Sunday, February 24, 2008

Just a coincidence!

If you read the extended Comments on the previous post, you will know that Ben Mack shares a respect for RAW (Robert Anton Wilson) and Bucky Fuller, and others that this blog references (like Hakim Bey, or Kurt Vonnegut) - and for honesty in communication.

Poker Without Cards

For fellow MLA students interested in treating Poker Without Cards as a text for our Reading Group, but who feel resistance to Ben as a ‘marketeer’ – I recommend taking an hour to watch/listen to this interview. The book does not refer to all his thinking, but covers a period when BM found himself incarcerated in a mental institution after a breakdown, and got casually informed that he ‘was’ a paranoid schizophrenic. Later that diagnosis got retracted (because he rebuilt himself in a way that someone with that diagnosis couldn’t have done). He didn’t receive any kind of apology. It brings to mind Timothy Leary’s incarceration for ‘dangerous thinking’ – and also the approach that R.D.Laing took to people in similar states of mind, back in The Sixties.

Go to Grey Lodge for a pirate PDF edition Or Second Attention.
[spoiler alert: Lulu Review of the book]

You could also research Ben Mack’s marketing lectures (1h20m), and books, and stuff, but that might set off your prejudices. Some of us have remarked on the fact that he set up a website entitled “What Would Bill Hicks Have Said”, and have countered it with Bill’s quotes about people in advertising. Well, BM makes a distinction (in this video) between marketing and advertising. I leave you to tease out the distinction. Having nothing in particular I wish to sell, I don't know how he can help me with his seminars (I don't even have much desire to 'make more money') but if he can use all those skills to get fresh drinking water to everyone on the planet, then I think he deserves all the support he can get. (rant over)

Genius comes in many forms
The cause is hidden, the results well-known
It seems that BM counts as some kind of ‘genius’ and they sometimes prove uncomfortable as companions, and often get 'misunderstood'. Think of Orson Welles, maybe.

Please bear in mind that what I write here remains a personal opinion, and not a ‘policy statement’ that the MLA Admin supports – this blog has no direct affiliation with the management group of MLA or RAW’s literary estate. You can see it as a critical fanzine if you like.

The Maybe Logic Academy

The Maybe Logic Academy attracts people fascinated by a wide range of subjects and approaches (magick, NLP, intelligence increase, conspiracy theory, psychosomatic medicine, creativity, etc) – we don’t always agree, but we got given one rule (just the one) by RAW when he set this place up online where we could study with him (and other tutors), and interact with each other - and which forms some kind of legacy.

If you can’t achieve tolerance, at least attempt courtesy.

Such an approach to debate still seems rare (if not unique!) in online discussion spaces, and remains one of the reasons that I still spend many unpaid hours promoting and supporting it (even with the current incarnation of the forum 4.0, which has bugs which annoy some of the participants).

I have failed several times in my own attempts at courtesy, especially around the area of magic/magick (which Ben lucidly elucidates in the interview), but have learned from that, and continue to attempt to improve my communication.

Please do not find any significance in the fact that my avatar shares initials with Ben Mack! I remain an entirely separate entity. It’s just a coincidence, just a coincidence (repeat this mantra after me “It’s just a coincidence!”)

PS: This seems like a good place to throw a link to Bobby's summary of Rushkoff's Technologies of Persuasion course - over at DeOxy.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Fresh Eyes and a New Look

I hope no-one mistakes the Maybe Logic Academy for a bunch of disciples, even if many of us did get to study directly with RAW for his last three years. heh heh.

Doesn't make us a core group, or anything we talk about canon. Only the other day we disputed whether Ben Mack's Poker Without Cards belongs in the ELF project group, or simply cashes in on (and targets readers of) this kind of material (Bucky, RAW, Vonnegut, etc). My stumbling into the Principia Discordia Forum to get flamed (or stung by bees protecting the hive) last year still makes some of our locals chuckle (mostly at my naivety and clumsiness). Discordians, don't ya love 'em? The invite to contribute to a Wiki for The Illuminatus! Trilogy (or TI!T, if you insist) still stands.

It has felt good to have fresh blood (or DNA) join the MLA in the last year, and motivate us to take another look at all the material we have worked on.

Dedroidify seems to have taken on the task of animating the 8-Circuit Model. Here's an initial video, but he's working on another, I understand. The Dedroidify site's worth a visit, too! (follow that link...) His blog may keep you up to date with his progress.



Use the Label on this post, to find further references to the 8 Circuits and various courses and links related to the subject.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

TETRA TEXNE

Networking cross connection synergies within the 8 circuit model
using quadratic isomorphisms!

EARTH POWER
Waking Ego


I. Age of the Fall/Divine: Vegetable Soul
Brain Circuitry: (1) Bio-Survival + (5) Neuro-Somatic
Operating System: Play & Pleasure
Rapture of primal ecstasy undermines fear of death.
Anxious Paranoia opens to Fun Adventure.

MOON POWER
Freudian Unconscious


II. Age of the Hero: Animal Soul
Brain Circuitry: (2) Territorial + (6) Metaprogramming
Operating System: Set & Setting
Will to adapt Belief System/Reality Tunnel undermines fear of Chaos and/or Fate.
Rigid Insecurity opens to Fluid Evolution.

SUN POWER
Jungian Collective Unconscious


III. Age of the People: Human Soul
Brain Circuitry: (3) Symbolic + (7) Morphic/Neuro-Genetic
Operating System: Information: Local & Non
Time Binding w/ Coincidancing Logos undermines fear of Woid.
Conceptual Intelligence opens to Mythic Contelligence.

TAO POWER
Non Local/No Mind



IV. Recorso: Akashic Field
Brain Circuitry: (4) Socio-Sexual + (8) Neuro-Atomic
Operating System: Tribe & Process (Macro & Micro)
Affirmation of life in its entirety undermines fear itself.
The Wasteland opens to The Living One

Friday, February 01, 2008

Upcoming courses

Courses coming upI just noticed a broken link in the column on the right, to the general Academy Info. My apologies to anyone who tried it recently.

MLA Course Information

An upcoming course with R.U.Sirius looks as though it could prove mischievous fun! 6 week course February 11 - March 23

If you go register on the general forum you will see some people gathering before the event, to perhaps get up to a little mischief of their own very soon...look for the thread in MLA Relations...

Pranks and Pranksters, Tricksters & Tricks -- the brilliant ones open up a space in the world for magic(k), ambiguity, and novelty. They encourage us to Question Authority and better still, they cause us to Question Reality.

In this course, we will discuss the history of pranks and pranksterism in the contemporary world. We will examine mythical and world historic tricksters like Coyote, Bugs Bunny, Crowley, Puck, Heyoka, Papa Legba, Lucifer, and more. And we'll explore and discuss the role pranksters and tricksters play in cultures. I will also discuss some of my own pranks and tricks and legendary pranksters Mark Hosler of Negativland and Joey Skaggs will be dropping in on the course to answer questions.

Finally, we will plan pranks, make pranks, and maybe even leave the course with a dedicated prankster cabal. No fooling.

Course texts: (links to Amazon.com - also available elsewhere)

Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art by Lewis Hyde
Pranks 2 by V. Vale

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