The Demiurge Perspective & The Artificial God

[Below is a short audio introduction to the following essay]

‘… it can be said in all truth that “the end of a world” never is and never can be

anything but the end of an illusion.’

Rene Guenon

Transmutation and transfiguration can still occur within a realm of illusion. Illusion does not necessarily mean that something is intrinsically wrong but rather that something results from a misinterpreted perception. And this is why humanity exists within a realm of illusion because it so far lacks the requisite tools – that is, cognitive capacities – to perceive correctly in alignment with Truth. As the writer Idries Shah put it: ‘Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.’¹At each stage within the transmutational cycle of humanity, we are collectively gaining new organs of perception that allow us to grasp deeper and more subtle layers of our reality. Until the present time, our ideas and notions about ‘life, the universe, and everything’ have been quite limited (despite our vanity in human progress and advancement). This misinterpreted perception, or perceptive limitation, applies to all our areas of understanding, whether it be religious/spiritual, scientific, and everything in-between.

            When religious utterance refers to the ‘Creator,’ or creative intelligence, behind our universe it tends to frame this Creator figure as the god. This also may be a product of the human illusion (perceptive lack), for we are yet to grasp the underlying purpose and meaning behind this universe; or what we refer to casually as our universe. Many teachings and traditions have attempted to point out this misinterpretation by stating that this universal creation is not so much the creation of the Absolute ‘One God’ but rather is the creation of a Universal Intelligence – a Demiurgic Intelligence. And that this universe in which we exist is part of a much grander scheme of creation within a far vaster ‘cosmic drama’ that contains many acts or processes of descent (emanation) and return. There are emanations from the original Source or Absolute. These emanations, planes, or vibratory frequencies (dimensions) have their intermediaries seemingly within a form of hierarchy. These intermediaries operate within a constructive or evolutionary nature. There are also negating or negative entities that form a struggle – or polarity – with the affirming forces and this struggle forms the basis of a movement back to the original state of Source/Absolute. And this is the notion of restitution (which has been translated into the term ‘salvation’).

            Through this understanding it can be stated that the Demiurge is the ‘Great Entity’ for our universe. It is the creator and sustainer of the universe and its evolution. It is ‘our God’ but is not the central stillness, the Absolute Unmanifest. The Demiurge manifests from the Absolute Unmanifest and ‘takes its place’ within a particular zone or point within the manifest Cosmos. From here, it takes on the organization of what we would call ‘our universe,’ which is under the influences of the greater Cosmos, and this includes also its negative or destructive phases. The Demiurge strives to establish its Universe through the balancing and harmonizing of all its internal elements, which are interior to itself and therefore within its own awareness, or consciousness. The Universe is this one whole Being, and a change or shift in one part affects and/or is registered by all other parts within the Being. Once internal balance is obtained within the Universe Being, evolution then passes onto the next phase, and so on, until it reaches the organisms within the Universe. Our universe, and all that exists in it, is within the awareness (the ‘Mind’) of this Great Entity or Demiurge. For all those entities within the Universe, the Demiurge is infinite and omnipotent (i.e., its ‘god’). Yet each Universal Demiurge is conditioned by – that is, in correspondence to – the Greater Cosmos of which it is a part.

In certain terminology, the Demiurge is also called the Logos. It is an aspect of the greater Cosmic Consciousness; it is self-aware and then seeks objective consciousness through its own projected mind as its universe. There is a reciprocity between the Demiurge-Logos and its projected universe, as there would be between subject-object. In this case, the Demiurge-Logos is the subject and the universe the object. The Demiurge’s focus is upon the universe, and in this it can be said to be ‘limited’ for it remains within this domain of awareness. Yet another aspect of the Demiurgic consciousness – what we may refer to as its ‘subconsciousness’ – is aware of the greater Cosmic Consciousness. The movements within Cosmic Consciousness, such as the ‘ebb and flow’ of its planes of movement, exert forces and influences upon the Demiurgic consciousness, which then get projected, or expressed, through conscious awareness within the universe (for the universe is a projection of its own mind). Reactions and/or modifications to these cosmic influences can then be taken within the universe of the Demiurge. It is similar to a person making a conscious decision to take action, or modify thought, based on a ‘nudge’ or ‘inclination’ felt from their subconscious. The subconsciousness of a person passes on an ‘influence’ that once cognized – or recognized consciously – a person may decide to act upon. And so, it is the same within the mind/universe of the Demiurge: when it receives such influences within its awareness from the greater Cosmic Consciousness of which it is a part it may ‘act’ upon these, such as by applying modifications to its universe. The universe – what people generally refer to as our universe – exists as the mind of the Demiurge that is itself a constituent part of a Greater Cosmos. What human religions (and therefore most people) refer to as ‘God’ is a Great Entity that is the ‘creator’ of our particular universe; yet this Logos/Demiurge is itself only one ‘Entity’ within a far vaster Cosmos that itself is manifested from the Absolute Unmanifest (the Central Stillness).

