A quote

"Mathematicians, unlike other scientists, require no labatory equipment--a practice that reportedly began with Archimedes, who, after emerging from the bath and rubbing himself with olive oil, discovered the principles of geometry by using his fingernails to trace figues on his oily skin. A Japanese resteraunt, apparently, is as good a place as any to do mathematics. Mathemiticians need only peace of mind and, occasionaly, paper and pencil. 'That's the beauty of it,' Graham said. 'You can lie back, close your eyes, and work. Who knows what problem Paul is working on now.'"

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman

Math

For some reason I'm on a math kick right now. Joey deVilla reccomended a book called "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers," the biography of Paul Erdos. I picked that up on Wed. along with a book on information theory. Today, I picked up A Beautiful Mind, the biography of John Nash, and The Man Who Knew Infinity, the biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan. It was also one of those days at work, so we ended up just blowing the day off and spent the last 2 hours or so before 5, watching the movie version of A Beautiful Mind.

There is something comforting in the lives of these men. Well, to be honest I haven't cracked the two books I bought today, but there was something comforting about Paul Erdos, and seeing Ron Howard's dipiction of John Nash. It wasn't the "movie quality" of the film that got my attention, instead it was the portrail of Nash himself. His mannerisms and the way he had trouble dealing with people. The way Paul Erdos forsaked everything that came between him and mathmatics. And I imagen what I will find in the other books as well. The knowledge that great men have just as much trouble with the world. That these great men were different and didn't fit in.

I've spent the last year or two jjust trying to come to terms with myself. Trying to accept myself for who I am. Not trying to hold myself up as some superior or putting myself down as some flawed existence. But, just acceptinng myself as someone who is different then the rest of the world. Who does not care about the things that others care about and who cares greatly about things that other people can't be bothered with.

I'm making great headway, and reading about these men is a great help. I just felt like writing that.

Salaam aliekum Khizr

Today is the feast day of Khizr, the moslem patron saint of cannabis. Do what you will with this knowledge.

Writing in Public

Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross are collaborating on another short story together. This time though they're doing it online. So far the story is great. Highly reccomended.

Two Links

Two links from Jesse Walker:

Stories of community radio is Bolivia and El Salvador.

The Distinctions between patriotism, nationalist, and imperialism. I'd add facism to the list, but I'm not sure off hand of how that would look.

Death of Ego In Music

I keep thinking about Shava's post about the rituals revolving around the death of the ego. In particular I keep coming back to music, specifically movements like noise, no wave, and similiar experimental artists.

There is an idea that I came across somewhere, I think while reading up on the old no wave scene, that describes this style of music as the destruction of preconceived notions about music for the purpose of taking music to a new level. My interpretation of what I read was that the artists are trying to force themselves to take things to a new level, and to accomplish this are purposefully avoiding the standard cliches of structure in their music. Forcing themselves into a free fall where things work or don't, but chances are always taken. This is similiar to some of the ideas behind free jazz, which probably should have been mentioned in the genres above.

One of the things I keep coming back to is the violence that is inherent in this style of music. When I say violence, I do not neccisarily mean lyrically or in an image sense, though this is common. But, instead I refer to the approach. The music that is created, by it's very nature, appears violent. As if the very idea of stripping the cliches from the music is a violent act in and of itself.

Probably the best example of this is earlier Boredoms. Unfortunetly, I don't have any at work. I do have Super AE with me though. And perhaps this is the example that I'm looking for. Super AE is refered to as the begining of the Boredoms "sun worshipping" phase. And elements of the album reflect this. This is not a violent album in image. Yet, the style, with thier trade mark neck brake changes and tape manipulation, seems violent and celebratory at the same time. As if it is the music's ego that we are watching die in front of us.

I'm probably completly missing the point that Shava was trying to make, but this is where my thoughts keep going.

