The Unreal Machine (3) – Bright Light, Deep Shadows

Where there is bright light, there are deep shadows.

Old Saying

It should be recognized that this current state of ‘inverted reality’ is a phase, and as such it has to be worked through. We cannot avoid the fact that we first have to learn how to live amongst these entropic forces before we can bypass them (see Pt.2 of this essay), for these are the conditions of our time. Yet we must find the right way to approach these forces without being overpowered or subsumed by them. What may be needed to counter-act Ahrimanic forces is perseverance and consistency – a long-term aim and development. We need to be aware that the forces acting against us intend to steer human intelligence into mere intellectual cleverness, driven by lower passions and desires, and increasingly divorced from a transcendental, metaphysical reality. This is the ideal vehicle for entropic forces – a pure, dry, and mechanical intellect. And if this cannot be achieved successfully through current humanity, then it will be attempted through the machinic, or robotic, path of development. And this is what connects these forces with the artificial light of electricity.

In a previous essay,[i] I wrote that Rudolf Steiner considered electricity to be a force of sub-nature, and thus corresponding to entropic (negative) forces. Steiner stated that anti-developmental impulses (what he calls Ahrimanic) are connected with the forces of electricity (human created rather than naturally forming), which are the same energy processes that much of our technologies are based upon. He stated that:

We must be quite clear about this: in the days when there were no electric currents, when there were no electric wires buzzing in the air, it was easier to be human. In those days these Ahrimanic forces were not there, constantly robbing us of our body even when we are awake. It was not necessary then for people to make such efforts in order to approach the spirit. That is why it is necessary today to muster far stronger spiritual forces merely to remain human than it was a hundred years ago.¹

This warning for people to make efforts to approach the spirit was given a hundred years ago; how much further along humanity now finds itself enmeshed within mechanical forces today. These entropic forces, we are told, find a means of entry into this dimension through electricity, which is sub-natural light. A mechanistic infrastructure could thus serve as a vehicle – a ‘body’ – for these anti-human forces. Similarly, in Arabic and Islamic culture the concept of the djinn as an evil spirit is well recognized. So much so, that mention of the power and malevolence of the djinns is mentioned several times through the Islamic holy book, the Quran. In the history of djinns, they are often referred to as beings of ‘smokeless fire,’ which in modern terms might easily equate with electrical beings. Such beings or forces, whether evil, Ahrimanic, or djinn, appear to have a binding towards a form of atomized technology – i.e., technology fuelled by the motion of atoms – and this should give us a note of caution since modern life is fast becoming all-electrified.

            A technical, and technological, civilization would prove to be an ideal realm for such entropic forces to have their dominion, and from where they would operate to counter-act the developmental impulses of human evolvement. Again, stating Steiner on this matter:

But in the age of technical science hitherto, the possibility of finding a true relationship to the ahrimanic civilization has escaped man. He must find the strength, the inner force of knowledge, in order not to be overcome by Ahriman in this technical civilization. He must understand sub-nature for what it really is. This he can only do if he rises, in spiritual knowledge, at least as far into extra-earthly super-nature as he has descended, in technical science, into sub-nature. The age requires a knowledge transcending nature, because in its inner life it must come to grips with a life-content which has sunk far beneath nature – a life-content whose influence is perilous. . . ²

Steiner is compelling us to develop our understanding of spiritual matters so as not to fall prey to these sub-natural forces that have increased their presence within this technical phase of humanity’s development. We may ask ourselves why these forces were so prevalent from the early 20^th century onwards. Somewhat coincidentally, or relatedly, Steiner indicated the year 1879 as the moment when certain negative forces were expulsed from their dimension and entered the sphere of Earth (our current inverted reality). If we take a closer look at the year of 1879, we also find that Thomas Edison, who invented electric power generation, filed his patent for the electric lamp on November 4, 1879 (U.S. patent 223,898), and which was granted on January 27, 1880. Edison had made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. And artificial light, Steiner says, carries the negative impulse of the Ahrimanic, entropic forces.

