Strange sounds recorded in Conklin, Alberta, Jan.12/2012 Credit to super0371 for recording the footage.
Same as Kiev last year.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sound familiar? It should.
Same as Kiev last year.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Confessions, Part 5
See also:
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
Confessions, Part 3
Confessions, Part 4
...
Lucas,
Since the last email I was underwater for a few weeks, in the hospital for another week, and then desperately shoveling through a mountain of paperwork. Through all of this my responsibilities at Yellow-1 are shifting and I need to do some preparation work in that area as well. To put it simply: I'm swamped. I apologize for the delay.
I'm glad that you've been experiencing some bewilderment. Hang on to that. Some of what you've said indicated that you were trying to "get clear" or to "sort out" what is going on. I urge you not to do so. Rather, embrace confusion. Attempt to retain what you've been exposed to while remaining bewildered. Further study is fine, but seek not understanding. Seek only input.
When I mentioned the "raw data" of the universe this is exactly what I meant: the pure, unfiltered content of reality pouring in without any attempt on your part to comprehend or process any of it. "Comprehension" is simply the process of creating a mental construct to symbolize the data in a more simplified manner. You think you understand. This is the shorthand of the brain. For example: a flash of teeth and a set of eyes pointing at us symbolizes a threat, and our body immediately jumps into fight-or-flight mode. This can be a very useful thing, and has kept the world's mammalian species from going extinct.
The problem is that this system of assigning mental constructions to the input has a nasty habit of filtering the data. While your reflexes are quickened, it makes you aware of less. You saw teeth and eyes and assumed a predator, but what if it wasn't? What if something incredible and extremely beneficial was there, but you were too busy reacting to an imagined threat? On a primitive survival level this doesn't matter, but in a world of lies and deceit it matters a great deal. Your mind assigns meanings and symbols to the data you're being fed according to preconceived ideas, all the while unaware that something infinitely more complex or unusual is occurring. For an example in the media: the creation of the two-party system in the United States has gone a long way toward convincing people that there are only two sides to any issue. You are either left or right, either for or against, and that these are the only perspectives that exist. People tell themselves that as long as there are opposing forces in a battle, one side is surely right and one side is surely wrong.
The reality, of course, is that not only are both sides wrong but the entire battle is based on a ridiculous premise. Deciding or debating who is correct is slightly less productive than a dog chasing his own tail, except as a truly effective way to keep everyone distracted.
You asked on what level of thinking you should apply the Cartesian logic system to. The answer is simple: all of them. Apply it to each of your senses while sitting in front of this screen. Apply it to the concept of "reading text". Apply it to all notions of physics, psychology, politics, spirituality, and even skill. If mankind had done this a few hundred years ago, concepts like "up" and "down" would have been understood to be arbitrary well before space travel, and the profound changes in literature and religion would have created a completely different world than the one we live in today.
...
Other business, in brief:
Regarding my sense of morality being "extremely neutral", please do try not to categorize. See the above notes.
Regarding a fear that someone might "get me", well, this could happen at any time I suppose but I don't think there's anyone that would care enough to bother. I was on the run a bit in the 90s but I think the CIA and I have come to an agreement we're both happy with at this point. My reaction to Kiev came out of a fleeting sense of guilt; one that has since passed. I never have feared being judged for it though. There isn't anybody to judge me, really. What horror may still come will not target me, specifically, even though I was at the "flash point" for the initial event.
I need to make something clear about this now Lucas, so please pay special attention to this part: I need to stop talking about Kiev for at least one more month. Please don't bring it up. I need to establish some psychic distance. In a month, we can likely speak much more frankly about the subject.
Why Yellow-1? Well, I've been running into them since I can remember. We tend to travel in the same circles, and have worked on a number of projects over the years. My adopting a more formal role within the organization seemed quite natural. Yellow-1 is an Agent of Change. While other agencies value bureaucracy and play at internal politics, Yellow-1 makes things move. That is where I need to be.
...
Back to Africa.
I'm afraid that time won't allow me to expand much on it here as we've had so much other business to discuss, so I'll be brief for the moment.
Looking back at my last message I realize now that I didn't make clear the average state of mind of the tenants of the facility. None of them, not one, was what we would call "sane".