Death of Ego

Shava is talking about a ritual in the Philippines where Catholics nail themselves to a cross. She talks about how this practise relates to other rituals concerned with the death of the ego. Things like the Sun Dance ritual. (BTW, I think it's Discovery Channel or TLC that has a show on the history of body modification. In the second half there is a short scene where they film and talk to a guy who goes through the suspension ritual. It's an interesting experience to watch, but not reccomended for the weak of stomach.)

Her writings struck a chord with me. It's still to early (both after reading the post and after I consumed my first cup of coffee) for me to really get into my thoughts on the matter, but I wanted to write something before it all just completly left my head.

Like a lot of dissatisfied teens, I played with the roles of pain when I was younger. There's a purity in pain, or there seemed to be. Perhaps it was just my own mind trying to justify my "tortured soul." As I got older my pain fetish moved from physical to psychological, as I started to just abuse the hell out of myself mentally. In the end, it reached a level where I felt more comfortable in my skin if I was in mental anguish. I once remarked to a friend that what I really needed was some woman to come into my life, let me fall in love with her, and then have her rip my heart out. I imagen that I'm not completly alone in this little ritual.

I also can't help wonder about the similarities between these rituals and the rituals that Shava discusses. Both seem to be concerned with the death and rebirth of the ego, though I doubt many "tortured souls" understand this. If you look at it though, it makes sense. Most of these souls are teenagers. Alienated from thier peers and those around them. They tend to yern for an escape, to either be normal or find a place where they fit in. Most find that they were in a transition phase, slipping from the narrow strata of social groups at that age, into the more complex world that awaits them. It is as if, on some subconcious level they understand that they are about to be reborn into a new world. The "tortured soul" routine is a form of exorcism. Leaving behind the trappings of their youthful existence and trying desperetly to find their place in the world. As if they beleave that to move forward their past must be destroyed. That they can not assimilate what they were with what they will become. Though most are probably just searching for a chance to burn off the dead wood of their pain.

On a more personal side of things, the thought that popped in my head while reading the article was of John Zorn's Leng Tch'e piece. Leng Tch'e was inspired by pictures that Zorn saw of the last public execution in Bejing, which imployed the Leng Tch'e style. Leng Tch'e involves giving the victim a small bit of morphine to keep them from dieing of shock and then litterally cutting them into a 100 pieces. The album includes a few dark photos of the execution. None of them are clear enough to be gory, but they are clear enough to convey what is being done and leave an unsettling feeling in the viewers soul. The music itself doesn't help matters. A dark piece of music that occupies the space that has been created by the experiments between jazz/fusion musicians and metal/punk/noise musicians. The piece is interesting, and can be handled in a cerebal fashion that allows for understanding, but lets the listener retain some distance between the sounds and the subject. That is untill about the 16th or 17th minute of the 35ish minute piece. It's at this point that Eye from The Boredoms comes in on vocals. This is before The Boredoms did Super AE so Eye's vocal style is still a series of blood curtling screams. It immedietly puts the listener in a bad place. Detachment is no longer possible as you are forced to imagen the screams of the victim as they are being cut. It's as if the morphine has worn off, and the victim suddenly is fully aware of what is being done to him. And you, the observer are suddenly fully aware that this is a living person. Zorn's alto sax squeels, which sound like a screaming woman, do not help alieviate the situation and serve to only pull you deeper into the mix. I've made it through the piece on two occasions, needless to say, it is not extremely easy to do so. Both times I made it through, I spent the last 10 mins trying to suspress the urge to pull my headphones off and throw them across the room.

The reason that I mention this is that one day we were chatting at work about music. One of my coworkers was very into metal when he was younger and since I was passingly into it (I hopped over to punk pretty quickly) we occasionally reminecse about old bands. After chatting a bit we headed off to lunch. On the way back, I played him a portion of the begining of Leng Tch'e. I then fast forwarded to Eye's intro. He spent the rest of the day commenting about the experience, and how it had disturbed him on a very base level. Now, to give context, this is a guy who spent part of his youth very much into things like death metal, he's not a light weight.

