Monday, October 1, 2012

Esoterica for Everyone!

Sometimes I wish I had some sort of secret knowledge to share.

To share with the world, maybe, or maybe just to share with you. Probably just with you, actually, now that I think about it. You would be more than enough.

But this would not be the same sort of knowledge you find inside of books. I have read an awful lot of books, and although it’s true that nobody hardly reads the things anymore – so in that sense, a book might be the perfect place to hide something you do not wish for anyone to find! – I do not believe that I have, personally, ever stumbled across a real live secret hidden in the pages of a book.

I have read many books. And I have unscrolled scrolls, looking for something that somebody somewhere had missed the first time around. Scrolls that were placed into long wooden tubes and then buried underground, where they were guarded by stone giants with heads that looked like animal heads and bodies that looked like human bodies only much, much bigger than the human bodies of the people you know.

And you would have thought – or, let me say, I thought, at least, as though my thinking is any sort of indicator of what the average person on the street thinks – that if somebody was going to go through so much trouble to protect a piece of information, that the information would have to be important indeed! Right?

But I have read the books and I have read the buried scrolls and it was all very pedestrian. Very ordinary. If I were to, say, whisper it in your ear right here and right now, it is not something you would even recognize as any sort of secret knowledge of the kind that I am saying I wish I possessed.

And look… I mean, I’m aiming low here, so far as this “secret”  knowledge is concerned. I’m not talking about the cure for cancer. I’m not talking about some systematic way of living or thinking, or… I am not trying to create some new Scientology.

No, all I want’s a secret something that nobody else knows. Something I can say and something you can hear and maybe something you’d even recognize as constituting our little secret. “Oh, I never know THAT, Katy!”  Then we can sit around and we can talk about it. Talk about it for just a little while, I mean, you and me. We both probably have other things to do before too long.

But I don’t have any secret knowledge.

I do not even know the secret behind what my neighbor is doing with all of those old tires he is always carrying into his house. But that might not be a secret at all. I have not asked him.

Frankly, I am becoming less and less certain that there IS any secret knowledge to be found anywhere, “secret-to-life”  caliber on down to secret passwords. Maybe – and I’m just spitballing here – but maybe the secret knowledge I have to impart to you is that there IS no secret knowledge. No secret to life. No Men Behind the Curtain. The Freemasons and the Rosicrucians just faking it all of these years to keep bringing in member dues.

Wouldn’t that be something?

No one is in charge!

But if this is true and this is all there is to it, then we can all go back to doing what we were planning to do before all of this secret knowledge nonsense got out of hand. We can still have our little conversation, you and I, just like we discussed before, but now I can, I don’t know, ask you how you’re feeling. How you’re holding up. Whether I can do anything to ease your load in some small way.

And we’d be able to sit and talk and we’d pass our day this way, secure in the knowledge that nobody out there knows any more about these things than you do or I do.

Secure in the not-so-secret knowledge there is no one right way to live.

And there IS no one right way to live, so far as I’ve ever been able to tell.

There are – sure as shooting! – a whole lot of WRONG ways to live, but no one right way.

So I do not have any secret knowledge to share with you, but it might not be my fault, after all. It might be that there is simply no secret knowledge to be had.

I promise to keep you updated. You will be the first to know if I run across anything,  anything at all. And I hope that you can be counted on to do the same for me if you run across anything at all on your end.

Don’t keep it a secret!

63 comments:

  1. I would be glad to impart any secret knowledge that I have. I have done so in the past. I live conversing with you even when there is very little time. Asking someone how they are feeling can change a person's attitude because it gives them the feeling that someone somewhere out there cares. Perhaps loving others as you love yourself is the secret that is hidden in plain sight. Perhaps that is all that is needed to change the world for the better.

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  2. Treat others like you would want to be treated?

    Sounds like a golden kernel of info. Someone should say that and then someone should go and write it down in a book.

    But yes, "Everything is going to be alright" is a powerful statement. It's amazing - even if it's paper-thin encouragement and goes against all facts and common sense, it has a power about it.

    Everything is going to be alright.

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    1. The statement has been written in books and read by people but it seldom seems to be practiced. At least some of us try to live by the statement.

      Everything IS going to be alright. As time passes, the feelings of hurt and betrayal will lessen. There may be times when you don't feel as if things will ever get better but eventually they do. You may never completely forget but you will eventually see it as a lesson. Everything will be alright.