            Steiner also revealed the occult fact that, since the year 1879, the human ethereal body is becoming less closely bound to the physical body, thus opening the possibility of new faculties of perception, such as psychic powers. However, this capacity and potential is being blocked by counteracting forces, especially through the use of fear and insecurity. Within the current state of the Inversion, it appears that there are negative forces attempting to infiltrate the human body at the same time that they are seeking to find expression through the machinic ecosystem. Furthermore, there is some speculation that increased materialism in physical life hardens the ethereal body so that it does not dissolve after death but remains near the earth for a longer time. This ethereal body could serve as a vehicle, or host, for such Ahrimanic forces so that these soulless sheaths remain permanently tied to the earthly dimension and cannot move on. That is, entities can find ‘bodies’ – or a home – for them to remain an influence over this dimension. This situation could be mirrored upon the Earth through transhumanism if physical bodies are disallowed to die completely, thus providing a host body for these entities, directly within the physical, material realm. It appears that an artificial world, or realm, is in development – i.e., our current world is being terraformed – to accommodate such forces that are less amenable to a carbon, organic environment. It certainly causes a pause for reflection when we look out upon a world being chastised for its ‘copious amounts of carbon,’ and the current zealous drives towards a carbon ‘net-zero’ future.

            If this agenda for a complete mechanical-material domain was ever achieved, then genuine developmental impulses could become cut-off from human evolution. The purely Ahrimanic would dominate this sphere. With this in mind, it can be recognized how the advancing mechanization of human civilization is under an Ahrimanic influence. As Rudolf Steiner once commented: ‘Humanity is facing a destiny where the body may be filled with Ahrimanic demonic powers.’³ The ongoing destruction of the natural, organic world opens itself up for a replacement by Ahrimanic entropic forces, where a machinic civilization (based on the machinic impulse) would construct a wholly new technocratic, automated realm. When the ecosystems of Nature are broken down, reduced to material systems, then the building blocks for artificial structures – structures devoid of life – are established which give host for the incarnation and expression of anti-evolutionary beings and forces. This would eventually produce a whole new environment and context for existence on this planet.

The present times are hyper-materialistic and heavily intellect dominant. This creates an enslavement of human thinking where free speech, human imagination, and intuition, is highly controlled and subjected to monitoring, management, and technocratic administration. If this continues then it is likely to lead to a state where the human species, unknowing to itself, will have lost the ability for true, genuine thinking. The inner world will have become diminished, and any spiritual, developmental impulses are over-ridden by material forces. The Inversion will have completed its full reversal from the realm of Higher Truth. This compels those aware individuals during these times to maintain the connection between the transcendental realm and the physical world. There must be a living correspondence kept alive, and maintained, within the earthly realm at all times. This is the lifeline that allows for the developmental forces to operate within the physical sphere by acting through materiality itself. The only way to move through these times is by humanity confronting the entropic forces whilst being in the world, by overcoming and transforming them.

            The times are near at hand where human beings will once again have access to psychic abilities – such as clairvoyance – that was once a part of their natural inheritance. It will again come about as part of humanity’s natural development. Yet the Ahrimanic forces are working to divert this by pushing humanity further into deep materialism. The signs of this will be a rise in intellectual pseudo-thinking, falsity, pseudo-truths, and the loss of discernment. The pervasiveness of entropic forces will work towards blocking humankind’s evolvement, and to steer this into a route of evolutionary stagnation. Human intelligence will be appropriated, taken away, and placed into automated systems so that the muscles of human thought and imagination will atrophy over time. Without the vital forces of the human spirit, the mechanical impulse will remain immoral and unethical. It will continue to function, yet without being. Without an interpenetration of the mechanical by the vital forces – of spirit into matter – then future development in this domain is likely to stagnate.

            It is the responsibility of those aware individuals today to make sure that this stagnation does not occur. Instead, an alchemical operation of grand proportions must take place. The infiltration and penetration of entropic forces in this reality does not necessarily have to be a negative event. Forces are corrective upon both sides: as there is a push, so there is a pull. And the pull can come from within the individual. If we recognize that the intervention of entropic forces in human life are a necessary trigger for developing our own free will and conscious evolvement, then we can utilize these events to our advantage. It is through resistance to the counterforces against evolvement where humanity finds it strength for freedom. The question is whether we can meet these challenges in the right way. And this question I shall explore in my next essay.

To be continued in Pt.4 …

[The above essay was taken from Kingsley Dennis’ new book The Inversion: How We Have Been Tricked into Perceiving a False Reality (Aeon Books, September 2023)]

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References

¹ Steiner, R. (1923) ‘Concerning Electricity.’ A lecture given in Dornach, January 28^th 1923 (GA 220)

² Steiner, R. (1925) A lecture ‘From Nature to Sub-Nature,’ subsequently published in Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (trans. George and Mary Adams). London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973 (GA 313)

³ Steiner, R. (2009) The Incarnation of Ahriman: The Embodiment of Evil on Earth. Forest Row: Rudolf Steiner Press

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[i] ‘The Unreal Machine: Deadly Enchantment