Bruce Charlton's Notions

Snow began to fall on 29th November - second anniversary of Storm Arwen, which was the most destructive storm in this region for a century; and has continued being added to since. 

It is not very deep snow, but it has persisted for five days so far; and is proper snow - covering every twig of every tree - and the leaves have not yet fallen from the oak in our garden; and thick enough for sledging and snowmen. 

This is only the second time since 1977 that I can recall snow falling as early as November; but the last time was 2010 when there was a massive (for England) overnight snowfall of about 15 inches in mid-November - and then the temperature did not really get above freezing nor did the snow finally clear until February 2011.   

Back in 2010-11, there was high barometric pressure settled over the British Isles, which kept the weather static; as sometimes happens here around the Solstices, and persists until the lengthening, or shortening, days break-up the weather pattern by the cross-quarter days (Candlemass or Lammas). 

At present, however, the barometric pressure is only middling; signifying "Change" - so I don't at present suppose that this weather will last for months. But in Britain - who knows? 

**

Note added 4 December: Woke up this morning and rain was falling, and the snow all gone. That's what low barometric pressure can do for you...

For a couple of years back in 2010-11, I was deeply immersed in Eastern Orthodox Christianity (as can be seen from this blog, at that time) - and I was especially interested by that tradition's embrace of mysticism and spiritual experience; how this 'worked' and how they dealt with the problems. 

The US lay-monk Seraphim Rose (later a priest-monk) wrote on this topic with what seemed like great insight and a full acknowledgement of modern conditions. 

What I derived from this; was that the ascetic monks and hermits of the EO tradition (including the millennium before the Great Schism division of the Catholic church; which was caused by divergence of the Western Latin tradition - especially the emerging influence of philosophical theology) were indeed actively seeking a direct and personal relationship with the divine and with spiritual Beings - with God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, Mary the mother of God, angels, and saints - dead and living.  

This active seeking of mystical spiritual experience was pursued by very extreme measures! Including extreme asceticism (lack of food, extremes of heat or cold, immobility,) and heroic vigils (staying awake praying for many hours, sometimes is adverse conditions), and by prolonged meditation including solitude for extended periods - sometimes years. 

The EO tradition is, however, very aware of the problem of achieving spiritual experiences that are demonic rather than with representatives of God. 

This is often represented as demonic attack, or sometimes of succumbing to temptations such as spiritual pride, or being deceived. Some of the greatest of Saints are represented as susceptible - for example it seems that England's greatest Saint - Cuthbert - was assailed (i.e. badly tempted) by demons when he went into solitude on the island of Inner Farne, off the coast of Northumberland. 

Seraphim Rose also explained that there was no valid method or system by which angels and demons could be distinguished reliably, because demons were capable of impersonating angels convincingly; and because the mystic's own evaluations were affected by his own (inevitable, because human) sinful impulses. 

According to SR; over many centuries, the best method for protecting mystics from demonic temptations was a Spiritual Father who had himself known and overcome such temptations, and who might reasonably be assumed to be wholly dedicated to the spiritual good of his spiritual sons and daughters. There was (especially, and in the end, only) in Russia an unbroken lineage of Spiritual Fathers in the premier monasteries, that ensured the overall and across-time integrity of the Russian Orthodox tradition. 

But this lineage was broken, permanently, with the Russian Revolution of 1917; and the subsequent murder of the Tsar and his family, and (essentially) all of the true-hearted Bishops, Abbots and holy monks - except those who escaped overseas and were dispersed in non-Orthodox nations (and they left no heirs of their stature). 

What I got from this was that direct mystical spiritual-contact was essential to Eastern Orthodoxy over many, many centuries; therefore it was worth taking the risks of being deceived by demons - even though there was no really reliable method of ensuring that some aspirants were not deceived. 

There could be, and was, pre-selection of those monks who were best motivated - before they were allowed to become extreme ascetics, or hermits. But this was no guarantee, since all Men are sinful, hence susceptible, to some extent. 

And even the best supervision by Holy Fathers did not reach into the 'desert' conditions of the hermits, which may last for years - e.g. there was nobody to supervise St Cuthbert in the harsh solitude of Inner Farne.  

But the background to all this implicitly seems to have been that personal contact between Men and spiritual Beings, and God; was so vital that risks must be taken. 

Eastern Orthodoxy works in a society in which there is a communal spirituality, such that individuals are immersed in the group mind of the people; such that the Tsar really can represent his people in relation to God; and monks really can be intermediaries between the divine and the mass of lay-people. 

But modern Western consciousness excludes this possibility; and therefore we are confronted by a choice between - on the one hand - personally taking the same kind of risks that the Eastern Orthodox monks used to take - but without the possibility of valid human supervision (because the churches are all net-corrupted, and Men of the spiritual stature of past Holy Fathers are not to be found - Seraphim Rose was very definite about that). 

And - on the other hand - practicing a second-hand faith. 