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    2. It's like a dead body in the back yard. It's still there - and it probably stinks to high heaven - but eventually, you can at least cover it up with dirt so it's not so obvious.

      Delete
  3. I have secrets, just no secret knowledge. Maybe you should take the time, go to Galveston, take a handful of magic mushrooms and contemplate existence. [Disclaimer: Pickleope is not a mental health professional nor a philosopher and none of my suggestions should be followed.]
    I bet George H.W. Bush has some juicy secrets. He was the head of the CIA and the President. He has to have some secret knowledge. And he's in your neck of the woods. Track him down! Or just sit in IAH and stare at that weird bronze statue of him. You're bound to learn something...or get arrested. Either one.

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    1. I've heard good things about DMT trips, too.

      Maybe I can cross your anti-advice here and do DMT with former President George H.W. Bush.

      I'm hoping that if I do, I can get some of his hidden knowledge by a kind of chemical or spiritual osmosis. I mean, i don't want to have to actually sit there and talk to him that long.

      The guy is 90 or something - I'd have to sit through "Wheel of Fortune" at some point.

      Delete
  4. In the Ancient Greek mystery societies they had secret knowledge, but in the end, as you say, the secret is there is no secret. The man behind the curtain is old and anxious to pass off diplomas and heart-shaped watches to escape the clutching hands of the needy travelers. The mystery societies, scholars are pretty sure, basically got their initiates high on ergot and brought them into a temple with some weird art and let the hallucinations do their work (I'm guessing). If you ever do 'break through' via DMT, Salvia, shrooms, LSD or Mescalin or Peyote or Ayuhuasca, or Iboga, then you can suddenly 'get' the meaning of life, but then you have to throw it back, like a patient fisherman who lives only to fish, but there's just one fish in his pond, so when he catches it he must throw it back right away, or else have nothing to do. Kerouac once wrote, and I paraphrase, 'the meaning of life is beyond our understanding due its complete simplicity.' Any other secret--UFOS, underground bases, exopolitics, top secret this or that--is small potatoes compared to the subjective truths we each seek. Once you break free and see past time and space the thing you have to remember when returning to society is that now YOU have a secret, since no one will believe or care if you say 'last night I smoked DMT and now I know the answers. I met Buddha on the road and killed him. I have ascended into the heaven between the tick tocks of time' - they'll just shrug and go 'bro, you musta been WASTED' so you got to learn to keep quiet about it, and then eventually, you forget it... that's why you need to write it down, on a scroll, that you bury, and guard with stone lions.

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    1. Ergot poisoning! "Saint Antony's Fire"!

      I was going to start this blog off with the old Lao Tzu quote: "Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know."

      Or maybe the Brian Eno line: "Those who know / They don't let it show."

      You know, many years ago, I used to write by pretending I was relating either something I had been told or that I had read. You know, like imagining a book that has all of the secrets to life in it. What does it say? Write down what you think it says...

      Which is really just a variation on how Joseph Smith or Muhammad claim to have gotten their revelations.

      Delete
  5. The quote that's always confused me is, "If you have to ask, you'll never know." So, assuming that someone possesses knowledge of a matter which has never been discussed, does that mean the knowledge can't be explained in a way to make others understand? I'm confusing myself. I guess that has to do with complex secrets. I'unno.

    Anyway, I've been through varying trips with different substances, but unfortunately all I remember is the nonsensical visions and next to none of the "life-changing realizations." A shame really. I should've written them down. Not that they would've made a lick of sense.

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    1. It's the old Zen thing about a finger pointing being the answer. Or something.

      Drugs are pretty useless to me as a source of wisdom. I mean, don't get me wrong: I'm all for people playing with their minds in safe and recreational settings. It's just never done much for me in my creative or spiritual life.

      It's hard to argue with the results some have gotten.

      Just not me.

      Delete
  6. I really wish I had a witty retort, but I just don't right now. If I learn something, I will be sure to let you know. You do the same for me. You make the world a better place.

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    1. Thank you, Melanie. If we pool our knowledge, we're bound to find something useful eventually!

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  7. jervaise brooke hamsterOctober 2, 2012 at 3:25 PM

    Basically, when you think about it, if even Bill Gates $100 billion fortune couldn`t put Humpty Dumpty back together again, what hope is there for the rest of us ! ?.

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    1. I don't know. In my limited experience, unless you are talking about health care or a nicer house, money isn't a very good way to resolving any of life's problems.

