The Unreal Machine (7) – The Threshold

The final installment in the ‘Unreal Machine’ essay series

Humanity stands at the threshold between two paths. There is a considerable risk of falling prey to the mechanical impulse and being incorporated into a dense, technologized world of control, surveillance, and restricted freedoms. This would paradoxically become a sub-natural world of super-technology and ‘intelligent’ machines. Yet it would be a realm dominated by the Ahrimanic forces that counter the evolutionary impulses within humankind. To work against this, human beings are now compelled to transform the earthly, mechanical impulses into forces for human betterment. And this task requires that the human individual attain a level of perception and awareness sufficient to grasp the implications of this situation. In Steiner’s words: ‘Our age needs knowledge that rises above nature because it must deal inwardly with a dangerous life content that has sunk below nature.’¹ A period such as we are facing now calls for dedication and commitment; for if not, then the encroaching impulses of apathy, ignorance, and impotence will serve to diminish the human being’s receptive capacities. And these receptive capacities are required for the conscious receiving of transcendental impulses – otherwise they will be turned into mechanical, materialistic efforts. Independent, self-willed perceptive thought (which includes the heart resonance) is necessary for regaining the intuitive insight that once was natural to the human being. Humanity is poised upon this path of potential advancement; only to be hindered by forces that deliberately aim to hold us back. The choice that stands before us is to remain dumbed and numbed – that is, psychologically mummified – by the mainstream mind-programming of the dominant consensus reality, or to work quietly and persistently with our personal efforts. Through self-discipline and focused awareness, each person can work to develop their own forms of heightened perception. The decision here is between aligning oneself with those forces that serve the inner development of the individual and which seek to bring humanity into a merger with Source consciousness; or with the entropic forces that push for selfish, egoistic development. The present work for the human being, in my view, is the acceptance of, and receptivity to, what are called the vital forces (spirit-consciousness), and to facilitate its emergence through the material realm.

            The human being can act as the transformative force in the material world – to be the conductor, as it were, through which higher forces and energies can be transformed down into the physical. We need to resist being overwhelmed by the mechanistic forces of an increasingly technological world. We progressively find ourselves enmeshed within an interplay of forces – the controlling forces of sub-nature and the restorative energies of supra-nature (the metaphysical/transcendental). This positioning of the human being between realms has been portrayed also in mythology; the human stands between the realm of the ‘gods’ and that of the underworld (the realm of Hades) from where the sub-world dwellers attempt to send out their influences and forces. Humanity has been foretold of its circumstances for many ages, yet the symbolism has been too unclear for many to grasp the significance. The situation now calls for greater awareness and knowledge of these polarized, opposing streams of forces operating within our present reality. And this entails understanding the nature of the Inversion. The question is now one of developing the strength of awareness with the receptivity of being open to restorative forces. At the same time, the individual should be aware of the nature of the negating forces that act upon the world, through societies and cultures, and within people themselves. We cannot transform those forces that we are blind to. And the nature of the Inversion – of the unreal machine – is to perpetuate the sleeping state of blindness. We awaken first with one eye open. As the proverb goes: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

            It also should be recognized that the forces of opposition all have a role to play. It is the friction that creates the potential for movement. Forces that are in opposition may also be serving one another in a way that is not outwardly apparent. Just as a rocket, for example, needs the force of expulsion to propel itself forward (that is, in the opposite direction), so too can the opposing forces work to advance the evolutionary path – if they are utilized and transformed in the appropriate way. In this, the resolution lies in the way of transformation of negating forces. The human being is both within the world yet not of the world. The human being has an origin from beyond the material-physical realms, and yet the consciousness-spirit is taking a sojourn through the human life experience. As such, it has to work with the forces that operate within these spheres of activity. And the activity for the human individual now is to counteract the entropic forces that are gaining influence through the machinic impulse. In this, a counter impulse must be brought forth through the human being. And what is this counter impulse? Rudolf Steiner already gave the answer to this, which was mentioned in a previous essay. Steiner had stated how the ‘Spirits of Form’ had implanted the principle of Love into the of heredity of humankind on Earth. This was a countermeasure against the encroaching forces of mechanism, intellectualism, and the ‘head’ influences, through which the Ahrimanic forces were largely working. The growth of love – not the sentimental version our media overwhelms us with – but the pure love energy must be brought forth through community (fraternity), compassion, empathy, and unselfish goodwill. These values are the foundation that entropic, negating forces cannot penetrate.