The more mild cases had involuntary twitches in the face, shoulders, legs, or some combination thereof. The air was constantly filled with the chattering of the ranters, whose never-ending litanies addressed every subject from spider-monkey conspiracies to their personal vital role in keeping gravity functioning. This chatter was punctuated by howls, day and night, from those who felt they were victims of some imagined torture, or being chased by giant insects, or who were arguing with relatives some decades dead and gone.
The more violent outbursts had been "bred out" of the mix by the prison's system of natural selection: a crew of guards with short tempers and no accountability. There was an open pit around back with a bucket of lye next to it that got regular use.
This casual attitude about the survival rate of the inmates brought into question why the solitary deaths were a concern. Yes, it was a mysterious set of circumstances, but why go to the expense of bringing me out to examine the situation? These were not assets that they were trying to preserve, after all. Still, the "powers that be" were quite insistent that I get to the bottom of the matter, and who was I to argue? Besides, I was grateful for the break in the tedium.
When I write next I will begin to explain the strangeness surrounding these solitary deaths and how they lead to my eventual discoveries in things like Causal-Loop Closures and changing reality through perception, but for now I must attend to this pile of work that is looking at me menacingly and needs to be dealt with.
Regards,
Burns
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
Confessions, Part 3
Confessions, Part 4
...
Lucas,
Since the last email I was underwater for a few weeks, in the hospital for another week, and then desperately shoveling through a mountain of paperwork. Through all of this my responsibilities at Yellow-1 are shifting and I need to do some preparation work in that area as well. To put it simply: I'm swamped. I apologize for the delay.
I'm glad that you've been experiencing some bewilderment. Hang on to that. Some of what you've said indicated that you were trying to "get clear" or to "sort out" what is going on. I urge you not to do so. Rather, embrace confusion. Attempt to retain what you've been exposed to while remaining bewildered. Further study is fine, but seek not understanding. Seek only input.
When I mentioned the "raw data" of the universe this is exactly what I meant: the pure, unfiltered content of reality pouring in without any attempt on your part to comprehend or process any of it. "Comprehension" is simply the process of creating a mental construct to symbolize the data in a more simplified manner. You think you understand. This is the shorthand of the brain. For example: a flash of teeth and a set of eyes pointing at us symbolizes a threat, and our body immediately jumps into fight-or-flight mode. This can be a very useful thing, and has kept the world's mammalian species from going extinct.
The problem is that this system of assigning mental constructions to the input has a nasty habit of filtering the data. While your reflexes are quickened, it makes you aware of less. You saw teeth and eyes and assumed a predator, but what if it wasn't? What if something incredible and extremely beneficial was there, but you were too busy reacting to an imagined threat? On a primitive survival level this doesn't matter, but in a world of lies and deceit it matters a great deal. Your mind assigns meanings and symbols to the data you're being fed according to preconceived ideas, all the while unaware that something infinitely more complex or unusual is occurring. For an example in the media: the creation of the two-party system in the United States has gone a long way toward convincing people that there are only two sides to any issue. You are either left or right, either for or against, and that these are the only perspectives that exist. People tell themselves that as long as there are opposing forces in a battle, one side is surely right and one side is surely wrong.
The reality, of course, is that not only are both sides wrong but the entire battle is based on a ridiculous premise. Deciding or debating who is correct is slightly less productive than a dog chasing his own tail, except as a truly effective way to keep everyone distracted.
You asked on what level of thinking you should apply the Cartesian logic system to. The answer is simple: all of them. Apply it to each of your senses while sitting in front of this screen. Apply it to the concept of "reading text". Apply it to all notions of physics, psychology, politics, spirituality, and even skill. If mankind had done this a few hundred years ago, concepts like "up" and "down" would have been understood to be arbitrary well before space travel, and the profound changes in literature and religion would have created a completely different world than the one we live in today.
...
Other business, in brief:
Regarding my sense of morality being "extremely neutral", please do try not to categorize. See the above notes.
Regarding a fear that someone might "get me", well, this could happen at any time I suppose but I don't think there's anyone that would care enough to bother. I was on the run a bit in the 90s but I think the CIA and I have come to an agreement we're both happy with at this point. My reaction to Kiev came out of a fleeting sense of guilt; one that has since passed. I never have feared being judged for it though. There isn't anybody to judge me, really. What horror may still come will not target me, specifically, even though I was at the "flash point" for the initial event.
I need to make something clear about this now Lucas, so please pay special attention to this part: I need to stop talking about Kiev for at least one more month. Please don't bring it up. I need to establish some psychic distance. In a month, we can likely speak much more frankly about the subject.
