The Stone That The Builder Refused

So, what are we going to call our culture? What is it made of? Where does it come from and who put it together? How does it maintain its structure and why is it like it is? With an intense sense of wonder I approach these questions, intending to find answers that feel right to me, and finding so much apathetic excrement that stands in stead of quality modes of thought. Why is it that I've come across so many interesting experiences and bits of information that are uniquely irreplaceable, yet are benign coincidences or old wives tales to the general public? Why have these encounters of mine, as real as stones to me, been for the most part rejected from our common cultural dialogue?

Right now, as I write this and you read it, our prevailing world-view is incapable of coping with the full spectrum of human experience. But, we are capable of extending the limitations of our paradigms and accessing a wider range of experiences on this human spectrum. Have you ever experienced something that cannot be explained in terms of our current cultural understandings? I most certainly have. Did you put in the effort to try and figure out what these things mean to you and others? I most certainly am. Do the perspectives match or are there inconsistencies between your view and the common way of seeing?

Many interpretations of the bible and each of its verses are available by request, and sometimes even without asking, and by this fact give myself full license in making my own interpretations whenever and however I like. If they don't make sense, so be it, they won't last. This one makes sense to me, Psalms 118, verse 22 and from the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, verse 10, Jesus says, 'And have ye not read this scripture; the stone that the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.' Even though the story in the context of Mark and the prayer of thanks in the context of Psalms, doesn't quite apply directly, I take it to mean that we must read into the unexplained for ourselves, and make up our own minds as to what ought be the symbolic cornerstone of our paradigm. That which the builders of culture have refused is still a part of this human experience.

But what is it really that the builders of our culture have so thoroughly rejected that would compel me to write this? What is missing from our cultural milieu that I would have included in our dialogue? In terms of events, situations, and ideas that have been overlooked or underestimated, the list is insurmountable. But this is not my main concern. In elucidating the particularities of paranormal phenomena, I leave investigative research to those better suited who wish to share with the world. My task is putting ideas together in a palatable and persuasive perspective, whereby an all-inclusive feeling of wonder, openness, and play in the realm of imagination, and we can get to the nitty-gritty details of what is going on in this human situation. By joining forces in disagreement, standing eye-to-eye with respect, we can grow a cultural perspective.

The builders of our culture have constructed the edifice without the use of certain aspects of the human experience. Our culture has rejected the individual's sovereignty and societies' decency; by purporting systems of domination that restrict individuals' ability to express their uniqueness, whatever cultural development results will be in turn restricted. Not to say that this rejected experience hasn't contributed quite significantly, even, it's perhaps the more important aspect of people's lives; only that the culture built up around these people, 'western' ones, was not exactly the 'demo'-cratic process that is generally assumed. Whereas cultural history was once perhaps a development of the people directly involved, it seems self-evident that the cultural milieu of post world was two has been more predominantly dictated than integrated as a natural ecological process. And it has spread.

The overall status quo reality that is enforced as a legitimate paradigm, perhaps even the lesser of other potential evils, has willfully disregarded several key ingredients that the recipe for a sustainable cultural enterprise requires. Firstly, that millenia of authentically developed indigenous perspectives have been systematically obliterated, never to be found by the generations that followed. Secondly, that the traditions which have by miracle been preserved, if only fragmented at best, are marginalized to a tolerable degree of superstitious hob-knobbery or shunned for outright quackery. Thirdly, that the over-arching world-view allows for no dissent taking place outside of the designated protest zones, unless that challenge can be co-opted into a profit making venture for those who control the capital interests over the status quo in the first place. Fourthly, and there are so many more that I don't care to think of right now, is that this nonsense is being fed to children before they've been able to developed their own bullshit detectors. The mindset of culture is usually established before any opportunity to choose otherwise has been realized.

That every individual inherently possesses the potential to achieve whatever the hell they want to is the capstone to the pyramid that we're not supposed to reach. The all-seeing eye on top of the Freemason's great seal on the American one dollar bill is truncated, illuminated, and far-removed from the base, symbolic of the capstone I'm talking about. The Powers That Be consider themselves at this stage, and I forgive them of it. Truth is, that we are all sovereign creatures; falsity is, those in control pyramidal matrix whose sole intention is divest human beings of their innate self-hood, consider themselves better than the rest. No more, no less. By abiding the matrix handed down generation to generation, this oppression is subconsciously perpetuated. The status quo, as it stands, has effectively restricted the individual's ability to intentionally complexify the unfolding of their own reality and the common human experience suffers in its revelation.

No one is committed to play the game we're 'birthed' into. In a physical and material sort of way, the hum-drum everyday way to interpret the human experience might as well be dictated by a cultural tradition, even a strictly regimented one, without negative repercussions. What we really need to ask ourselves, a la Terrence Mckenna, is whether or not culture is our friend.

When culture impinges on my ability to express myself, however, retaliation is appropriate.

tbc...