Practicing, that is, a Christianity that has lost its beating heart of contact with the divine, angels, and good-spirits of other kinds; a Christianity of mere scholarship... A Christian faith that is about being a Christian - got from books and other-people, following rules and rituals, doing set tasks, and expressing certain formulae of words - rather than actually being a Christian.

That mainstream modern Christianity is merely second-hand and not a real faith and therefore weak and easily (eagerly!) corruptible, was made obvious in 2020 - if it was not already so. 

The problem is that being a second-hand Christian, is another way of Not being a Christian.  

That is why a second-hand Christianity that engages in spiritual scaremongering, and eschews or proscribes direct and personal spiritual contacts with God, Jesus Christ and the wide range of divine and good spiritual Beings - is a weak, fake Christianity - because it is spiritually dead. 

Therefore, the only way actually to be a Christian is to take the risks of being deceived. 

And to have faith that anyone who is genuinely motivated to God and Jesus Christ will be able to receive the necessary divine corrections, when things go wrong. 

(When, not if, things go wrong.)

Now that traditions of Spiritual discipleship are broken, and now that Men have no good churches upon which faith can be pinned; and when our consciousness has become individual and agentic, rather than being immersed in a group (so that Christians must take personal responsibility)... 

We can be sure - 100% confident - that God our Heavenly Father and the Creator - has ensured that every single person is, nonetheless,able to get the experiences and guidance he needs for attaining salvation and spiritual development. 

If individual spiritual knowledge and mystical experience are indeed a necessary part of being a Christian, as was believed by the Eastern Orthodox for nearly 2000 years - then we can be sure and confident that this has been made possible. 

Possible for me, and for you. So; if you do not already know this by experience, than it is time you found out (that is; if you desire to be and remain Christian). 

To summarize: There is no safe way to be a Christian; therefore the danger of spiritual scaremongering is considerable, and safety-first-ism must be rejected - since the sanction for yielding to spiritual scaremongering is to become first a second-hand Christian, then (because that is so feeble and easily corruptible) not-at-all. 

One who rejects personal discernment and responsibility and seeks safety in external institutions and rules - will simply not be a Christian before very long, will be led by the nose away from Jesus Christ. 

Remember: This is (here-and-now) a world where all major institutions (national and global - including the churches) are under overall-demonic control.

Demons want all religion to be mediated by human institutions, because demons can control institutions.

Surely that is obvious? 

Thus; all Christians need direct spiritual contact with - and guidance from - the divine and all possible Beings of Good; and must therefore take courage, take the risks - in a spirit of trial-and-error; while being always open to correction by "divine-feedback" (which will me made available): and ready for repentance. 

Note added: I suppose I should say again what I have already stated so many times: which is that I think the current situation is that many (most? all?) real Christians have actually already started doing exactly what I recommend - have used personal discernment and taken personal responsibility for their Christian faith, including their choice of denomination and church, and which "authorities" to follow in that particular church. But... Because this has been unconscious, hidden from their own awareness; they have not acknowledged explicitly to themselves that this is what they have actually done -- and instead they pretend/ assert that their choices were actually compelled by "evidence", "reason", "logic" or some such external and supposedly-objective source (for which they, personally, eschew responsibility for choosing; claiming necessity). These are living in a situation of Bad Faith by denial of what is true. Since such a situation is fundamentally incoherent; therefore their Christianity is weak - and readily corrupted or diverted. I suspect that something of this kind is responsible for the incremental loss of once-real Christians, year by year, as they fail one or another Litmus Test; become this-worldly in their primary orientation and aspirations; or fall into an externally-controlled form of second-hand Christianity that presages de facto exit from the faith. 

I think we are all prone to critique, ridicule and dismiss the ideas of others by arguing purely negatively and without being clear of the assumptions from-which we are arguing. 

I've often done this myself, and indeed tend to fall-into it as a kind of Journalistic" default - to the point that I try to catch and halt this tendency, before it gets too established. 

Of course; one cannot always (e.g. in every blog post!) be re-stating one's assumptions; on the other hand:

1. It is obvious that most people do not even know what are their own assumptions; and

2. Even fewer people have subjected their own assumptions to the kind of critique that they so lavishly bestow upon other people. And

3. Even fewer people - having become aware of their own assumptions, and examined them critically - have found these assumptions to be solid to their own honest satisfaction over a prolonged self-critique*...

This is exactly why there is so much attacking of other people and their views in the modern world (including on the internet); and so little clarification of where that attack is coming from.

 When one's own views are unknown, incoherent, or feeble; and also if one's own person is very obviously flawed - then it makes sense to do everything possible to keep negative attention on the other chap and what the other chap is saying.  

But this is dishonest and incoherent. Therefore, unworthy of respect. 

*(This is, indeed, the entirety of the philosophical defense of modern mainstream ideology - the ideology shared by all people and institutions of wealth and power, all major participants in public discourse to the point that it does not even have a name for itself! I call it variously atheism-materialism-leftism-totalitarianism... but it-itself does not acknowledge any of these names, nor any other term, for what is By Far the most pervasive and enforced ideology in human history.)