Why Yellow-1? Well, I've been running into them since I can remember. We tend to travel in the same circles, and have worked on a number of projects over the years. My adopting a more formal role within the organization seemed quite natural. Yellow-1 is an Agent of Change. While other agencies value bureaucracy and play at internal politics, Yellow-1 makes things move. That is where I need to be.
...
Back to Africa.
I'm afraid that time won't allow me to expand much on it here as we've had so much other business to discuss, so I'll be brief for the moment.
Looking back at my last message I realize now that I didn't make clear the average state of mind of the tenants of the facility. None of them, not one, was what we would call "sane".
The more mild cases had involuntary twitches in the face, shoulders, legs, or some combination thereof. The air was constantly filled with the chattering of the ranters, whose never-ending litanies addressed every subject from spider-monkey conspiracies to their personal vital role in keeping gravity functioning. This chatter was punctuated by howls, day and night, from those who felt they were victims of some imagined torture, or being chased by giant insects, or who were arguing with relatives some decades dead and gone.
The more violent outbursts had been "bred out" of the mix by the prison's system of natural selection: a crew of guards with short tempers and no accountability. There was an open pit around back with a bucket of lye next to it that got regular use.
This casual attitude about the survival rate of the inmates brought into question why the solitary deaths were a concern. Yes, it was a mysterious set of circumstances, but why go to the expense of bringing me out to examine the situation? These were not assets that they were trying to preserve, after all. Still, the "powers that be" were quite insistent that I get to the bottom of the matter, and who was I to argue? Besides, I was grateful for the break in the tedium.
When I write next I will begin to explain the strangeness surrounding these solitary deaths and how they lead to my eventual discoveries in things like Causal-Loop Closures and changing reality through perception, but for now I must attend to this pile of work that is looking at me menacingly and needs to be dealt with.
Regards,
Burns
Monday, November 7, 2011
Detoxification
NOTE: Headphones required. More information follows:
This is a detoxification protocol for Yellow-1. One should wear headphones and avoid any external distractions. Focus on the vibration. (There is only one.)
Ideally this video would be reviewed in a darkened room, and in a chair that would support your unconscious body. Repeated exposures in one sitting should not exceed 3, after which point one should wait at least 8 hours.
Typical side effects include paranoia and anxiety upon the first few exposures (2-5), followed by a pleasant drowsiness and near-instant relaxation of musculature on all further exposures.
The protocol has been concluded when your mind is completely purged of any notions of containing knowledge. This has been found to occur after 9 or more exposures.
Once a complete detoxification has been achieved the experience of reading this text will be very different. You will "see the fnords", to coin a phrase.
CREDITS:
* Original unaltered audio "The Stars" by Tom Fahy licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
* Application of detoxification technology by Sirus Burns, which significantly altered the original sound.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Manifesting Slenderman
We'll have to wait and see, because obviously nothing can be done until two things are true:
- The Slenderman myth has achieved enough saturation in the subconscious of, say, a few thousand people for me to draw upon their subconscious will to realize him.
- New fiction about him has stopped production, allowing me complete control of the populace's assumptions about the creature.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Confessions, Part 4
See also:
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
Confessions, Part 3
...
Lucas,
it is very late where I am and I am very tired, but cannot seem to sleep tonight. There are any number of trace chemicals left in my system that may account for my insomnia, but sedation is a bit too risky to attempt as these are purely experimental elements and it is unknown what the interactions might be. I'll have to wait it out, and in the meanwhile will take the opportunity to continue this series of "confessions".
Many of your Yellow-1 compatriots have asked me to fill them in on the source of my distress regarding the noises in Kiev but I have not yet given them an answer. In part this is because the answer is, simply put, a secret that I would likely be... "punished", let's say, for revealing. I can hint and make glancing remarks, but the core truth I'm afraid will have to be seen when it becomes public.
Apart from that, to be honest, even if I told everyone straight out none of them would understand. This whole process has truly highlighted for me just how deep the world's secrets run, and how little the general public understands what is happening around them. There was a time where I thought that Shea and Wilson's "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" was a gross exaggeration of how far away from the truth people have been pushed. I now know that this bit of fiction doesn't even come close to going far enough.
...
To begin to understand anything one must reach through the illusions we've created for ourselves. A healthy place to start would be to accept one single truth: everything you know is a lie.
