GNOSTIQUE

A Selection of Mystical and Metacritical Views

Writings by John Lash, co-founder and principal author of Metahistory.org. A resume of John's published writings can be found below. Contributions from other authors are presented in Invited Views.

To the peaceful warrior, the watchful eye of the sentry is a shield. Placed in the palm of a hand, the eye represents the restraint necessary to set boundaries and the vigilance to keep them. The framing rattlesnakes depict the healing and harming forces that circulate around the boundaries of any situation, including dialogue and discourse.
(Engraved Stone Disk, Moundville, Alabama, c. 1200 CE.
From The Mythic Image by Joseph Campbell.)

This page is a portal to an ever-expanding collection of writings that delineate the human situation in metahistorical terms. The subject matter is diverse, but one abiding concern informs all the material: to assess the value of beliefs, observe how they drive behavior, and discern if they might be insane and inhumane.

The Peace Eye

The peace eye must be invoked when beliefs are put into question, because our attachment to what we believe is so visceral that any challenge may trigger a violent response. Blind identification with beliefs to be a primary symptom of what Wilhelm Reich called "the emotional plague." This is a widespread social epidemic and a psychospiritual disease, rampant in our time. Irrational behavior is driven by beliefs that gain in power as those who hold them become more and more dissociated from genuine, embodied knowledge. Reich detected the lethal form of the plague in mystical and militaristic behaviors, especially when they are combined. As we enter the 21st century, religious zeal combined with military (i.e., fascist and terrorist) motives is setting up an endgame scenario for the human species. The time for belief-change is now or never.

If we cannot openly challenge beliefs — those we ourselves hold, as well as those held by others — we stand at risk of being enslaved by them, and manipulated by those who would impose them for sinister purposes. 2400 years ago Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Equally so, it could be said that the unexamined belief is not worth holding.

No belief is sacred or beyond examination. It is possible to challenge beliefs with the intent to test their veracity, but without attacking those who hold those beliefs. The peaceful warrior will be clear on this distinction, but the person whose cherished beliefs are being questioned may not be so clear! Nevertheless, any sane person knows the difference between attacking a belief intellectually and physically attacking the person who holds it. Those infected with the emotional plague, who identify irrationally with what they believe, will not be able to tell the difference, and so the act of questioning beliefs will always be a dangerous calling.

Given the situation we face in the world today, it remains to be seen if it is more dangerous to challenge beliefs, or to let them go unchallenged.

Writings in The Cache fall into five categories:

Gnostic Folk Medicine is an ongoing series of writings on Gnosticism, Pagan spirituality and the Mysteries. Some articles are complementary to the material under development in the Commentaries on the Gaia Mythos.

Views Toward Alignment are orientation essays that treat the basic issues of metahistory.

Metacritique presents the elements of a unique methodology for the analysis of beliefs and belief-systems.

Believe It or Not contain shorter pieces on a wide variety is questions and issues. These articles often arise as spin-offs of longer writings in the sight. Film and book reviews are sometimes included.

Socratic Sessions (with just one session posted, so far) is an attempt to resurrect the Socratic dialogue in the special idiom of metahistory.

 

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