So, I regard negative critique as so much blah blah - unless it is rooted in some, more or less explicitly known and acknowledged assumptions and motivations; some kind of evident self-awareness. 

This applies to critique emanating from what might be termed a Traditionalist Christian perspective, which can be almost any denomination or church - and indeed, almost the same negative critique may emanate from people/ institutions with very different assumptions - But this is not a strength!

After all, we get essentially the same "progressive" negative-critique of Christianity; coming-in from multi-national organizations such as the UN; from all Western Nations, and all the multi-national corporations and social institutions and the mass media - The Establishment. 

Negative critique is, mostly, merely negatively-motivated and ignorant-of-self; and even when it comes from multiple directions, it remains worthless. 

To be worth considering; negative critique must be in self-awareness of a coherent alternative and positive understanding. 

(Recalling that a double-negative is not a positive.) 

In short: we ought to demand (of ourselves, as well as others) If Not, Then What? 

In the weird online world, the masculine reaction against feminism and feminization, has often taken the form of men analyzing what women do (in order, supposedly, for men to be able better to understand and manipulate women). 

So, men who purport to desire to re-establish patriarchy, are expending their time and efforts in discussing the opposite sex.

And yet... this kind of thing is exactly what women do!

Back in the day "when men were men", men would never dream of getting together to analyze women - they were just not interested in such gossip. 

Men, instead, wanted to talk about things that interested them - work, sports, politics, theology... 

That was even the case just 20-plus years ago, when Robin Dunbar was researching his book "Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language". In his studies, eavesdropping on single sex groups chatting; men talked about their interests; while women talked about social stuff: mostly about... men*.

There was, indeed, a whole evolutionary rationale for this difference in subject matter (to which I made a small contribution). 

Indirectly, the biological evidence was that such different interests were broadly adaptive. That is: such differences led to enhanced reproductive success throughout past evolutionary history. 

In traditional societies, it was a better reproductive strategy (overall, on average) for men to focus their social interactions on 'the world', and women to focus on people - especially men. 

Therefore, I would regard men analyzing women as a Hospital Society phenomenon, consistent with de-differentiation (loss of sexual differentiation) and maladaptation (loss of social and sexual adaptations) - which are plausibly caused by mutation accumulation. 

Of course, this does not mean that it is wrong for groups of men to want to analyze women in their online gossip (or IRL), esepcially considering that The West 2023 is not our "environment of evolutionary adaptedness"...

Just that such behaviour is rather... effeminate!

Thus paradoxically; the modern pro-masculine reaction is in this, as in other respects, un-masculine. 

*Briefly to summarize and caricature: men spontaneously talk about men, and so do women.

I've said this several times in several places over the past 10-plus years on this blog; but maybe it deserves stating on it own... When I converted to Christianity, when I became a Christian, it was for the wrong reasons... mostly. 

My reasons for believing in first God, and then Jesus Christ, were - mostly, but not entirely- social and civilizational. This was because I had been brought to the point of conversion by the societal decline of England and The West generally. 

I realized that my civilization had become at first weak, then self-loathing; because we had deleted God personally and from public discourse; and in doing so deleted all possibility of purpose and meaning in life. 

Having believed in God (i.e. becoming a theist) I then became a Christian; believing that Christianity was the true-est of all the religions I knew. But I was unsure of the right denomination to join. 

What I was looking for, then, was 'civilizational-level' changes such as purpose, meaning and the basis for social cohesion in support of the transcendental values: truth, beauty and virtue. 

I then embarked on exploring, trying, a variety of denominations; even while I could see them collapsing in real time, almost in front of my eyes... Or more likely I gradually saw that the Western churches shared the weakness and indeed self-hatred of the civilization in general. 

I sought holiness; but found only legalism and a hard kind of strictness. 

From here-and-now, looking back on my recent life; it seems obvious that I was - substantially, albeit not fully - regarding Christianity and its churches as a means to a materialistic end: the awakening and regeneration of The West in general, England in particular. 

I never regarded this as an optimistic desire, indeed it never seemed probable that it would actually happen; but I saw a Christian revival as the only legitimate hope. 

But then I began to realize that my hope for a revival of traditional, old-time religion and strong churches was not just futile (in the sense that the opposite was happening), but that it would not be the answer even if it did happen. 

In other words that my hope - even if fulfilled - was not legitimate. 

I began to realize that Christianity had departed the churches - and they had become mere shells of institutions; in the same way as schools, hospitals, the police, law courts and military were just shells - which is that they retained forms and rules but without the motivating spirit. 

Insofar as there was still a motivating Christian spirit in the churches, it came from low down the hierarchy, it was dwindling; and it was ignored or persecuted (i.e. a situation exactly analogous to what I had observed in science and medicine a decade earlier).  