The practice of doing so must survive a specific application of Cartesian Logic. IE:
The single, central goal is to return your mind to the state of an infant's, where all data is accepted without any interpretation into what we foolishly call "information". While your systems of interpretation may stay intact (the ability to detect the edges of solid objects, an understanding that there are consciousnesses that are somehow separate from yourself, the notion that movement can have direction, etc...) one must gain the ability to look around these mental constructs at the raw data itself.
Apply yourself to this task, Lucas, and you will be the better for it. Even a momentary glimpse of the world in this fashion will reveal more volumes of knowledge than my rambling writings ever could.
I'd give you a resource for further study along these lines but... well the truth is I think I may have invented this technique. I could be wrong. Let me know if you've heard of it.
...
I suppose the time has come, Lucas, for me to provide background regarding some of my earlier experiments. Had I known where this would all lead in the future I might never have begun, but then again, I haven't achieved anything in this life by worrying about consequences.
Now that it comes down to it I'm not sure where to start...
I had mentioned before that there was a point where I became tired of programming people, biology and chemistry became a bore, and I took to wandering the globe looking for inspiration. I did some consulting work at intelligence agencies in various countries under various identities but my heart wasn't in it. I never lasted more than a few months before leaving and creating a new identity elsewhere. Eventually it got to the point where I didn't even bother to fake my own death anymore.
Somehow I ended up in South Africa. The Afrikaners were still busily torturing and killing their way through Apartheid and had brought me in as a consultant to help achieve "total population demoralization". The goal was to move the populace to a point where there was no question of absolute obedience to authority, and ideally to maintain a listless state of sorrowful yet productive commitment labor as the "New Normal". (A term which, by the way, I was able to resurrect during the Bush administration if you remember.)
The whole thing was a waste of time, if I'm being completely honest. The people I was supposed to be working with were all doing a very efficient job by themselves rounding up random citizens, imprisoning and torturing them, and then sending them back out to tell the tale. The populace was well and truly suppressed with only the occasional minor revolt. While I was able to convince them that abuse needed to remain anonymous (strangers raping strangers is accepted by society, but if the victim knows the name of a rapist the entire city riots... go figure), for the most part the people on the ground were happy doing things the way they were already doing them without my input no matter what their superiors said.
I couldn't really blame them. They were getting results. What more could I add, really?
So it was back to boredom, a feeling that I hate above all others, and nobody to blame for it but these moronic Afrikaners. I justified my presence by building statistical models that showed which methods were most effective and which were a waste of resources. What was done right, I claimed as my influence. It pleased the higher-ups. To make it more interesting for myself I also implied in more than one report that certain individuals on the ground were operating under the private orders of a specific Minister or General. In this way I bred suspicion and hostility between the ranks which, as I understand it, eventually lead to the end of Apartheid sometime after I left and the loss of any international power the Afrikaners might have claimed. Not my original intention, mind you, but I noted the results for later use.
Besides, they had it coming for boring me.
Just as I was preparing to leave I got a call to investigate one of the more remote prisons in the country. It was a full day's drive through back roads and dried river beds to find the facility, which was a large grey 2 story affair and the only sign of civilization for miles. Of course I use the term "civilization" loosely. It was filled with a mass of illiterate, gibbering savages who spent most of their time screaming about some injustice or other, and that was just the staff. The inmates made the place resemble more of an asylum than a prison, and it was clear that the place had pushed the staff to their wit's end. In order to keep everyone from quitting it had generally become understood that if you tried to quit you would be executed.
While a prison run by the mentally unbalanced is hardly anything new, they were having a difficult time determining the cause of deaths among the inmates. If the staff had been killing them they would have readily said so without fear of reprisal, but something else was going on here. Inmates were dying without, apparently, anyone killing them.
At first one would assume suicide or disease but there were no signs of either. There were no marks on the bodies, no fevers reported, loss of appetite, or unusual behavior (as compared to the other inmates) prior to death. The phenomena wasn't restricted to a specific wing or time of day, and the age and sex of the victims were fairly evenly distributed. There were only two patterns that the staff had noticed: firstly, that the phenomenon only occurred when the prisoner was placed in a room alone. All deaths that occurred around other inmates or staff were explainable, but these deaths in isolation were not.
The other peculiar thing was that they were all found with their hands covering their eyes and, due to an usually early onset of rigor mortis, the arms would be stuck in that position. The facial expressions of the dead were universally blank, as if this pile of organs had never hosted a consciousness in the first place.