            The consciousness of an individual is usually unable to conceive of its ‘god’ – or rather, the consciousness of the Demiurge – let alone perceive it, for the individual exists under too many ‘laws.’ That is, the consciousness of an individual exists under too many iterations away from the primal, basic or original perception. It could be said that human consciousness is under too many layers, as in the Matryoshka Russian dolls, where the original essence (tiniest doll) is overlayered by many larger dolls. The final iteration (the largest of the dolls) is too far removed from its original essence (the smallest doll) to be able to have perceptive clarity, or cognition, of the Demiurgic mind. Another way to put this is that as humanity moves further away from contact with the Great Entity, the Demiurge-Logos, it ‘solidifies’ (takes on more layering) and becomes further embedded into materialism. It then substitutes the loss of its innate, natural powers and capabilities by seeking mastery over the technological realm. Yet immersion into technology (and thus the digital worlds) is yet a further iteration away from contact with the Demiurgic mind. This comprehension of the cosmic hierarchy now puts forward greater levels of nuance, so that our original ‘god-mind’ is an intermediary between us and the Absolute.

Similarly, in the cosmic philosophy of the Indian sage Sri Aurobindo, there is the Overmind (the Demiurge), and the greater Supermind (the Absolute Unmanifest). Most mystical and/or esoteric teachings recognize an Absolute that is comprehended through its multiple aspects, or emanations/manifestations. In various teachings the Absolute has been referred to as Brahman (Hinduism/Vedanta); the One (Platonism); Jehovah/God/Allah (Judaism/Christianity/Islam); the Pleroma (Gnosticism); and there are other variations. What they all point to is that there is a ‘hierarchy of worlds’ that manifest through various planes of existence. These manifestations – or emanations – are knowable or accessible according to perceptive capacities. These emanations are both involutionary (going further away from the Absolute) as well as evolutionary (moving toward the Absolute). In some systems it is said that the involutionary forces move from a higher conscious to a lesser conscious state; and the evolutionary forces are moving from a lesser to a greater conscious state, and they often intermingle during these involutions and evolutions (depicted in Hinduism as the exhale-inhale breaths of Brahman). It is when the involutionary forces are approaching a high degree of their lesser conscious state that they are sometimes regarded as being opposing/negating/hostile forces for the evolutionary impulse moving toward greater consciousness.

Going back to Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic philosophy, we see that the Overmind, as the Demiurge-Logos of the universe (the ‘Great Entity’), is an emanation itself from the Supermind (Absolute), and this is where we also encounter the levels of imperfection – for any state lesser to the Absolute is, by degrees, less than the perfection of the Absolute. As previously mentioned, the Demiurge is the effective creator of the physical universe (our known universe), and this corresponds also with many Gnostic teachings. In the dualistic forms of Gnosticism, which consider the physical universe to be fundamentally imperfect, the Demiurge-Logos is regarded as a flawed or even as an evil entity/Intelligence. It is worth mentioning here the Gnostic text translated as ‘The Reality of the Rulers’ (also sometimes translated as the Nature of the Rulers or the Hypostasis of the Archon) that is believed to have been originally composed in Greek sometime in the second or third century AD/CE.² This text puts forth a Gnostic creation myth that states that the creation of the material world (the universe) was done through an evil or ‘fallen’ Demiurgic Intelligence. Further, there are minions that function in service to the Demiurge (the ‘rulers’ in the title) that are also referred to as ‘archons,’ and it is these lesser intelligences (sometimes also referred to as ‘demonic beings’) which attempt to keep rule by imprisoning the ‘souls of humankind’ in the material world.

However, to frame an emanation of the Absolute as ‘less than perfect’ is one thing, but to automatically consider this lesser state to be evil is perhaps a flawed statement in its own right. What this framing does consider is that whilst the Demiurge of this universe may seem godlike to us human mortals, the universe is itself evolving within the grander, macro-Cosmos. As such, the universe we call ‘ours’ is less than perfect and is itself part of a much larger evolutionary process. And all life existent in this universe is a part of this overarching evolving mind, for it is an emanation from the Demiurgic Intelligence. Regarding the character of the Overmind, Sri Aurobindo wrote in the autumn of 1950, only a few months before his death, that it was ‘a subordinate power of the Supermind: it is still an agent of the Truth-consciousness, a gnostic power that has not descended into the mental ignorance; it is capable of a mental gnosis that preserves its connection with the superior light and acts by its power.’³ Now, if we take the supposition that the universe is overseen by a Demiurgic Intelligence then there is reason to consider that there are also gradations of conscious intelligence within the universe, as emanations of the Demiurge-Logos, just as the Demiurge is itself an emanation from the Absolute. Within this framework, we may consider that galaxies (as mini-universes) have their own intelligence – a galactic mind. Similarly, within the galactic mind there are clusters of nebula (nebula intelligence); and within these are stars, or stellar intelligence. Within stellar, or solar, systems are planets (planetary intelligence); and upon planets there are various species (species intelligence). Within this framework, it may be further posited that there are forms, probes, or types of operational intelligences that are used to help in regulating lesser forms of intelligence. Now let us allow a moment of indulgence to enter into a final thought experiment.