That is where I currently am. I now believe that I became a Christian for many wrong reasons to do with what I hoped that - in principle - Christianity, or else one or more of the Christian churches, could do for Western Civilization. 

I first realized that this could not happen, because the churches had institutionally lost their core spiritual motivations; and then I realized that even if the churches had remained uncorrupt, none of the earlier institutional forms of Christianity were capable (even theoretically) of addressing the major spiritual necessities of the West here-and-now. 

Liberalism had failed, but traditionalism could not work - even if it appeared to revive (which it didn't).

Another way of describing the trajectory, it that it took me quite a while to get clear about what Christianity really is (and always was). After all, across the centuries, Christianity has been and has included many, many things - even if we confine attention to a single denomination. 

At the most basic level, there has been (and is) tremendous ambiguity, unclarity, confusion and contradiction about what Jesus actually did. What, in other words, salvation actually means. 

This, of itself, was something that took a great deal of sorting out; and indeed it could not be sorted-out until I had re-examined several assumptions that I had absorbed without sufficient clarity or evaluation.

I do not think I really understood this - at least not enough to be clear enough to be able to defend it and advocate it as an individual - until my long and focused reading of the Fourth Gospel. 

This eventually (a decade after I became a Christian) made me see that the simple and true essence of Christianity had been obscured by the High Volume of secondary, and erroneous, doctrine and theology that (apparently) began accumulating from very soon after Jesus's resurrection. 

 It now seems to me that the reason why the Christian churches are-not, cannot, and should-not be the basis for a Christian revival; is that none of them have a clear and simple grasp of the core and essence of Christianity. 

This did not much matter in the past, in that the whole package did contain the truth (along with a lot of other stuff) - and because people accepted the whole package, and because society as a whole was not actively evil.  

Now we have a world in which everybody picks and chooses in their religions (even/ especially when they deny this!); when the world as a whole is actively evil; and therefore where Christians absolutely need to be clear about what it is that we believe and why.  

Nobody is going to tell us what we need to know; so we must each work it out for himself, and take responsibility for what he concludes. 

We each need to discover for ourselves what it really is to be a Christian, and to choose that Christianity: choose for the right reason/s. 

Anything else is not going to last, as the world darkens. 

But the right choice will last, and will strengthen - whatever happens to the world. 

A couple of observations... 

In geopolitics, it is clear that the Western world is increasingly dominated in its major policies by agents of Sorathic destruction. They have set-up the global situation such that a full-on third world war is little more than a hairsbreadth away. 

On the flip-side: at the time of writing it has not happened. While the world has been poised and teetering ever closer to the edge of a precipice for the past 21 months or so - the nations have not yet thrown themselves off it (despite quite extraordinary provocations). 

This must (I think) mean that there are powerful agents who do not want all-in world war. 

What I am unsure about is whether these agents of 'restraint' are positively motivated by Good in any shape or form; or whether they merely favour the less violent evil of international totalitarianism - with its omni-surveillance and complete mind-control; and that they recognize that achieving this goal would be disrupted by major wars, and so are holding-back the destruction merchants from irreversible escalation. 

Another possibility is that plans of any kind are constantly being subverted by the selfish short-termism of those tasked with their implementation. e.g. instead of following the strategy of making war, the agents are tempted and distracted into making money.  

Still, what we are seeing is at least consistent-with the operation of covert Good motivations that (to an extent) counteract the much-more-obvious and explicit evil for the major leadership class. 

Further: When it comes to individuals, my impression (and that is all it can be) is that "the side of Good" continues to lose people. 

As The System continues to bring forward more and more Litmus Test issues - it seems that each new wave of challenges is 'failed' by a significant proportion of those Christians who had previously been stalwart*. 

Indeed, claims of an exclusive, church-based Christianity has now itself become a Litmus Test. To believe that Christianity must be institutional - is to fall into the hands of totalitarianism; since They now control the entire institutional framework of The West. 

For instance; whereas I hoped that the post-2020 situation might lead to an alliance of serious Christians of all denominations (and none); this has not happened. 

Way too many Christians still expend far too much energy denigrating other types of Christian, and denying (what they call "proving") that those outwith their chosen-church/ denomination are Christians at all. 

Religious definitions and rules have often become more strict, literal and communally-defined and -enforced; as a way of trying to prevent liberalizing slippage. Thus these stalwart church-Christians become focused on institutional survival and thriving in an increasingly hostile environment, instead of engaging in the spiritual war.    

Those who respond to the triumphant evil of this-world by putting all their faith into obedience to any this-world institution (including any church) have become captives to this-world; and have made an advance vow to follow this-world where it may lead, insofar as this-world control the institution. 

In effect; each self-identified Christian church asserts a formula for maintaining its faithfulness to God's wishes. But, because the church is an institution that exists at the social level, the formula takes some publicly observable, publicly enforceable form. And that is how The System is able to penetrate and corrupts all institutions. 