...
Lucas I've just woken from apparently passing out about 10 hours ago at this desk. I'm sore from sleeping in such an awkward position and have a full schedule ahead so I'll have to call this the end for the time being.
I'll continue when I can.
Regards,
Sirus
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
Confessions, Part 3
...
Lucas,
it is very late where I am and I am very tired, but cannot seem to sleep tonight. There are any number of trace chemicals left in my system that may account for my insomnia, but sedation is a bit too risky to attempt as these are purely experimental elements and it is unknown what the interactions might be. I'll have to wait it out, and in the meanwhile will take the opportunity to continue this series of "confessions".
Many of your Yellow-1 compatriots have asked me to fill them in on the source of my distress regarding the noises in Kiev but I have not yet given them an answer. In part this is because the answer is, simply put, a secret that I would likely be... "punished", let's say, for revealing. I can hint and make glancing remarks, but the core truth I'm afraid will have to be seen when it becomes public.
Apart from that, to be honest, even if I told everyone straight out none of them would understand. This whole process has truly highlighted for me just how deep the world's secrets run, and how little the general public understands what is happening around them. There was a time where I thought that Shea and Wilson's "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" was a gross exaggeration of how far away from the truth people have been pushed. I now know that this bit of fiction doesn't even come close to going far enough.
...
To begin to understand anything one must reach through the illusions we've created for ourselves. A healthy place to start would be to accept one single truth: everything you know is a lie.
The practice of doing so must survive a specific application of Cartesian Logic. IE:
- Everything you know is a lie.
- Everything you don't know is a lie.
- The opposite of everything you know is a lie.
- The opposite of everything you don't know is a lie.
The single, central goal is to return your mind to the state of an infant's, where all data is accepted without any interpretation into what we foolishly call "information". While your systems of interpretation may stay intact (the ability to detect the edges of solid objects, an understanding that there are consciousnesses that are somehow separate from yourself, the notion that movement can have direction, etc...) one must gain the ability to look around these mental constructs at the raw data itself.
Apply yourself to this task, Lucas, and you will be the better for it. Even a momentary glimpse of the world in this fashion will reveal more volumes of knowledge than my rambling writings ever could.
I'd give you a resource for further study along these lines but... well the truth is I think I may have invented this technique. I could be wrong. Let me know if you've heard of it.
...
I suppose the time has come, Lucas, for me to provide background regarding some of my earlier experiments. Had I known where this would all lead in the future I might never have begun, but then again, I haven't achieved anything in this life by worrying about consequences.
Now that it comes down to it I'm not sure where to start...
I had mentioned before that there was a point where I became tired of programming people, biology and chemistry became a bore, and I took to wandering the globe looking for inspiration. I did some consulting work at intelligence agencies in various countries under various identities but my heart wasn't in it. I never lasted more than a few months before leaving and creating a new identity elsewhere. Eventually it got to the point where I didn't even bother to fake my own death anymore.
Somehow I ended up in South Africa. The Afrikaners were still busily torturing and killing their way through Apartheid and had brought me in as a consultant to help achieve "total population demoralization". The goal was to move the populace to a point where there was no question of absolute obedience to authority, and ideally to maintain a listless state of sorrowful yet productive commitment labor as the "New Normal". (A term which, by the way, I was able to resurrect during the Bush administration if you remember.)
The whole thing was a waste of time, if I'm being completely honest. The people I was supposed to be working with were all doing a very efficient job by themselves rounding up random citizens, imprisoning and torturing them, and then sending them back out to tell the tale. The populace was well and truly suppressed with only the occasional minor revolt. While I was able to convince them that abuse needed to remain anonymous (strangers raping strangers is accepted by society, but if the victim knows the name of a rapist the entire city riots... go figure), for the most part the people on the ground were happy doing things the way they were already doing them without my input no matter what their superiors said.
I couldn't really blame them. They were getting results. What more could I add, really?
So it was back to boredom, a feeling that I hate above all others, and nobody to blame for it but these moronic Afrikaners. I justified my presence by building statistical models that showed which methods were most effective and which were a waste of resources. What was done right, I claimed as my influence. It pleased the higher-ups. To make it more interesting for myself I also implied in more than one report that certain individuals on the ground were operating under the private orders of a specific Minister or General. In this way I bred suspicion and hostility between the ranks which, as I understand it, eventually lead to the end of Apartheid sometime after I left and the loss of any international power the Afrikaners might have claimed. Not my original intention, mind you, but I noted the results for later use.