What I found interesting, after reading Shava's post, was that for him the experience immedietly became an initiation. There are three of us who work in the office, A, the coworker, is my age, while M. is a bit younger. A. immedietly started talking about initiating M. by making him look at the photos and listen to the music. I just find it interesting that a piece that was inspired by pain and torture and leaves such a strong impression on the mind that it can still be felt a day or two later, immedietly took on that kind of role in the mind of someone who would not have been aware of the implications of what he was saying.

In other news, I think I will spend the day listening to noise and drone.

Appropriation

In a previous entry I talked about the apropriation of religion/culture to form a new mode of thought. Before I go off to sleep tonight, I'd like to get some more ideas on this out.
The idea of this comes from an interview with Peter L. Wilson. What sparked my thought was the following quote:

"The first incursions of Zen into America were from Japanese of dubious orthodoxy and I would even included D.T. Suzuki in that category. Then you had a lot of Americans who 'didn't understand it,' and they made their own thing out of their fortuitous mistranslation. Something about Zen filled the bill. In terms of Japanese scholarship, they were wrong. But in terms of the spirit, it seems they were right.

"What was happening was precisely what Zen itself calls 'beginner's mind.' After centuries, something radically new was happening to Zen, and unfortunately Zen was not able to appreciate it, because Zen soon moved in the Roshis. 'Fine, fine, you're into Zen?  Here's the real Zen.' And the real Zen turned out to be just another fucking despotism. Even giving orthodoxy it's due, they shouldn't have stamped out those embers. Because it had that benefit of beginner's mind, that sweetheart situation, Beat Zen made Buddhism what it is today: the biggest Oriental religion in America. That's how you get things like the TV show Kung Fu. A lot of Oriental stuff seeped into that stupid show, and created a whole generation of people for whom it was part of their universe of discourse."

This is what I'm really getting at. It's not that I think orthodox ideas are not important. With out the original ideas to give context to the latter creations, the later creations are useless. Instead what I find myself moving towards is a form of thought that takes bits and pieces of various schools of thought and strings them together into something that more closely represents my own thoughts.

I was raised Irish Catholic, but I had a slightly different upbringing, that lead me into areas that one might not expect from such an upbringing. My mother is a very religious person, and has only gotten more so as she has aged. Early on though, she taught my brother's and I that the most important element of religion is the relationship between the individual and god. That nothing should stand in the way of this relationship. This obviously goes against traditional Catholic thought, which dictates that a member of the church must act as an intermediary between the individual and god. Needless to say, I prefer my mother's beliefs.

When I was 20 years old I found myself in a situation where it was neccisary to discover my "real" relationship with god. I went through a process where I examined my belief structure and did away with those things that did not seem neccisary to me. Instead concentrating on those things that I felt in my heart were true. During this process, I found it extremely helpful to view the question of god through the eyes of other belief structures. And so I started to integrate ideas from Taoism into my belief structure. Later, I introduced elements of Discordianism and Buddhism into the picture. I have a feeling in the near future I will start introducing elements of Sufism and Islam into that picture as well.

My relationship with god is just that, my relationship. I find it counter productive to view that relationship through a single narrow belief structure. It seems obvious to me that the entity that I am trying to make contact with is a complex entitiy, and it seems counter productive to me to limit my tool set in trying to make contact. Another way of saying it would be to say that it seems counter productive to me to try and understand how best I can become one with god, while using the narrow belief structure of a single religion. Instead, I rummage through the various belief structures, take the tools and ideas that I find and compare them to what I know. Or, more precisely, think I know. When these tools strike a chord in my heart, and ring true for me, I use them to try and further my understanding. When they don't, I make a mental note of them, in case I may find them useful later on in my travels, but ultimetly, discard them.

For me the search for god is an individual search. Groups can provide much needed help and support, but ultimetly, the trip must be made by the individual. Because the trip is an individual one, it does not make sense to me, to use a belief structure that is meant for group use. These belief structures can be a great help when discussing matters with other people. And knowing how to approach the subject of belief with other individuals. When I know the relgion(s) that an individual subscribes to, I know what matters I can discuss with that individual, and what matters are best left unsaid. I also know what vocabulary I should use when discussing certain topics. For the individual search though, I do not feel that a single belief structure is useful, in fact I believe that it is detrimenal to the sought after goal.