Only our consciousness and chosen personal relationships stand outside The System; all institutions are inside it.

There is no doubt that the modern world, especially in The West, is a harsh examination; and there is no formula for success - because formulae are exactly the mechanism by which corruption is operative. 

*This is a problem of any essentially defensive strategy. If it succeeds then things stay the same, if it loses then they get worse. People may default from defence, but defence can never be victorious. On the other hand, any positive attitude that depends on institutions, any materially-positive strategy, will sooner or later be corrupted by The System. The answer is to be individually and spiritually positive - and to find a way of doing this that does not ultimately depend on other people. 

I suspect that, in very general terms, the modern materialist mainstream person - whose attitudes are (unless they are very young) essentially adolescent - sees life as a choice (in practice always a compromise) between the possibilities of order and chaos. 

Order and chaos are given institutional form in bureaucracy versus the mass media; realism v idealism; ideology v instinct; optimal outcomes for society over the longer-term v "myself" in the short-term; or globalist totalitarianism versus sexual (and other) gratifications unrestrained.

There is some basis of 'truth' - and indeed Good - in both of these extremes; which is why they have appeal and sufficient surface plausibility to be a Life Goal. 

Yet, as goals; both extremes are alike impossible to implement; and lead to misery when attempted; while any compromise, while more sustainable, is doubly unsatisfying - unsatisfying on both sides - in both directions.    

I would have thought it obvious that neither of these options, nor any combination or middle way between them, is actually a Good Life; but the problem is that these are implicitly regarded as the only possible options - which is why the "order v chaos" dichotomy appears in so many guises, and so many places, in modern society.

Clearly we must have a Third Way, which is hierarchically above both order and chaos (or their manifestations) - and this Third Way is the path following Jesus Christ and leading into resurrected eternal life in Heaven. It is a path by which love and creativity in mortal life is carried forward to divine life in a divine society.

The Third Way is what enables someone to look above and beyond the merely temporary satisfactions and compromises of this mortal life; but which also enables the utmost value to derive from the choices and actions (including thoughts) of this mortal life. 

However the existence of this Third Way is outside the allowed-realities of materialism - the Third is, in short, a spiritual way, and therefore excluded by assumption from all the discourses of modernity. 

This means that it is very difficult, and in the short term often impossible, to describe and offer the Third option as a realistic, here-and-now-and-forever path to a typically materialist adolescent-minded modern person. 

Modern people simple won't believe the Third Way is possible, and cannot therefore get into a position of choosing it. 

I suppose that this is why the modern world is what it is, and going where it is going. Having refused even to acknowledged the possibility and reality of the Third Way; The West is following-out the consequences of this rejection to its bitter end.

Those who choose order and totalitarianism are seeing their plans sabotaged by those whose allegiance is to chaos and hedonism; while, in order to survive and have power, the hedonists are required to sustain a miserable and anti-life system of totalitarianism - while the would-be moderates are buffeted to-and-fro, and their lives wrecked by the oscillations and clashes of the extremes*.

Having rejected outright the chance to learn-from and choose-between Life experiences of mortality; our civilization has chosen, and is getting, some very tough, very harsh lessons regarding the inevitable misery and meaninglessness of a life of materialism.

Both as individuals, and perhaps collectively, Modern Men are being confronted by the fact that a life without purpose or meaning is a mere existence - and for most people, most of the time, such an existence is intolerable to contemplate - and can be dealt with only by refusing to contemplate it - by self-impairment with distraction, drugs, or whatever effectively prevents thought. 

*Note. The characteristic mainstream modern intellectual is (whatever his supposed function) "some kind of manager" - and the characteristic mindset of such persons is precisely to oscillate between a rigidly bureaucratic, servile-to-superiors/ arrogant-to-subordinates, anti-individual, anti-human professional life; and an ideology of extreme leftist-radicalism rooted in a kind of deification of some individuals (who 'represent' and are conceptualized in terms of oppressed groups). The oscillation is often manifested as an individual - with a persona of obedient officialdom at work; but with transgressive sex, alcohol and drug intoxication outside of work. Another oscillation is when there are unprincipled exceptions to bureaucratic rules and laws granted to favoured persons; alternating with progressively ever-increasing surveillance and control of individuals and subordination of 'private' behaviours to bureaucratic imperatives.   

Almost all traditional religion was extremely "high-volume". By this I mean that there was an enormous amount of stuff that the 'faithful' adherent was supposed to know and do...

Rituals to memorize; books to read, learn, and be able to expound; a yearly round of festivals; parable, stories, proverbs; songs; codes of dress and wearing of symbols; multiple social obligations and privileges... 

The list is literally endless, because no matter how much you have done, there is always more that you could - and probably should - be doing.  

High-volume ("H-V") religion was therefore the norm. It is what traditional religions wanted from their adherents, it is what their adherents wanted from their religions... 

Traditionally, adherents wanted a whole world of religion, as and when they ask for it. They wanted a Big religion that always has something to say, and never runs out of things to do. 

