Ibisis's Media Reviews

[Anibis]

So I have decided to start a project which I hope some of you will find useful, and which I hope will be of help to the Abrahadabra foundation as a whole. Here's the deal. I'll be featuring texts, films, and music which I find pertinent, and posting my review of them. Also, should you be interested in these media, I'll provide a link to Amazon.com, where you can order them. The Abrahadabra Institute will get a small proportion of each sale, so, if you feel like ordering something, why not do it through the link provided here. Also, anyone else who'd like to comment on the material may do so, and I will go about inserting their review into the body of the post relating to that piece of work. Also in this post, I will compile a running list of all materials as well as links to the reviews. Enjoy.
-Ibisis.
Books
Hermetica (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showpost.php?p=4289&postcount=2) by Brian P. Copenhaver
The Men Who Stare at Goats (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showpost.php?p=9716&postcount=3) by Jon Ronson
Music
Films
Freaks by Todd Browning
Making Waves (http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showpost.php?p=15661&postcount=6) by MythMath Films & 20to20 Sound Design

[Anibis]

Hermetica by Brian P. Copenhaver


I decided that this would be the first book on my list to feature and review. This is due partly to the fact that it re-presents a collection of texts which have historically been preserved as 'The Hermetic Corpus', and as such have been highly influential amongst Ancient, Rennaisance, and Modern Hermeticists. There was also an attendant synchronicity that convinced me that this should be the first text to discuss.

Okay. Brian P Copenhaver's Hermetica is a translation of several Greek and one Latin text whose authorship has been attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (The Greek adaptation of the Egyptian god Thoth). 'HT' is a figure similar in some ways to Lao Tzu in that his name is assigned to texts which scholars believe to be written not by one person in one time, but by many persons across several centuries. This was a common practice in the era before the printing press and is known as Pseudopigraphy. HT, as such, is a name which is found attatched to MANY different sorts of texts, and typically we find them classified into the two categories of Magical and Philosophical. Where the magical texts, including the alchemical classic 'The Emerald Tablet', are considered to be metaphysical recipe books addressed to particular purposes, the Philosophical texts are generally characterized by highly symbolic metaphysical schema, and descriptions of the divine cosmic order. In perusing these texts it becomes clear that they have a great deal of resonance with the Platonic and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy (and through them with Christianity and the other Abrahamic faiths), particularly in the way by which they describe 'levels of being' ranging from the material to the divine.

Hermetica contains the Corpus Hermeticum; 18 Greek texts plus the Latin Aesclepius. A solid intruduction and a notes section which is larger than the combined texts provide excellent support in understanding the context of the Corpus, its history, and its relation to other important seminal works in the Western tradition such as the writings of Plato, Plotinus, and others. As well, you will find that this text also draws out the connection between the characters of these texts and the Egyptian figures (such as Thoth) who were essentially being translated theologically from the Egyptian to the Greek context. There are some fascinating comments about how this changes the nature of the word itself from being active magically to being rationally reflective. See below.

Here are some suggestive passages from the text:

Once, when thought came to me of the things that are and my thinking soared high and my bodily senses were restrained, like someone heavy with sleep from too much eating or toil of the body, an enormous being completely unbounded in size seemed to appear to me and call my name and say to me: "What do you want to hear and see; what do you want to learn and know from your understanding?" Who are you, I asked. "I am Poimandres" he said. "Mind of Sovereignty; I know what you want, and I am with you everywhere." I said, "I wish to learn about the things that are, to understand their nature and to know god. How much I want to hear!" I said. Then he said to me: "Keep in mind all that you wish to learn, and I will teach you."( CH I, Hermetica, Pg 1)

Thus opens the first of 18 Greek texts. There is some speculation here that Poimandres is in fact represenative of Parmenedes, the Pre-Socratic philosopher to whom the description of trancendant, stainless, "Being" is first attributed. Here is a discourse attribute to the character of Aesclepius, which reflects upon the difference between Egyptian and Greek words:

My teacher, Hermes- often speaking to me in private, sometimes in the presence of Tat (Thoth)- used to say that those reading my books would find their organization very simple and clear when, on the contrary, it is unclear and keeps the meaning of the words concealed; furthermore, it will be entirely unclear (he said) when the Greeks eventually desire to translate our language to their own and thus produce in writing the greatest distortion and unclarity. But this discourse, expressed in our paternal language keeps clear the meaning of its words. The very quality of the speech and the <sound> of Egyptian words have in themselves the energy of the objects they speak of. (CH XVI, Hermetica pg 58)

These texts are highly theological, insofar as they favor a transcendent creator God, intimately linked with the nature of Mind itself. They were influential in the early stages of the era which came to be dominated by Abrahamic monotheism, and you can see this clearly in much of the writings. At the same time, they have a strong emphasis on participation in the divinity as can be drawn from a Platonic style of mysticism and philosophy.

This book is highly recommended to anyone on this forum, particularly becuase it gives us access, in an intelligent, well researched manner to the ideas which stand at the roots of much of our tradition and practice as Hermeticists. If you care to comment on this review or this text please feel free to do so.