So, when I talk about appropriating other beliefs, with out bothering to make sure that you understand the authentic use of those beliefs, what I am advocating is the personalization of the belief structure. Making the belief structure your own and defining it on your terms. I am not advocating ignoring authentic teachings as useless. They may provide great insight that can be of great help, at the very least, they provide you with the vocabulary that you will need to approach someone who subscribes to that belief structure so that you can compare notes and glean knowledge from their own lessons learned.

I guess that about sums up what it was that I was trying to get at. At least in the realm of religion. There is a culture angle, which is similiar. This is also concerned with personalizing the culture to fit your own skin, instead of locking yourself into a group mind set that may ultimetly limit your growth as an individual. People must always be on the look out for the hive mind, which seeks to limit individualism. Just because a culture or religion is not mainstream, does not mean that it is immune to the hive mind set. Human beings are pack animals, and difference is suspect when running in packs.

No more scraps

As I alluded to in an earlier post I've taken the two posts to Scraps of the Fringe and moved them over to this blog. I'll link to the two posts in the near future, with some added links that I've found recently. The Scraps blog will be dissapearing. I'm not sure what's going to happen to the idea behind it though. I'm planning on learning php and mySQL in the near future, and am thinking about creating a database for various little things that cross my path.
If I don't end up creating the database, I will be linking to such things here in this blog. Things that are already on the web, will be linked to their site, things that come through email will either be quoted here, or put on a page of their own and linked to here. Ultimetly, we'll see where this all goes.

Wandering Bishops post
Incunabula Catalog post

Happy Easter

From the Moorish Orthodox list:

HOLY KORAN XIX:11-21

11 And Jesus said, "Behold, for I am risen from the dead. Look at my hands, my feet, my side.

12 The Roman soldiers pierced my hands and feet with nails; and then one pierced my heart.

13 They put me in a tomb, and then I wrestled with the conqueror of men. I conquered death, I stamped upon him and arose;

14 Brought immortality to light and painted on the walls of time a rainbow for the sons of men; and what I did all men shall do.

15 This gospel of the resurrection of the dead is not confined to Jew and Greek; it is the heritage of every man of every time and
clime; and I am here a demonstration of the power of man."

16 Then he arose and pressed the hand of every man and of the royal host, and said,

17 "Behold, I am not myth made of the fleeting winds, for I am flesh and bone and brawn; but I can cross the borderland at will."

18 And then they talked together there a long, long time. The Jesus said,

19 "I go my way, but you shall go to all the world and preach the gospel of the omnipotence of men, the power of truth, the
resurrection of the dead;

20 He who believes this gospel of the son of man shall never die; the dead shall live again."

21 Then Jesus disappeared, but he had sown the seed. The words of life were spoken in Orissa, and all of India heard.

Sufi Knowledge

It is interesting to note the difference between science as we see it today, and as it was seen by one of it's pioneers. Roger Bacon, considered to be the wonder of the middle ages and one of humanity's greatest thinkers, was the pioneer of the method of knowledge gained through experience. This Franciscan monk learned from the Sufi's of the illuminist school that there is a difference between the collection of information and the knowing of things through actual experiment. In his Opus Maius, in which he quotes Sufi authority, he says:

There are two modes of knowledge, through argument and experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but it does not cause certainty nor remove doubts in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience.

This Sufi doctrine is known in the west as the scientific method of inductive proceeding, and subsequent Western knowledge is largely based upon it.
Modern science, however, instead of accepting the idea that experience was necessary in all branches of human thought, took the word in its sense of "experiment," in which the experimenter remained as far as possible outside the experience.
From the Sufi point of view, therefore, Bacon, when he wrote these words in 1268, both launched modern science and also transmitted only a portion of the wisdom upon which it could have been based.
"Scientific" thinking worked continuously and heroically with this partial tradition ever since. In spite of its roots in the work of the Sufi's, the impairment of the tradition has prevented the scientific researcher from approaching knowledge by means of itself -- by "experience," not merely by "experiment"

Idries Shah, from the Author's Preface to The Sufi's

I've picked this book up again. Last time I read it, I got a few chapters in before getting side tracked by something else. We'll see how far I get this time.
I bought the book used, and the above quote is underlined, but I think I was the one who underlined it. Something about this passage strikes me. The reliance on experience as the higher truth. But, also the idea that arguement is specifically mentioned as not being above experience. This idea will surface again. I'm sure of it.