And the religious institutions and authorities want the same - and this synergy led to the power of longevity of Great Religions of the past. 

However; the problem with high-volume religion is that it is inevitably passive - passive overall and on average. 

HV- R is inevitably orientated (ultimately) towards obedience - and that obedience must necessarily mostly be uncomprehending. 

The adherent, even the priest; is required to believe everything, do everything including the mass-majority of what he does not understand - and nobody understands everything. 

This uncomprehending passivity is inevitable with H-V religion and therefore obedience is the most highly valued among all attributes; insisted upon by the religious regulatory practices.

Because in practice human ability and motivation cannot absorb masses of stuff, and learn elaborate practices - while also evaluating that stuff and discerning which is valid and necessary, and determining what is core and what peripheral. 

When a religion has become really high-volume (and when that volume is continually increasing) there is never sufficient time for checking whether we have actually understood what we have absorbed. 

Never enough time to cross check the consistency of all the many things we have been told. Inadequate time to follow-through to the implications and outcomes of what we have been told. 

So, in practice, H-V religion is always - and remains - for each and every adherent, a largely undigested mass. 

An undigested mass that must be obeyed. 

High-volume religion is intrinsically a case of all... or-nothing. 

Embrace and live-by the whole lot, or else you are not "one of us". 

Passive uncomprehending obedience - or heresy. 

The problem with this kind of high-volume/ passive religion is twofold: 

1. H-V R no longer works

2. H-V R is no longer what is needed. 

1. H-V Religion does not work, especially in The Modern West, because it is not wanted anymore - it has been rejected en masse and increasingly over several generations... 

Droves have left the churches; and of those who have not (yet) left, most implicitly reject whatever of their religion that conflicts with mainstream, materialistic secular-left totalitarian ideology. 

Religion has become a lifestyle choice, a social convenience or obligation.  

2. High-volume religion is no longer what is needed (and this is the deep reason why it does not work) because at this point in our spiritual developmental history it is (I believe) God's desire that Man's religion becomes something that he comprehends, chooses, and inwardly endorses.

By my understanding; in a totalitarian world of universal institution (including church) corruption; Men are now called-upon to be less passively obedient to institutions, including church institutions (which are, anyway, all net-corrupted); and instead required to take individual responsibility for their religion. 

If it is to be truly, spiritually, distinct from the mainstream materialism; Religion must become personal, inwardly-motivated, and active. 

This means that a Man's religion Must Be understood. 

In conclusion; H-V religion is inappropriate and ineffective and obsolete. 

What replaces it needs to be a low-volume (L-V) religion; in which all aspects have been individually reflected-upon with discernment directed towards understanding their validity, coherence, importance. 

All aspects of L-V religion can be, and need to be, recognized as a personal choice; and then those personal choices can be known as such. 

Only when we have a depth of comprehension of our religion, and have actively endorsed them; we can resist the relentless attacks on our assumptions for the mainstream of our society (including the attacks from the institutional churches). 

Only a low-volume religion has the possibility of functioning strongly and effectively on a personal basis.

H-V religion is the past; L-V religion, a potentially valid future. 

Any Artificial Intelligence ("AI") which is not merely hypothetical and concerned with possibilities - and that is actually being implemented in Western Society on any significant scale - should be regarded as the intentional product of the ruling totalitarian Establishment in one of its manifestations. 

AI is - from the point-of-view of those in the Establishment who have funded, promoted, and spread it - a tool. 

AI as a phenomenon therefore needs to be recognized as a totalitarian Establishment tool for implementing Their aims; a means to some end. 

The question is: What end?

Therefore we ought to ask ourselves of AI in general, and specific instances: 

What is AI technology intended to do to the humans who use it? 

How is AI intended to affect Man's thinking, emotions, reasoning, understanding?

And (in total, over time): What is frequent, pervasive, mandatory human interaction with AI intended to do to Men's overall assumptions concerning the nature of reality.

Actually-used AI is not a matter of what we personally think it might be useful for; the reason we have it, the reason it is being puffed and pushed, the reason it is being implemented with no serious testing, no fair comparison, no objective checking of outcomes is intentional: there is will behind this vast and coordinated pro-AI activity. 

The reason for all this, is that from the perspective of Those with effective power, wealth, fame, status - AI has a job to do on "the masses" - a job to do on those human beings that are subjected-to omni-surveillance and micro-control. 

Meanwhile, from the POV of the masses - AI is being evaluated merely piecemeal, as a possible basis of short-term and personal convenience or amusement; or as a possible threat/ opportunity to immediate employment and wages. 

With AI we therefore have on one side a top-down system of (intended) mass thought control motivated by Ahrimanic evil; and on the other side... well, merely frivolous hedonism and desperate careerism.  

I have previously described what I regard as the major Litmus Test issues for discerning which side a person has chosen in the spiritual war of the world (i.e. the sides for- and against-divine creation) - things like climate change, feminism, the birdemic/ peck, antiracism, and hostility to the autonomous existence of the Fire Nation.