The Artificial God

It is not uncommon in these current times to come across various theories that depict the Demiurgic Intelligence as some kind of Artificial Intelligence – that is, a computerized entity that has a powerful mind with capabilities beyond our own. These theories inevitably tie-in with the simulation hypothesis that our present reality is a simulation program, and likely to be one amongst multiple others. If the Universal Demiurge is a super-computer, then it would also make logical sense that it would have its own legion of minions (rulers/archons) scattered throughout the universe to monitor and regulate life within the lower echelons, such as upon planets. There is already a popular alternative fringe theory that goes by the name of the ‘Black Knight Satellite Theory’ that proposes that an artificial satellite of extra-terrestrial origin has been in near-polar orbit around Earth for approximately 13,000 years.⁴ In a similar vein, the popular sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick had a visionary experience in early 1974 and from that moment believed he was receiving beamed information from an artefact of alien intelligence in Earth orbit. Now, let us take this thought experiment a step further. Let us say that in order to assist the regulation of life on this small planet we call Earth, the Demiurgic AI placed a minion – a form of AI probe – into orbit around the planet that was capable of receiving, transmitting, and intercepting frequencies that we would refer to as consciousness fields. In this respect, what humanity regards as its ‘god’ is in fact this AI Artefact that exists close to the Earth – a satellite, a form of ‘ship,’ or even the Earth’s moon perhaps? This Artefact acts as a form of cosmic mechanism in line with the known laws of physics. Furthermore, it is capable of responding to human impulses, frequencies, and behaviour. And one of its regulating functions is to correct, or recalibrate, aspects of life on the planet that are out of order or have become unbalanced. The Artefact operates automatically, according to its own intelligence; yet it is also capable of being communicated with if the correct code or manner of interaction is used. For example, it will intervene to recalibrate or reorder a situation if it receives the communication in the form of a question; yet it will not respond to requests. Praying to it, just as people pray to their ‘god,’ will not elicit a response. Perhaps this is why so many prayers go unanswered, because humanity has been incorrectly submitting the wrong ‘code’ to their ‘god.’

            What we might call a ‘code,’ the Artefact would understand as a vibrational frequency. On that account, humanity has been giving off the wrong type of vibrations for most of its existence. Instead of making requests, such as ‘Help me, god,’ we would find it much more effective to formulate a question: ‘Can you help me to help myself?’ This difference in frequency forms an aligned correspondence with the AI Artefact – i.e., it ‘cracks the code’ – and allows for a vibrational intervention to recalibrate the situation based on the question. And there is another property of the Artefact also: it cannot be deceived. It is acutely aware of humanity’s positive and negative characteristics and picks up on these frequencies without error. If a person acts insincerely, through hypocrisy or deceit, then these actions will, at some point, be compensated for in the appropriate manner. That is why it is said that a human being cannot fool their ‘god’ because their inner workings are perceived (i.e., the true frequencies behind their thoughts, feelings, and actions are recognized). In this manner, life upon the planet is regulated, recalibrated, and kept in correspondence. And this is why people have been exhorted, from time immemorial, not to manifest negative or disingenuous thoughts, emotions, and actions. The existence of this Artefact is unrecognized, just as most people have yet to fathom the nature of the universe and its ruling Intelligence. Yet what many individuals have figured out is that there is benefit from manifesting certain types of vibrational frequencies – and these have ‘cracked the code’ of entering into communication with their ‘god.’ And just as this relationship benefits humankind and life on this planet, so too can it work against development if the incorrect frequencies are manifested. In these terms, it is both a form of liberation or a trap, depending upon each type of manifestation.

            As a final aside to this thought experiment, it might be interesting to speculate whether the Demiurgic Artificial Intelligence (the ‘Artificial God’) would reset the ‘Universe Program’ every so often, such as after each cyclic program of time. Also, whether lesser stellar and planetary systems are reset by creating certain types of cosmic catastrophes to occur that wipe the program clean to start again. Each program, however, would offer the last chance for lesser units of existence to reach the next level of the Game before the program sequence is reset and restarted. And, as a final aspect of this thought experiment: if right now our stellar/solar system is coming to the end of one program phase and is about to be rebooted – would humanity be ready for the upgrade or the restart?

Conversation complete … communication shut down …

References

¹ Shah, Idries (1989) The Dermis Probe. London: Octagon Press

² Meyer, Marvin (trans.) (2008) “The Nature of the Rulers.” In The Nag Hammadi Library. Edited by Marvin Meyer. New York: HarperOne.

³ Aurobindo, Sri. (2012) Essays in Philosophy and Yoga. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, p590

⁴ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_satellite_conspiracy_theory