Today is Easter, a time of renewal. A good time to start a new path, or pick on where an old one left off.

Synchronicities

I've been having a strange string of synchronicities lately. Nothing big, just the small ones that make life a little fun.

For instance, last weekend I was thinking about a coworker of mine. He bought an iPod several months ago, but barely uses the thing. For some reason on Saturday I was thinking about this fact and decided to tell him on Monday that the next time he gets a car, he should get one with a tape deck in the stereo. Then, he could do what i do, and use his iPod to hold his CDs, instead of having to figure out what he's going to be listening to that day (a big problem for me). Then, later in the day, I went to the local Pakistani restaurant for lunch and ran into the owner's son. He'd talked to my coworker before about Lexus's (he owns one, the coworker has considered buying one). He mentioned that he'd gotten the new catalog thingy that Lexus sends it's customers and that my coworker should come by to have a look at it, since there was some new car that they've got out or something like that (I've never been big on cars).

So, where does all this lead? Monday, I get in and damn if the coworker hadn't bought a car that weekend.

In another instance, I was reading an article at Game Girl Advance on gender in gaming, and Will Wright of Sim City fame was mentioned. Later in the day, with no prompting what so ever, the same coworker suddenly mentions, out of the blue, that he's thinking about picking up Sim City.

The big one though happened on Monday. A different coworker was looking to buy a Darrel Green jersey for his brother-in-law's birthday this weekend, but was having trouble tracking one down that didn't cost a fortune. Later that day, as I'm leaving work, I pull out onto the parkway and what do I see in front of me? A motorcycle rider wearing a Darrel Green jersey.

Like I said, none of these things are big. They're just the ones that kind of make you smile when they happen. For me though, it makes me smile a little wider. After a couple years now of living a boringly normal life. I now have some hope, that may be things will get a little strange again. May be I will be saved from this mind numbing sanity.

Seriously, I have no idea of how people deal with this stuff.

Reaction to an interview

In an interview with Wilson he talks about authenticity. He also brings this up at the end of his Afghanistan essay. Admitting freely to his romanticism of his time in Central Asia. This had got me to thinking about the idea of appropriation. Especially on a cultural level. As our world finds itself hurdling towards a Disneyfied existence with one global culture. I can't help but wonder what people who are looking for an out will do? Currently, you have the option of turning your back on the corporate culture and, like Wilson does himself, travel off into a pocket of the world that is untouched by the corporate culture. But, as these pockets are destroyed. As the old world dies off, what then? Will people really dive into anthropological tomes to discover what these cultures were really like? Or will they simply adopt portions that they come across, and invent their own versions? New cultures that have been stitched together from scraps of older cultures.

The more I found myself thinking along these lines the more I realized that this is how I have been living my life. I have spent most of my life trying to find somewhere where I belong and can feel at home. In this time I've slipped from one culture to another. But, since I have not found a culture that I could dedicate myself to, I have never been able to learn about authenticity. I've never been around long enough to really get into the specifics. This is sometimes an issue of attention span, other times though it's a matter of teachers. My learning style requires that I be able to discuss matters with people to fully internalize it. I have to be able to bounce ideas off of other people to fully understand, not only the facts, but the implications of those facts. Since the large majority of my explorations have been solitary, I have not had the opportunity to do this crucial step in understanding. The result is that I never really see the culture from the inside. I'm perpetually looking from the outside and trying to understand with out reference.