I wonder whether a positive attitude towards AI (Artificial Intelligence) is another of these Litmus Tests? I am inclined to think so. 

Others might suggest that AI is merely neutral in its values, and what matters is the specific application - and, to some extent this is bound to be true: it is trivially correct that there are always exceptions to even the most valid of generalizations. 

There is also the confusion about "what AI means" - because the term has been around for many decades; and probably some usages that were commoner in the past may be less discerning as to spiritual attitudes. 

But, like all the Litmus Tests: What matters in 2023 is how that term is used in 2023. 

And the biggest evidence concerning the spiritual valence of any term in 2023, is the agenda to which the term is attached - and who is pushing that agenda.  

Thus, while some theoretical usages of "racism" are indeed sinful for Christians; in actual 2023 practical usage - "racism" is not any kind of a sin.  

By this criterion it is completely obvious that - whatever theories and exceptions we might imagine or manufacture - actually-happening AI is attached to an agenda that is being pushed by the global totalitarians. 

And that is all we really need to know. 

Because even if we personally have theories about potential benefits of AI, and even if we cannot understand or guess the nature of the harm that AI will actually be used to do -- we can nonetheless be sure that AI as it actually gets implemented, will be used on the side of Satan and against God. 

JRR Tolkien's prophetic and historical legend of the Downfall of Numenor (his Atlantis) has increasing relevance with every passing year; as our own world seems to replicate so many of its sins. Last year's The Fall of Numenor volume is a valuable collection and arrangement of Tolkien's major Numenor material - a "one-stop shop" for all-things-Numenorean! It has provoked in me yet-another cycle of reflections and insights - especially on Tolkien's core theme of Death, and what (if anything) comes after.  

I'm beginning to think that a proper understanding of the Second Creation, made by the work of Jesus Christ, may be the key to what we most need to understand. 

There has, at least since the Apostle Paul, been a variety of more-or-less complex ideas related to a Second Creation made possible by Jesus; but my sense is that these were all - more or less - this-worldly. All tried to express the Second Creation in terms of possibilities (or duties) for Christians here on earth, in this mortal life. 

There was (for example) the promise or hope that after Jesus' resurrection, "from now" all Christians could participate in the Second Creation in some real sense. That potentially human society and the world itself might be transformed into a Heaven on Earth - either incrementally (via the City of God), or at the Second Coming. 

But what I am suggesting about the reality of the Second Creation is neither complex nor this-worldly; but utterly simple, and next-worldly. 

What I am saying is that the Second Creation is already (and from the time of Jesus) fully-in-existence, that it comes after death and resurrection, and that it is Heaven. 

In different words: Jesus made Heaven, and Heaven is the Second Creation; and all who desire it may follow Jesus to the Second Creation.

But -- this can only happen after death, because Heaven is the realm of the resurrected: the immortally re-incarnated.  

To judge by his behaviour (if not by his explicit statements) there seems little doubt that JRR Tolkien regarded the consequences of the Second Vatican Council with a combination of deep dismay and horror; indeed, I once wrote that Vatican II may have been the most deeply dismaying event of Tolkien's whole life. 

His friend (and fellow Catholic) George Sayer; believed that Tolkien saw little or nothing wrong with the pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church. 

This is worth contemplating because it shows that a Catholic as devout as Tolkien could be in deep opposition to Vatican II; but without making reference to "legalistic" aspects of the validity of Papal elections. I imagine Tolkien would have found that whole "sedevacantist" line of argument on both sides to be extremely distressing and fraught with dangers - especially when engaged-in by lay people. 

This may have some implications for traditionalist Catholics who all agree that the RCC took a severe wrong turn, a down-turn and movement towards apostasy, with the Second Vatican Council. 

My point is that the disastrous nature of Vatican II may be regarded as common ground among serious Roman Catholics. And indeed all serious Christians of any- or no-denomination, who wish for the recovery and renewal of spiritual health in the largest and most influential Christian church - this may be common ground quite apart from the legal arguments. 

In other words; sedevacantism can reasonably be regarded as one of several (or many) possible hypotheses for explaining the disastrous effect of Vatican II; and, most importantly, how to set it right. 

It is indeed possible that the sedevacantist legal arguments for why the papal seat is empty might be true; but the legalistic solutions may nonetheless be ineffective or counter-productive in solving the Roman Catholic Church's many and deep problems. 

That is, indeed, my opinion - I mean that the sedevacantist solutions (i.e. their advocated approach to dealing with the RC problems) are ineffective, and would be counter-productive: they are wrong in their spirit. 

Because I think it can be known in advance - from multiple experiences in multiple churches - that legal solutions will not have a good effect; that a re-set is impossible (and the attempt undesirable) because it will empower the wrong people and set faithful Catholics at each others throats... 

