Jun 6, 2008

Without Form and Void

Religion is a story the left brain tells to the right brain.

In 1996, neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor (lighting’s tailor?) suffered a debilitating stroke that also acted as a doorway into another perceptual world - a stairway to heaven. She’s one of the rare scientists who’ve experienced the other side and returned to tell the tale. Her book, My Stroke of Insight, was featured in a recent NYT article.

Most religious visionaries are, well... religious, so their interpretations are necessarily cloaked in heavy religious garb. Jill - being the strict Puritan scientist - doesn’t wear the fancy shaman drag. Being the ecstatic poet type myself, I’d call her experience an ”ego death“, or an ”anointing of the Holy Spirit“. She just calls it a stroke. But call it what she wants, the experience has had the same effect on her as it has had on so many before her: changed her life and now she’s on Oprah ”witnessing“ to others.

In her talk, Jill describes what it’s like to be cast loose from the anchor of the left (rational, analytic, contextual, judging) brain. Where does consciousness go when its usual left brain home is under attack? To the right brain... across the great divide, the river, the chasm: to the Other Side.

Jill describes an experience of transcendent power and growth as being like a genie let loose of her bottle. ”A whale swimming through an ocean of ecstasy“. Nirvana. The creative right brain let loose of the left, the ”feminine“ loosed of her ”masculine“ master. The left brain is the Ego: ”I Am“. The right brain is everything else: Universe.

I’m wondering if the division between left and right brain might be the key to all of this. Left hand/right hand path; good/evil; black/white; male/female; Kansas/Oz; Heaven/Earth. This ever present duality of experience is echoed once again in the split nature of the human brain, the computer that perceives the duality. Hmmmm.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. --Genesis 1:2

Every religion/belief system is a creation of the left brain - the storyteller. Maybe it’s the left brain’s attempt at describing it’s perfect twin: the right brain. Every attempt is doomed to failure, because logic, language, every skill of the left brain (The Tree of Knowledge), is an incomplete and corrupted vessel in which to ferry the perfection of right brain being - the Divine Feminine. In a way, the left brain is always the lier, always the Devil - even with the best of intentions. It can’t help but make a sin of commission or omission when describing the complete and awesome perfection of the right.

I think it knows it’s doomed but it can’t help but try, being forever bewitched by the image in the magic mirror - through the looking glass.

Maybe the divine consort is male. The right, female brain, is the source of all power and light, and is thus sought after by many suiters. Many suiters would rape or subdue her, but only one is her true husband. The one who loves her for her virtue, not for her power. In other words, the one who would NOT turn her into the scarlet woman, AKA Jezebel/Magdalene.

In I Dream of Jeannie, Tony Nelson was the ancient astronaut who knew the power of the Jinn. Jeannie desired only to serve her master. In this case, the master didn’t much appreciate what he had, much like Darren never appreciated Samantha. That is of course exactly WHY these beauties loved their masters, and why they chose to submit to them and their silly bourgeois aspirations. These men desired them for their charms - not their god-like power.

In Disney’s Aladdin, the excruciatingly queer Jafar is pictured scheming and plotting for the hand of Jasmine, AKA ”The ultimate power of the universe!!!“ He knows the power of the divine feminine, and his "love" is only the love of a gold digger. Jafar is a classic alchemist/magician, a Wormtongue.

Gay muscle growth fiction revolves around the idea of a man growing immensely huge and powerful, blown up as if by magic... like a Jinn. The growth is all male (giant muscle and cock) but in order to GET the growth, an action is required of a symbolically feminine nature: the guy has to suck cock or get fucked to receive the gift! The man has to symbolically become a woman - the male made female. I think this gay male sexual fantasy is seriously tied in to all of this.

While Jill was experiencing her right brain/Nirvana, she experienced extreme difficulty functioning in the material world. She couldn’t speak, read, understand language, symbols or even the idea of time passing. Using a telephone to call for help was an excruciating experience.

She was an idiot savant, a deaf mute, a Helen Keller. In other words, the creative right brain needs the left brain to create order. Order out of chaos. An orderer needs to be master, and at the same time, should understand it is only the servant of a much greater power. A cosmic paradox - husband and wife - Mars and Venus. I know many husbands who refer to their wives as SWMBO - "She who must be obeyed".

It seems to me that we have the War of Heaven going on right between our ears: Enki vs. Enlil, Satan vs. Jesus, Troy vs. Sparta. This is NOT the war between the right lobe and the left, because the right lobe doesn’t war. It only loves. All war comes from the left lobe, and it is the competing I Ams, (males, memes, suiters), that are at war. In the end, only one can survive - only one sperm wins the whole egg. "Co-create" my ass.

We sperms may fantasize that the race is won by the swift or the bold, but I think it is the egg who decides. Who is the suitor who pleases her most? Jesus? Buddha? OO7? Or maybe you?

Video: How It Feels to Have a Stroke.

5 comments:

JB said...

Related to this subject: I've realized that my desire for Chris Crocker is mostly due to his extremely feminine form. With the "right" make-up, hair extensions and clothes, he easily passes off for a very attractive woman. But his penis is vital: I've imagined several sexual fantasies with him, but whenever I picture him as fully female (he says he might become "Christine" soon), I suddenly go limp.

I think that is what I want, the superficial qualities of a woman combined with the mind and hardware of a man. A perfect human being, the right and left shaking hands.

Alex Robinson said...

Interesting musings
I have also wondered if it is the egg who chooses / allows a specific sperm - the idea of aggressive entry does not feel right ... then again perhaps it is a mutual recognition

Unknown said...

JB - Great comment, thanks. My own sexual leanings tend to the hypermasculine, but the intent is similar. A man not afraid to be feminine, either by embracing the current feminine fashion esthetic, or a man so outrageously masculine appearing that no one would dare call him a "girl" as he sluts out on a big dick.

There's something very primal, very real, and very important about this.

WW - If I were an egg, I'd appreciate a good battle for my virtue. I may decide, but being the eternally insecure lover, I wonder if I'd decide always for the first suiter? I hope I'd be a bit more discerning.

Alex Robinson said...

Michael I'm sure you would be very discerning & wise in your choice - wow that's cool as I typed those words a flock of rosellas (brightly coloured parakeets) came and landed in the tree right outside my window, I think they must have been for you. Enough said.

JB said...

Michael, I'm going to post a brand new gay-themed article later on in the day, so you may want to check it out. You might also want to read my other latest articles right below it.

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