Obviously, this leads to misunderstandings and miscommunications. In the end, I routinely end up with a view that gets the major issues but misses some of the subtleties of these cultures that I'm looking at. This incomplete understanding leads to the creation of a new culture that exists purely in my head and only contains some similarities to the real cultures that they are based on. Combined with these major concepts, or at least, my interpretation of these major concepts is the little bits and pieces that I've created and slid into the holes. In short, a new creation using pieces of other cultures that I've appropriated.

I used to feel bad about this habit. I would get discouraged because I never seemed to "get it." I am now starting to reassess this idea. Why should I be concerned with authenticity? Why should I be so concerned with making sure that my views are in line with the status quo? Even if the status quo is that of fringe culture? The only problem that could arise is if I confused my interpretations with the real thing. But, I am painfully aware that I do not "get it." If I did, then I'd be a part of that culture, and I've never been apart of any culture. So what stands between me and inventing my own world to live in?

That last line, combined with my theories on subjective reality makes me wonder if I've got a asylum somewhere in my future. I seem to be moving further and further into abandoning consensus reality for a world of my own creation. Will a time come when I stop being able to function outside of my own creation?

Giving up already?

I've got two entries in my new "Scraps of the Fringe" blog that I created yesterday. I just posted the latest entry on the Incunabula Catalog.

Something about this catalog just gets to me. Whenever I do research on it. To find just another little scrap of the story, I always seem to come away from the experience feeling completly out of touch and "uncool." I just revert back to the kid I was in high school feeling like I'm living on the outside. The problem is that the catalog reminds me of all the people that know so much more then me, and the whole thing seems futile. I don't know. May be it's the burbon talking.

As of now, I'm scraping the idea. It just seems pointless.

Shit, I don't feel like writing.

If you want to see the pathetic start, go here. I may incorporate the two posts into this blog. I may just kill them. We'll see.

UPDATE: See what happens when I get drunk? I did ultimetly decide to end the Scraps blog. For the time being the blog is still available on the server, but that's only untill I get around to killing it completly. For the full run down on things, read this post.

That Blasted Catalog

One of the oldest and most twisted of the scraps that one can find on the web is the story of the Incunabula Catalog. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, but the catalog is reported to date back to BBS's back in the early 90's. And I've found, what look to be, logs from old BBS's that are now on the web, and sure enough the catalog is listed in some of these.

One of the first summaries of the story that I came across is at Technoccult.net. A quick look through there shows that the story is long and twisted, and makes the Illuminatus Trilogy look like a children's tale.

On 8/9/01 the following message appeared:

Open letter to conspiracy community

Nick and I decided today to publicly announce in the near future that the Ong's Hat Project has now concluded. We will be contacting Peter L. Wilson as well and see if he'd like to make a statement. I think it would still make a good book from a cultural anthropology perspective, your call.

My program has finished running and I am being recalled from duty. I think we were successful in laying the groundwork for the coming change. The gateways are open now.

I am glad to finally be myself again: 7:37 PM PST.

PS: This is not a joke.

The Real Joe Matheny

AKA/ Michael Kelly

A few days later on 8/14/01 the above was followed with:

Ong's Hat Tantric Egg Research Center

was a necessary ruse for deflecting

attention from our real project--

to open up your conduits, brother and sisters,

to rip off the confining condom of language and

to Fuck Nature Unprotected.

Doctor Jabir

Public Relations

Quantum Tantra

Huh? I think I was mind controlled...

What eBook?

Joseph Matheny

Incunabula Research Center

Fuck Off!

Peter L. Wilson

AKA

Hakim Bey

Don't, don't!

Don't unplug me!

EmoryBot 3.0

(unplugged)

Permission to repost

Copyleft 2001

And that looked like the end of it. But, even if the above is not diversion, can the creators of a meme turn the meme off? Has the meme even been turned off? The fragments of the story still exist, scattered around the web. People do not find the above message until they have spent time searching for the rest of the scraps.

