Hi,
To put this whole sordid interlude to bed once and for all, Kevin and I caught up for a chat. By the way, there is more Bio-Individual coming. I’m almost done editing a passion project for someone which has taken away from time available to me for a while now.
Kevin and I will be aiming in future at a more focused, almost course-like approach to subjects we want to talk about. So fewer releases, but much more information rich and focused.
Anycase, where were we?
Ahh yes, Secret Kings…
I think it’s important to think about. I don’t consider myself spiritual as you know considering the term distasteful and otherworldly. But I engage in a few forms of practice that may be traditionally viewed in such a way. My purpose is not explicitly “spiritual”, rather I utilise these things for the purpose of personal power. Which is a bit of different POV. Still, one thing I’ve noticed in myself and others, indisputably, is that practice can easily open you up to being completely and irredeemably delusional. The hard truth is many of us need to face is that even a normal life is better than this outcome.
I’ve seen people justify those delusions, saying they’re a necessary part of this or that process. This is itself a fantasy that keeps any real achievement well and truly at arms length. All this is really no different to anything else in life. But for some reason, spiritual people give fantasies and self-deception a free pass. It’s not ok in any other aspect of life, but ok in this one, for some reason.
Think of the those old movies, where a man tries to pick up his hat but ends up constantly kicking it away.
So as far as I can see, the most important task there is can only really be understanding character and motivation. Crucially in the initial stages of whatever path we choose. Even if we start with an estimation, this is better than being driven by internal feelings of inferiority and compulsion.
I can tell you that this is exceptionally rare, however. Really, really rare. Almost everyone uses these things as an ego-boost. Unfortunately for them, the reality of these kinds of practices is that they are designed for anything but an ego-boost. When done right.
They’re physiologically and psychically deconstructive. At least in the initial hard stages. And if any of it is to work, then what I will call character in this article, should be in the crosshairs.
Westerners in general, I find, have an exceedingly difficult time with this. Since we have in comparison to other cultures perhaps, an inclination towards burlesque and enjoyable individualism.
One thing Wilhelm Reich got right is that our character cannot be seen. It can be inferred, but never seen directly. And in my opinion this is where the Westerner gets tripped up. If he works hard he may get shown elements of character, but it’s never integrated as it needs to be. The sense of inferiority that’s showing itself cannot be tolerated, so it just gets covered up with even more stupendous, performative, often unpleasant and burlesque displays. Hardened harder than it was before. The only difference in the end is that now you can’t even tolerate a few minutes with him or her.
The Western drive towards some type of individuality, no matter how flawed, is a very good thing in my view. I love it. But it also means we tend to have difficulty with these processes. Someone like Jung, in his book “The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga”, went so far to say that Westerners essentially can’t go through such processes. That they just go nuts. I fundamentally disagree with this. I do however believe it’s the case that such practices need to be expressed and designed in Western terms.
But he is right that a type of insanity often comes from it. The way this occurs is that various delusions of our psychic structures become supercharged in clownish ways. Trust me on this. In my opinion this happens because of a kind of inability to see through the self for what is is - essentially illusory and in flux. We tend to view it as fixed and have a very hard grasp on it; so any epiphenomenon take on a completely real and objectively valid characteristic. Every single precipitate of the process is grabbed a hold of as a transcendent feature of character, compelling the ego into a stance of superiority. Rather than being seen as it is; a fleeting eruption of a greater psycho-spiritual integration.
To make it even worse, the sugar-tit terminologies and labels of the East provide the Westerner fertile vocabularies for cementing themselves into intolerable cocks.
Cue the spirituality secret king. Thai Fishermans pants, fire twirling…beachside trauma shaking circles…yoni retreats…dreadlocks…….glimpses…nerds…California….popular spiritual accounts on twitter….I’ll leave the crushing burden of the rather indecent task of listing any other modern monstrosities, maladies and outcomes to you.
In a way, secret kings are also defined by another outcome of this - spiritual materialism. Dressing, talking and thinking and little else. They’re not different from any other human being in important ways. Despite thinking they are.