The book may be ordered at Amazon.com, by this link, and The Abrahadabra Institute will get a bonus for every text ordered in this way. Thanks for reading, and supporting the Work!

-Ibisis

[Anibis]

The Men Who Stare at Goats by John Ronson

What are they thinking? The US military, as many people know, has some rather strange ideas. Short of full blown conspiracy theories, people would like to know just how much of what they hear about special covert operations involving the use of paranormal powers is actually true. This book does it well. Ronson is a journalist who manages to get chummy with some very strange folk. This book is about how the US military became involved in researching paranormal phenomena and spiritual practices with an eye to discovering their military uses. Much of it is about the weaponization of new age ideas, and the legacy such practices have had. For example, through research and interviews, Ronson tells us the story of how Vietnam veteran Jim Channon got military funding to interview new age practitioners in california and elsewhere to determine if they could use these ideas. What came out of this project was a pamphlet entitled the 'First Earth Battalion' which developed the idea of soldiers as warrior monks who maintain a holistic relationship with the environment, and attack their enemies' reason for fighting with soothing melodies, tabourines, and fluffy animals. The idea seems to have been that the enemies HATRED itself could be eradicated, and that through using Jedi mind tricks, an opponant could be passified. The book details the legacy of this project, from Jim Channon's tambourines, to Barny related torture techniques utilized in Iraq. As well, we meet a number of 'Jedi warriors' who claim various powers such as bursting the hearts of goats with their minds, killing hampsters, (attempting to) walk through walls, remote viewing, etc...We learn about Frank Olson, and the MK ULTRA LSD project, the link between remote viewing and the Heaven's Gate Mass suicide, The use of experimental sound weaponry during the Waco crisis, subliminal messageing in Matchbox 20 songs, and more. There is much informative detail written in a very friendly style which belies how disturbing this material is. Here is the stuff out of which conspiracy theories are made, and yet, in this book, we don't feel as if we have listened to such a theorist, but rather we learn the sober details of projects that hide not behind a veil of secrecy, but amidst a funk of disinformation. Easy to read, eye opening, and sane. For those who care to understand how new age, and spiritual technologies can and are being exploited to the ends of the military, this book is excellent, fun, and disturbing.

-Ibisis

[Naomi]

Oh yeah I read Men Who Stare at Goats. He's a bit of a boring writer but the topic was hilarious. And the fact that they actually killed a goat by staring at it was sort of funny.

The military is pretty cool but they certainly don't belong in the hands of politicians.

[Anibis]

I agree. Standing armies=bad deal. Deleuze and Guattari have this great bit about 'the war machine' in 'A thousand Plateaus' where they basically say that it preexists the state, and unlike most else 'in' this society, actually exists a little bit outside of it. They are going more for the 'raging horde' thing in the end, though, and consider standing armies to be a kind of perversion of the military function. I though it was interesting.... They have a few things to say about magicians in that chapter too. THey don't really like em that much. Funny since they are so good at describing what they do.
-Ibisis

[Anibis]

Making Waves: a demonstration of Kymotropic Inventions by MythMath Films & 20to20 Sound Design


About a week ago we had a party... at a certain point, a crowd of us were lounging about in the TV room, after having watched 'Labyrinth'... So I threw on a DVD. 'Making Waves' is by our own Modulator extrordinaire, MythMath... It is a collection of Kymotropes, visual representation of sounds (From Kymo=Wave, Tropic=Turning), beautifully rendered as moving lattices, rosettas, ribbons, strange spastic blurts, and the like... The Jacket describes these inventions as follows:

'Microtonal scales of sinewaves provided the tones and chords which were arranged as compositions, recorded in stereo, then visually analyzed using a simple x/y scope'.

Basically, it's an album of instrumental semi-electronica, whose music 'videos' are essentially representations of the sounds themselves... The sounds range from very spacy ambient, to crunchier noisier beats (and appropriate accompanying visuals), to loungy elevator styles... My favorite track is Ribbon Twist, where a kind of moebius like ribbon rotates and folds about, highlighted in electric blure. Equally cool is 'sparticles', which blips and blargs about like a living, gnarly piece of string... The images are very meditative, mandalic forms, and the music is interesting and pleasant... The cool thing was how much it gripped the people in the room... They watched the video (about 25 minutes), several times in a loop, and dogged at me to find more... It was not an over-excited reaction, but more of a sense that they had been subtly drawn in, hypnotized and embraced by the images and sounds... It is worth checking out, and, if you are a fan of strange psychedelia of a soothing nature, I recommend it...

PM MythMath for more details on his Kymotropia....

-Ibisis

P.S. I appologize for the slowness of my reviews... I plan to do this with more frequency from now on... Cheers!

[MythMath]

Thanks for the write-up, Ib... :yes:

I've found that when most people first see the video, they are
hypnotically glued to the screen; many often find themselves
reaching behind for a chair to plop into without looking away...

I've also noticed that individuals who have a hard time sitting still and
being quiet are mysteriously compelled into silence & motionlessness...

I personally blame abrahadabra.com along with repeated viewings
of the video for my recent explosion of creative productivity; ymmv... ;)

MM

PS - Here's a link to the trailer:

Making Waves (movie trailer)