Personally, I found the catalog right before the end. I didn't even know that the story had ended until a year or so later. Through the catalog I found the MST/MOCA, quantum theory, chaos theory, chaos magick, and all kinds of other little headfucks. I never took the story completely seriously. I knew it was a joke, or at least I told myself it was. At the time though I was experimenting a lot with reality and belief systems. And now and then I would believe in the catalog. I would believe that it did exist and that the travel cults were real. It was a fun excersise that expanded my mind in new directions.

I do not think the catalog's meme will ever fully die. I think it will bop around the fringe, occasionally being picked up by new comers who's eyes are wide and are willing to experiment with anything. What I'm afraid of is the jadedness of the fringe. The feeling of "you're still playing with that old meme?" May be it's just me, but as I turned things around in my head it was a feeling that I couldn't shake. I still can't. May be it's just in my head though.

Links:

The Eggroom at Dark Planet. There are some links in there that may keep the story alive. I need to hunt through them.

Frequency Edition 2001-2012. It's probably just best to hunt through this on your own.

Stare: incuBLOGula. The new life of the old incunabula.org. A site started by Joseph Matheny to document the catalog. This was the original vortex of this mad little story. I need to poke through the site and see how much of the old documents are still available on the site.

Some Interesting pictures. The site appears to be DW Cooper's.

I'll add to this as time goes by, but I encourage people who are not familiar with the story to find their own little scraps.

Errand/Wandering Bishops

In the History and Catechism of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America there is this odd reference to the early stages of the MOCA:

At that early stage, the M.O.C. was seen as partly Moorish and partly Eastern Orthodox, and there existed certain ties with "Errant Bishops" of the Old Catholic Church, Syrian Orthodoxy, etc.

This same quote is recasted in Ong's Hat: Gateway to the Dimensions as:

In the 1950s some white jazz musicians and poets who held "passports" in the M.S.T. founded the Moorish Orthodox Church, which also traced its spiritual ancestry to various "Wandering Bishops" loosely affiliated with the Old Catholic Church and schisms of Syrian Orthodoxy.

I've wondered for some time about these "Wandering Bishops." It's been some time since I've actively investigated them at all, but I remember finding out that there was a book written about them. Unfortunately, the book was out of print and searches for it came up with nothing.

Actually, I just looked around found this message that I posted to the MOCA list I'm on in response to someone else asking about the Bishops:

Actually, this goes along my own interests. Can anyone recommend any good books? I've been looking for a copy of Bishops At Large, by Peter F. Anson, which Peter Wilson sites in his essay on MST in Sacred Drift, but I'm assuming the book's now out of print (even the publisher, Faber and Faber, doesn't have a listing for the book). If anyone can recommend another book, or knows of some place where I could get a copy of Bishops At Large, I'd be grateful.

A response to this question recommends checking out Advance Book Exchange. I did then and just did again. Same result both times, nothing.

I did see this when I was looking through the MOCA list:

also, the Wandering Bishops and the autocephalous churches movement, which played a major role in the original formation of the M.O.C. (hence the term "orthodox" and our title of "Metropolitan", for example)

Not sure where this is going, but it gives me a few more things to search. I'll have to email the guy that posted the above (who also posted the original message that I was responding to).

Crap! I just went looking for my book on Orthodox Christianity, and I couldn't find it. Where the hell did I put that thing? I checked Mircia Eliade's A History of Religious Ideas, but it isn't listed in the index of the two volumes I have. Could be in volume three. Let me get bills paid and we'll see if I can afford the third volume. Till then, I've got to track down that Orthodoxy book.

Before I post this. I looked again and found my book on Orthodox Christianity. (The Orthodox Church, by Timothy Ware) He mentions autocephalous, but only in as much as this term means self governing, and is how orthodox churches are run. There are two references to Syrian Churches. One is part of the "Church of the East" and is labeled as the "East Syrian Church." The other reference is to the Non-Chalcedonian Churches and here we have the Syrian Church of Antioch and the Syrian Church of India. Both of these groups are part of the "Oriental Churches" which split from the main body of Christianity in the fifth and sixth century.