            The forms and principles through which we live our lives must be attuned to a recognition of spirit-consciousness rather than in ignorance of the metaphysical conditions of our life existence. The key feature here is awareness. The entropic, counter-evolutionary forces wish to operate under a veil of unknowing – they do not want that individuals recognize their presence. For this reason, they function through stealth and by proxy. They rarely come out to oppose events directly, for this would shine a light upon their presence. They are shadow beings for they work through the shadows; this includes the dark shadows of our minds, our thoughts (thought-forms), and through our collective shadows. The entropic forces are at home within a rigid, mechanical environment; a world operated by AI, algorithms, data-mining, digital infrastructures, Metaverses, and all forms of computerized realms. These are the artificial realms for us, yet the natural home environment for such anti-human forces. We must be aware of this, and resist falling into their entrapment – of becoming mere pawns or playthings within an electrified prison run by digital-guards, and where the inmates are numbered and catalogued. Those forces that aim to deceive us know full well that if they can get negative emotions to take hold in our hearts, they can block human evolvement. That is why awareness here is so important. Humans are living bodies of transmission; the body is a resonant vessel – a living antenna. If negative emotions, energies, or vibrations take presence within the living body then its capacity to fuse with transcendental impulses is impaired.

            The current evolutionary impulse upon this planet is operating through an organic medium. And this includes us. We are carbon-based beings; and yet the carbon-based environment is being turned increasingly hostile against us. Organic food is turning into genetically modified products grown by ‘suicide seeds’ that unnaturally fail to pass along their heredity. Human reproduction is becoming more and more unnatural as fertility rates plummet across the world. Meat is being grown in labs whilst insects become the new celebrity-endorsed food stock. Farms are now factories, and genuine farmsteads are being taken down or taken away. The illness industry is force-fed by corporate Big Pharma like foie gras ducks. These are blatant signs of the Inversion; and yet many people remain blind to this, conditioned as they are from birth to accept this normalized madness and delusion. Our perceptions are being hung upside down as we innocently (or ignorantly) prance through life accepting further and further restrictions through technocratic, authoritarian control mechanisms. This is not normal, natural, nor organic. This is the path of the machinic impulse, which is the vessel through which the entropic, Ahrimanic forces operate. And it is the same path through which humanity must walk in order to find again its road towards evolvement. The metaphysical presence is within the lesser reality – the Inversion – at all times; yet it has to be acknowledged and recognized in order to be perceived. In this, humanity must self-awaken its organs of perception. As the wisdom teacher Jalaluddin Rumi stated: ‘New organs of perception come into being as a result of necessity. Therefore, O man, increase your necessity, so that you may increase your perception.’ The Call has been given in how to proceed within the Inversion.

In his autobiography, Rudolf Steiner wrote that: ‘The whole world, apart from the human being, is a riddle, the real riddle of existence, and the human being himself is its solution.’² This sums up the Inversion entirely – it is a riddle. And the human being must solve the way out of this riddle; and the solution resides within the heart and being of humanity. It is as if we are within a dream, and we are being held back from awakening. We have all been told a bedtime story before entering into the sleep of a human life. The dream becomes so captivating and convincing that it causes the dreamer never to awaken. The dreamer continues to dream the dream that they were told before sleeping. We can continue dreaming the wrong dreams; or we can start to dream the right dreams that will lead, eventually, to a morning awakening. Or perhaps this story that I have told within these essays about what I call the Inversion has just been another dream to keep you all asleep. Maybe there is no such thing as an Inversion – after all, it sounds a little silly, doesn’t it? Does it?

Final communication in this series.

[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)]

Discount code ‘INV20’ will give readers 20% off The Inversion until 25/03/24 when ordered direct from publisher:

UK: https://spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/inversion/95215
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References

¹ Cited in von Gleich, Sigismund (2005) The Transformation of Evil and the Subterranean Spheres of the Earth. Forest Row: Temple Lodge Publishing, p17

² Cited in von Gleich, Sigismund (2005) The Transformation of Evil and the Subterranean Spheres of the Earth. Forest Row: Temple Lodge Publishing, p54