Besides, they had it coming for boring me.
Just as I was preparing to leave I got a call to investigate one of the more remote prisons in the country. It was a full day's drive through back roads and dried river beds to find the facility, which was a large grey 2 story affair and the only sign of civilization for miles. Of course I use the term "civilization" loosely. It was filled with a mass of illiterate, gibbering savages who spent most of their time screaming about some injustice or other, and that was just the staff. The inmates made the place resemble more of an asylum than a prison, and it was clear that the place had pushed the staff to their wit's end. In order to keep everyone from quitting it had generally become understood that if you tried to quit you would be executed.
While a prison run by the mentally unbalanced is hardly anything new, they were having a difficult time determining the cause of deaths among the inmates. If the staff had been killing them they would have readily said so without fear of reprisal, but something else was going on here. Inmates were dying without, apparently, anyone killing them.
At first one would assume suicide or disease but there were no signs of either. There were no marks on the bodies, no fevers reported, loss of appetite, or unusual behavior (as compared to the other inmates) prior to death. The phenomena wasn't restricted to a specific wing or time of day, and the age and sex of the victims were fairly evenly distributed. There were only two patterns that the staff had noticed: firstly, that the phenomenon only occurred when the prisoner was placed in a room alone. All deaths that occurred around other inmates or staff were explainable, but these deaths in isolation were not.
The other peculiar thing was that they were all found with their hands covering their eyes and, due to an usually early onset of rigor mortis, the arms would be stuck in that position. The facial expressions of the dead were universally blank, as if this pile of organs had never hosted a consciousness in the first place.
...
Lucas I've just woken from apparently passing out about 10 hours ago at this desk. I'm sore from sleeping in such an awkward position and have a full schedule ahead so I'll have to call this the end for the time being.
I'll continue when I can.
Regards,
Sirus
Monday, September 19, 2011
For Your Consideration
A quick note on the use of the word "they".
There is no SINGLE "they".
Some of "them" are organized. Some are not. Some have plans. Some do not. Some are what we would call "malevolent", but this ranges through "ambivalent" all the way up to "benevolent".
Simply put: what are humans from a mouse's perspective?
Depends on the human.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Confessions, Part 3
See also:
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
...
Lucas,
Your comment about not enjoying vulnerability is the sad story of the modern world I'm afraid. We live in an age where it is easier than ever to locate and track anyone, do anything you want to them, and move on with no consequences as long as you can show proper papers for it. The vast majority are walking naked and blindfolded before those with power, and the only thing that keeps the system moving is the simple belief that they are, in fact, safe.
Poor fools.
Embrace your vulnerability, Lucas. You will be humiliated, hurt, and colossally defeated when you least expect it in this life. It is a certainty. Own it, accept it, find the freedom of being one with it and stepping forward in the face of it. Doing so is the beginning of real power in this world, rather than the illusion thereof.
...
Regarding "morality": everybody, without exception, thinks they are the "good guys" Lucas. Everybody is the hero of their own story. From Genghis Kahn ordering his troops to kill all of the males in a village and rape the rest, to owners of modern-day child armies in Africa, to pedophile necrophiliacs on death row, everyone is of the opinion that they've made the best choice available given the circumstances. Everyone thinks they are virtuous "underneath it all".
I do my best to divest myself of any such illusions. I do what I do because it serves my curiosity and I enjoy the ego boost of doing what few people dream of. Whether what I do is for good or for ill is likely something I'll only discover years after the fact, or perhaps when I'm dead and gone and eternity grants me a quick look back.
Regarding morality as it relates to organizations: it doesn't. An organization is, inherently, an amoral construction. Think of it like an insect. Good or evil are abstract concepts beyond the insect's capacity for comprehension. While all organizations are originally birthed for theoretically virtuous reasons, those reasons quickly get forgotten. "Mission and Value Statements" are forgotten in any organization over 10 years old. After that point it exists for one reason only: to grow.
This is true of corporations, government agencies, and even charities. The people who make it run are operating on an insect-level logic, and are neither moral nor immoral. They just operate.
While you may disagree from a philosophical point of view, I must urge you to accept it from a functional point of view. This has been tested and proven to be a useful way to work with organizations time and time again. We get fantastic results using this approach. I dare say that if organizations were moral... well, there wouldn't be much for me to do in a day.