I probably need to look into what "Syrian Orthodoxy" is. I assumed the reference was to the country, but I'm guessing now it's more an idea. By the way, Antioch appears to be on the border of modern day Turkey and Syria. Though it's not listed on the atlas I have. It's not a great atlas for these kind of things though.

So the questions for now are:

1) Who were the Wondering Bishops?

2) What was the the autocephalous churches movement?

3) What is Syrian Orthodoxy?

Scraps from the fringe

Today I finally set about reading an essay on Peter Lamborn Wilson that was posted to a Moorish Orthodox List that I'm a part of. It got me thinking about the random scraps of information you come across on the web that deal with the fringe.

By the very nature of the fringe, it is rarely documented in any perminant sense. Books are written, but soon go out of print. And even they rarely collect all the information that revolves around the various mysteries that live on the fringe of society. And it seems the more complete the book, the quicker it goes out of print.

Web pages are even worse. They throw up just enough to tantalize and ussually promise more, when the author "has more time." Invariably though, a check of these sites will ussualy find that they were abandoned years ago.

Then there are the slips of information that are passed in email. Enigmatic references to things you were unaware even existed. Requests for more information either go unanswered or only serve to point you to a dead end, ussually an abandoned web page or out of print book. But always resulting in more questions then answers.

I started wondering about this. About those little scraps of information that float around the 'net. Wondering if there was some grand hidden Alexandria, where all the answers could be found, perhaps hidden in the shadows of the corporate culture that the fringe lives outside of. But, more then likely such a place, real or virtual, has never existed. As I said, the very nature of the fringe is what causes these scraps to float around, with no home to be tucked away into.

I then made the bold decision to try and build such a home. A list of links to long forgotten, or little known, web pages. Copies of articles from long out of print zines and magazines. Essays and scraps of writings that were "leaked" to the fringe, but who's promised printed companions never materialized. Basically, anything and everything that I can get my hands on. Every little scrap of the fringe that I can find.

Why?

Because I need a hobby and because I have feel that others probably wonder where this road goes and where it has been. But mostly, because I want to know where this road goes and where it has been. There are to many questions that I've had go unanswered. To many lingering threads that I wish I could, if not tie up, at least enlongate a little more.

So in short, as with this blog, the site will mostly be for me. In case others find it of interest, I'll make it available to the public. In the end though, I want to see it exist. And instead of waiting for someone else to bring it into existence, I will do it.

If anyone wishes to donate artifacts to the collection, please let me know. Otherwise, I will simply scour the net and used bookstores picking up assorted odds and ends, and little scraps of the fringe.

How long will this project last? I'd love to see it continue forever. Turn into a project to document the present as much as document the past. In the end, I will probably fall victim to the same curse that all those before me have fallen victim to. And the page will ultimetly be abandoned. Another marker of what has come before for future generations to wonder about. A marker that, like all the rest, leads to more questions then answers.

Crazy idea #189356

Cartoon Logic Law #1: If you run/walk/etc. off the edge of a cliff you will continue to run/walk/etc. as if running/walking/etc. on solid ground until such a time that you realize that you have in fact run/walk/etc. off a cliff.

Cartoon Logic Law #2: A entity can move through solid matter if an artwork that is painted on that solid matter that depicts some kind of hole through that matter. i.e. a tunnel being painted on a rock. This same feat is not available to the entity that created this artwork knowing full well that it is simply an artwork.

This works off the consensus/subjective nature of reality. This shows that consensus reality is the natural state of reality. And that subjective reality can be obtained when the entity is unaware of their state (i.e. that they have just run off a cliff). This raises the question though if one can refute consensus reality in any way and actively turn their back on it. This would obviously require the individual to completely purge themselves of any doubt as to the the falseness of consensus reality.

This second theory is supported by the exception of Cartoon Logic Law #2:

In special occasions, given certain deliberate circumstances, it is possible for the creator of said artwork to use that artwork as a way to travel through solid matter. This ability is directly related to the ability to manipulate reality in other ways and is given to the same laws of circumstances

Given this exception, it could be said that these circumstances involve the rejection, if only temporarily, of the laws of consensus reality.