenerator.

BILL MOYERS: There’s that wonderful saying in the New Testament of Jesus. “In Jesus there is no male or female.” In the ultimate sense of things there is neither.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: That would have to be. I mean, if Jesus represents the source of our being, we are all as it were thoughts in the mind of Jesus. He is the word that has become flesh in us, too.

BILL MOYERS: You and I would possess characteristics that are both male and female.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, actually the body does, And in that Yin-Yang figure from China, you know, in the dark fish or whatever you want to call it, there’s a light spot and in the light one there’s a dark spot. That’s how they can relate; you couldn’t relate at all to something that, of which you did not participate, into which you did not participate at all. That’s why the idea of God as the absolute other is a ridiculous idea, there could be no relationship to that which is absolute other.

BILL MOYERS: The question arises, in discussing the male-female principle, the virgin birth, the spiritual power that gives us the second birth. The wise people of all time have said that we can live the good life if we learn in fact to live spiritually. But how does one learn to live spiritually when one is of the flesh? Remember, Paul said, “the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.” How do we learn to live spiritually?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, that was the in ancient times and in primitive times, the business of the teacher. He was to give you the clues to a spiritual life, that was what the priest was for. Also, that was what the ritual was for. A ritual can be defined as an enactment of a myth, by participating in a good, sound ritual, you are actually experiencing a mythological life. And it’s out of that that one can learn to live spiritually.

BILL MOYERS: These stories of mythology actually point the way to the spiritual life.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. You’ve got to have a clue. You’ve got to have a road map of some kind, and these are all around us. They’re here.

BILL MOYERS: And the road map to which the goddess stories are pointing is the map of elevating the spiritual to an equality with the physical, so that you live in union with those two.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. There you’ve come to the real sanctity of the earth itself, because that is the body of the goddess. When Yahweh creates, he creates the earth and breathes his life into it. He’s not there, she’s there. Your body is her body. And there’s that kind of identity.

BILL MOYERS: Well, that’s why I’m not so sure that the future of the race and the salvation of the journey is in space. I think it is well right here on earth in the body, in the womb of all of our being.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, it certainly is. I mean, when you go out into space what you’re carrying is your body and if that hasn’t been transformed, space won’t transform it for you. But thinking about space may help you to realize something.

BILL MOYERS: You certainly thought about space in this wonderful passage. You were describing a page out of the National Geographic Atlas of the World, but you read this and something happened to you.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: “What these pages opened to me was the vision of a universe of unimaginable magnitude and inconceivable violence. Billions upon billions, literally, of roaring thermonuclear furnaces scattering from each other, each thermonuclear furnace being a star and our sun among them. Many of them actually blowing themselves to pieces, littering the outermost reaches of space with dust and gas, out of which new stars with circling planets are being born right now. And then from still more remote distances beyond all these there come murmurs, microwaves, which are echoes of the greatest cataclysmic explosion of all, namely, the Big Bang of creation, which, according to recent reckonings, must have occurred some 18 billion years ago.”

That’s where we are, kiddo. And if you realized that, you realize how really important you are, you know, one little microbit in this great magnitude. And then out of that must come the experience that you and that are in some sense one, and that you partake of all of that

BILL MOYERS: And it begins here.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: It begins here.