...
Your comment about my casual yet confusing reference to mind control programs and the like is well taken. When something is well-understood the mistake is to begin to consider it "obvious", no matter how specialized the knowledge happens to be. It is a logical blunder that I will do my best not to repeat.
One point that should be quickly clarified then: the express purpose of erasing my early life from my mind was purely to give myself a "blank slate" upon which to build what I will. No biases, no old wounds that need healing, no old wishes to be just like mommy or daddy or big bro, just a grand vast void within which I can construct whatever I fancy.
...
This email has already gone on a fair bit without covering my areas of expertise, which was the original intent when I took the keyboard this evening. In general one might say that I'm a coordinator of other people's genius.
Earlier in my career I polished up and codified the extensive work from the past century or so in the manipulation of public perception. We're at a point now where the general public is easy enough to manipulate that even an idiot can handle the task, and so I'm only ever called in when something on a global scale needs to be addressed. It's a fairly old science anyway.
The best example I can think of is when Constantine decided to convince Christians that there was no such thing as reincarnation, removing all references to it from the books of the Bible. Such was his success that centuries later Christians are completely unaware of the earlier versions of their own sacred document. Biblical scholars are trained even now to omit any book from the Bible deemed "inconsistent", and so a dozen or so books are floating around out there that are considered sacrilegious even though they're more "authentic" than what is referred to as holy.
There was a time where I considered Constantine's achievement the high-water mark for public manipulation but so much has been done since then, and the techniques have become so easy, that the whole thing bores me now.
Given my personal experiences and natural talents I was recruited at one point to work as a handler for programmed operatives that have been sprinkled around the world, all of whom consider themselves normal people living normal lives. It was a complete waste of my talents. You learn a few trigger words and programming protocols and send them off to seduce or kill someone, then suggest some false memories and send them on their way. Ultimately you're using about as much of your mind as you might operating a crane or a remote control car. While the boredom was a big contributor to my moving on, the tipping point was the paperwork. Layers upon layers of encoding, government protocols, and the constant droning speeches of how it was all for the "greater good" and a "higher cause" blah blah blah... nothing is more tedious than a person who takes themselves seriously, and the people I was forced to work with at the time were pathetic zealots.
There are a few stories there I suppose, both in some large-scale manipulations we've pulled off and some intrigue with a half-dozen three letter agencies, but maybe we'll come back to all of that later. On with the timeline...
It was around this point that I took a year long sabbatical to decide on where I really wanted to spend my time. I deconstructed the mind control programs that people were using and found them to be fairly complete, with little room for true innovation beyond what amounts to parlor tricks. I investigated the newer work being done in nootropics, brainwave entrainment, and magnetic brain interference patterns. Somewhere along the lines I came across what became the bulk of my current work: the "real" manipulation of space/time through altered perception. This led me down the road of the occult, psychedelics, and other newly-invented fields of study that I haven't had the opportunity to name yet.
I'll have to give some thought on how to continue with this. It occurs to me that the past few paragraphs have fallen into the trap of assuming you know what I'm talking about when, likely, you have no idea. Most people don't. Perhaps giving specific examples of experiments I've run will help. Let me take a few days to consider how to do so without exposing anyone.
Meanwhile, feel free to ask more questions.
Regards,
Sirus
Confessions, Part 1
Confessions, Part 2
...
Lucas,
Your comment about not enjoying vulnerability is the sad story of the modern world I'm afraid. We live in an age where it is easier than ever to locate and track anyone, do anything you want to them, and move on with no consequences as long as you can show proper papers for it. The vast majority are walking naked and blindfolded before those with power, and the only thing that keeps the system moving is the simple belief that they are, in fact, safe.
Poor fools.
Embrace your vulnerability, Lucas. You will be humiliated, hurt, and colossally defeated when you least expect it in this life. It is a certainty. Own it, accept it, find the freedom of being one with it and stepping forward in the face of it. Doing so is the beginning of real power in this world, rather than the illusion thereof.
...
Regarding "morality": everybody, without exception, thinks they are the "good guys" Lucas. Everybody is the hero of their own story. From Genghis Kahn ordering his troops to kill all of the males in a village and rape the rest, to owners of modern-day child armies in Africa, to pedophile necrophiliacs on death row, everyone is of the opinion that they've made the best choice available given the circumstances. Everyone thinks they are virtuous "underneath it all".