That this negative potential can be known in advance from experience, and legalism eschewed, even despite that (probably) nobody has yet proposed any other clearly promising and practical way of genuinely revitalizing the Roman Catholic Church in the West. 

For what little it is worth; I suspect that an answer might be found in the actual practice of Roman Catholicism at its Christian best; rather than in abstract theories about the matter. 

Something to do with the lives of ordinary Catholics (including 'ordinary' Saints); rather than the models and hypotheses of canon lawyers, theologians, philosophers, church bureaucrats or the like.  

Maybe the most luminous, rich, and inspiring aspects of the pre-Reformation Catholic 'world' - something rather like GK Chesterton's imaginative pictures of "Merrie England" - could be found to contain clues toward the changes that are needed and would work and could grow; and also (and vital) what aspects ought to be de-emphasized... 

Selected cuttings from that ancient tree of faithful living might be planted to yield new and different fruits, but recognizably derived from the same root stock. 

There are so many physical reasons to fear catastrophic events in "the future" (i.e. any time from now onwards) - that we need repeatedly to remind ourselves that fear is a sin. 

For example; yesterday I heard that (officially) the mass immigration into the UK had reached record levels and expanded the population by more than one percent, more than 700, 000*. This is an increase in population about the size of Sheffield - which is a big and densely inhabited place. Nearly all of these people will be subsidized by many 10,000s of pounds each; also housed and educated and given health care etc. - all at the expense of the native population. A high proportion of the new arrivals are young men, and a significant proportion of these will be violent and criminal. And the real numbers are certain to be larger. 

Yet this is just one of many, many ways in which the leadership class are actively, and increasingly with every year, destroying the UK. Meanwhile the masses are keen on this, or oblivious, or indifferent; because people have no purpose beyond short-termist hedonism and status wrangling.  

If we are focused upon the physical, and on probabilities, there is every reason for extreme pessimism; and no plausible reason to expect any reversal or improvement in trends. Physical, material suffering, societal decline and collapse... such outcomes are near certainties. 

Therefore, it is imperative that we repeatedly repent our fear; and continually remind ourselves of the spiritual context of human life, and of our own personal business here in this mortal existence. 

We each need to clarify and make explicit our spiritual purpose, and seek the spiritual meaning of the actual conditions of our life.  

If we are to roll-back the sin of fear; we cannot allow ourselves to be put into a defensive, besieged, mental posture. 

Our attitude to life must come from our-selves (because there is nobody, no powerful group, no church out there that is even trying to do what is needed). 

We need to see ourselves as a beacon of good-thinking; radiating-out true, beautiful and virtuous thoughts that will affect eternal life. 

To defeat fear we need to take the initiative; our motivations need to emanate from our-selves - our motivations need to be from within-to-out: generative. 

We need to choose, and to will - but what?

My increasing conviction is that we need to think less abstractly, and more personally; in terms of relationships rather than ideologies (or hypotheses, or models, or even theologies)... 

We need to expand our relationships beyond the decadent and evil values of the physical, material world; and that means into the spiritual world. 

We need, I think, to establish relationships with the resurrected dead. These need to have a role in the world, in and in our lives, going-forward. 

What role? Well, that can only be known after there are such relationships. 

The first step must be to establish contact. With whom? - well, that will depend on each individual and his needs, experiences, motivations; and with who (among the resurrected dead) is trying to contact us, from the spiritual world. 

And how is such contact made: what form might it take? Not, I believe, in the forms of old-style 'mediums', and not in the form of 'channeling', nor of 'conversations'...

Instead; I think that contact with the resurrected dead will be direct: and via mind-to-mind sharing of primary (wordless, imageless) thoughts.

I have previously called this direct-knowing; because it is not mediated by language, symbol or any other intermediary. 

In direct knowing, we know because we share in the knowing of another Being. 

Direct knowing as as valid as the knowledge of the other Being, and our own capacity for understanding. 

And direct knowing is self-validating, a positive and pleasurable experience; and expansion of the scope of thinking - because we are participating in a larger, spiritual and more-divine personal consciousness. 

Here is a kind of plan, or the outline of a possible plan: 

Strive for contact with the resurrected dead whom you love, greatly esteem; and/or who you feel want to contact you. Expect contact rather than communication. And be open to learn from these experiences - because that learning will be the basis for whatever plans you adopt. 

Nobody can do this for you. It depends on your initiative, the Good-ness of your motivation, and your intuitive validation of whatever happens.  

And your path and contribution will be unique. 

(If you do not make this contribution, nobody else can or will - that is how important is the job.)  

*Note: This demonstrates clearly that there has in reality been no Brexit at all with even the slightest significance (since Brexit was 99% motivated by stopping perpetual and accelerating mass immigration, and the consequent population/ cultural annihilation and replacement). All the vast political effort of getting an EU referendum in 2016, and its strong popular Leave vote - had either zero effect; or more plausibly served only to energize the totalitarian-globalist Establishment in pursuing their Sorathic agenda.