All these things serve as a real mockery of what is truly a serious process, one fraught with danger.
Luckily for them, most of them fail, hardly even scratching the surface. Most of them end up with a new vocabulary they can show off with, maybe they can use this to get popular on twitter of get sexual partners.
For others it doesn’t take much for the damage to be done, if one is so inclined.
On the other hand, I’ve seen another either/or emergence around the place lately. There’s a movement in some spheres towards “understanding yourself isn’t important because I’m already superior, I’ve thought and read it so”.
Ironically given what we’ve just discussed, this is another hallmark of the Secret King. A kind lazy self-assuredness. Not backed by anything.
While there is some validity to holding anti-therapy attitudes (I always put shit on this here), I for one completely disagree that real self-knowledge is necessarily negative. But it needs to be real. When it’s real, it’s usually painful. Hurtful. Embarrassing. Never forget how idiotic our culture is.
Here’s the other thing that everyone misses:
It’s not enough just to deconstruct. You MUST construct at the same time. Almost no-one seems to understand this. Many victims come out of this misunderstanding.
It’s worth thinking deeply on this. Spirituality as I see it sold is only ever about deconstruction.
Pain is when you know real progress is being made. The problem with this is maybe .003% of the population are interested in putting themselves through this ordeal. And is an ordeal when done right. Many don’t even know how to do it. Most systems available are total rubbish.
Many lack a requisite personal context, intelligence and internal mental stability to make anything of it all.
So I don’t blame people for being Secret Kings. I actually feel sorry for them. I think we’ve all been there to varying degrees.
It is well and truly us who stand in the way of our own potential. This is not to say that we need to dwell or to make things up about our self-defeating traits. But we absolutely need to know what drives us and why we’re compelled towards certain behaviours and lines of thinking. The gulf between how we conceive of ourselves, and what is truly the case.
Most of us are not Napoleons, no matter how much we think we are. I dispute any notion of human perfection, anyway.
“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!”
This is really the essence of the Secret King.
They reflexively project superiority to cover up their sensatory arousals of inferiority. Of powerlessness. They may not in fact be all that inferior. Some of them may be quite intelligent, able, and in some realms, measurably superior. But they are driven - they strive - according to deep infantile feeling of inferiority. This drives them towards reactive superior-posturing. Particularly where it is not called for, wanted, or needed. Because it’s reactive.
So when it comes to spirituality, here is a perfect, fertile soil for some of the most hilarious forms of self-deception I’ve ever borne witness to.
Anyway, all the best to you. And remember.
Don’t take it personally. If you do…well…
Episode:
Wordcel time.. do bear with me.
You wrote:
"My purpose is not explicitly “spiritual”, rather I utilise these things for the purpose of personal power. Which is a bit of different POV."
"So as far as I can see, the most important task there is can only really be understanding character and motivation."
"Shen" in Chinese and "Ruh" in Arabic are usually both translated as "Spirit " in English. But the Muslim Chinese scholars of neoconfucianism did not translate "Ruh" into "Shen", but into "Xing", which more has to do with personal power, character and motivation...!!!
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"Shen" is also the Chinese term for "gods", including "body gods" in Daoist health. In Muslim terms, "Spirituality" makes sense to remain as the valid world of the Jinn and the Unseen, but these Heavenly aspects are just the imaginal and "over" aspects of the Real and human. Influential and essential, but still only half of it.
In Christian terms, where the Heavenly and Unconditioned are all but always conflated, the Earthly can all but only be disparaged. So overcoming with no down-going is to be expected as normal in a Westernized mileau.
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As a father with a two year old currently in his lap, might I propose in a very Freudian way that Secret Kings are basically aspects of self stuck in development here? And the toxicity of the culture is precisely its lack of interest in raising any of us right, in order to get us to be (or abstractly appear) productive at its most profit/utility maximizing point?
Pity AND effective compassion then, for all muh Kangz, within and without.