I do my best to divest myself of any such illusions. I do what I do because it serves my curiosity and I enjoy the ego boost of doing what few people dream of. Whether what I do is for good or for ill is likely something I'll only discover years after the fact, or perhaps when I'm dead and gone and eternity grants me a quick look back.
Regarding morality as it relates to organizations: it doesn't. An organization is, inherently, an amoral construction. Think of it like an insect. Good or evil are abstract concepts beyond the insect's capacity for comprehension. While all organizations are originally birthed for theoretically virtuous reasons, those reasons quickly get forgotten. "Mission and Value Statements" are forgotten in any organization over 10 years old. After that point it exists for one reason only: to grow.
This is true of corporations, government agencies, and even charities. The people who make it run are operating on an insect-level logic, and are neither moral nor immoral. They just operate.
While you may disagree from a philosophical point of view, I must urge you to accept it from a functional point of view. This has been tested and proven to be a useful way to work with organizations time and time again. We get fantastic results using this approach. I dare say that if organizations were moral... well, there wouldn't be much for me to do in a day.
...
Your comment about my casual yet confusing reference to mind control programs and the like is well taken. When something is well-understood the mistake is to begin to consider it "obvious", no matter how specialized the knowledge happens to be. It is a logical blunder that I will do my best not to repeat.
One point that should be quickly clarified then: the express purpose of erasing my early life from my mind was purely to give myself a "blank slate" upon which to build what I will. No biases, no old wounds that need healing, no old wishes to be just like mommy or daddy or big bro, just a grand vast void within which I can construct whatever I fancy.
...
This email has already gone on a fair bit without covering my areas of expertise, which was the original intent when I took the keyboard this evening. In general one might say that I'm a coordinator of other people's genius.
Earlier in my career I polished up and codified the extensive work from the past century or so in the manipulation of public perception. We're at a point now where the general public is easy enough to manipulate that even an idiot can handle the task, and so I'm only ever called in when something on a global scale needs to be addressed. It's a fairly old science anyway.
The best example I can think of is when Constantine decided to convince Christians that there was no such thing as reincarnation, removing all references to it from the books of the Bible. Such was his success that centuries later Christians are completely unaware of the earlier versions of their own sacred document. Biblical scholars are trained even now to omit any book from the Bible deemed "inconsistent", and so a dozen or so books are floating around out there that are considered sacrilegious even though they're more "authentic" than what is referred to as holy.
There was a time where I considered Constantine's achievement the high-water mark for public manipulation but so much has been done since then, and the techniques have become so easy, that the whole thing bores me now.
Given my personal experiences and natural talents I was recruited at one point to work as a handler for programmed operatives that have been sprinkled around the world, all of whom consider themselves normal people living normal lives. It was a complete waste of my talents. You learn a few trigger words and programming protocols and send them off to seduce or kill someone, then suggest some false memories and send them on their way. Ultimately you're using about as much of your mind as you might operating a crane or a remote control car. While the boredom was a big contributor to my moving on, the tipping point was the paperwork. Layers upon layers of encoding, government protocols, and the constant droning speeches of how it was all for the "greater good" and a "higher cause" blah blah blah... nothing is more tedious than a person who takes themselves seriously, and the people I was forced to work with at the time were pathetic zealots.
There are a few stories there I suppose, both in some large-scale manipulations we've pulled off and some intrigue with a half-dozen three letter agencies, but maybe we'll come back to all of that later. On with the timeline...
It was around this point that I took a year long sabbatical to decide on where I really wanted to spend my time. I deconstructed the mind control programs that people were using and found them to be fairly complete, with little room for true innovation beyond what amounts to parlor tricks. I investigated the newer work being done in nootropics, brainwave entrainment, and magnetic brain interference patterns. Somewhere along the lines I came across what became the bulk of my current work: the "real" manipulation of space/time through altered perception. This led me down the road of the occult, psychedelics, and other newly-invented fields of study that I haven't had the opportunity to name yet.
I'll have to give some thought on how to continue with this. It occurs to me that the past few paragraphs have fallen into the trap of assuming you know what I'm talking about when, likely, you have no idea. Most people don't. Perhaps giving specific examples of experiments I've run will help. Let me take a few days to consider how to do so without exposing anyone.
Meanwhile, feel free to ask more questions.
Regards,
Sirus
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)