      Delete
  8. Powerful topic and I have tried this self-evaluation about me about secrets I could never freeze on anything.
    I am a blabbermouth and bigmouth and I cant exactly keep anything to myself even when I am angry.
    I am not good with secrets but I good with secrets shared with me. I am a spendthrift but never had I been loose with someoneelse's money?
    On other hand my mom and husband are reverse of what I am, they have secrets, they dont share their secrets and secrets shared with them doesnt stay as secret anymore.

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    1. For some reason, I always believe that I can talk my way out of anything.

      I usually can.

      That's what makes things like my recent breakup so frustrating: I can't talk my way out of it.

      The problem is that I always remember too late that not everyone shares everything in their head - even if they SHOULD.

      Delete
    2. I thought the same thing, but the soft spoken introvert husband of mine opened his mouth, and I wish he were a mute. I don't want everyone to share everything in their head but I don't want to be with anyone who doesn't share the things in their head either. Openbooks should marry open books and closed books should marry closed books, don't mind me, this is one other reason I prefer not to talk when I am upset, dangerous than me being intoxicated .

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    3. There could be something to that.

      There's plenty that could go wrong when one person thinks that thoughts and feelings ARE being shared and the other doesn't.

      Some secrets are secrets just because nobody wants to look in the corner to see what is there...

      Delete
  9. Erich Kuersten is a right clever sod, hes knows literally everything there is to know about every single film that has ever been made in the entire history of world cinema since the invention of the cinematograph 123 years ago (circa 1889), that equates to a complete and unabridged knowledge of over 2 million films (according to IMDB), quite incredible and totally unbelievable.

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    1. I, on the other hand, own literally dozens of DVDs - most of which I have seen!

      I have been to a movie theater at LEAST 5 times in the past 6 years!

      I know. It's impressive. Don't hate me.

      Delete
  10. There is cigarette knowledge. Ask any smoker.

    I'm glad to see this post. I was beginning to get worried about you.

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    1. Hi, Bill.

      I'm still a bit worried about me. I might be to the point where I need to bring in Experts to talk to.

      I hope to keep writing, thought, regardless of where this goes...

      Delete
  11. the sayer of the truthOctober 2, 2012 at 6:17 PM

    Exactly right Katy, Bill Gates cant buy the one thing with his money that he`d like to buy, he cant walk into the chairpersons office of the worlds largest pharmaceutical company and say to the chairperson "if i give you my $100 billion could you make a tablet for me that i could take that would make me 18 again and stay at the age of 18 forever, and that would also give me incredible and endless sexual power so that i could literally fuck 20 different beautiful girls every day for all eternity ! ! !". Thats the one thing that he would love to be able to buy with his $100 billion, but that isn`t available at any price, which, strickly speaking, does rather make a nonsense of his $100 billion, doesn`t it ! ! !.

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    1. I don't know.

      Depends on what your goals are.

      I've seen vampire movies: Staying the same age forever can start to suck at a certain point. Especially if you know you're going to have to see Kristen Stewart get older before your eyes...

      Delete
  12. A Heather O`Rourke Obsessed LunaticOctober 2, 2012 at 6:26 PM

    I haven`t been to the movies since June of `88 to see Poltergeist III, I couldn`t believe Heather had snuffed it only 4 months earlier, evidently the rest of the people in the auditorium felt the same because when Heather appeared on screen for the first time right at the beginning of the movie an incredible hush and silence fell over the audience, it was a quite astonishing and electrifying mo-girl-t that i will NEVER forget.

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  13. Katy - "You will be the first to know if I run across anything, anything at all. And I hope that you can be counted on to do the same for me if you run across anything at all on your end."

    Plato’s ‘Noble Lie’, albeit arguably a notion of ideological propaganda, is often where the debate begins concerning ‘expertise’. Plato did not believe most people were clever enough to look after their own and society’s best interest, so the few ‘clever’ people of the world needed to lead the rest of the flock. Therefore, the idea was born that only the elite should know the truth in its complete form and the rulers, Plato said, must tell the people of the city ‘The Noble Lie’ to keep them passive and content, without the risk of upheaval and unrest.
    http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-concept-of-noble-lie.html

    Look Bullwinkle! It's a secret message!
    Stuff you did not know about GOODSTUFF
    http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/goodstuffs-life-story.html

    have a good one

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    1. Hmm. As a sometime-misanthrope, I have to give some credence to the theory that the masses are idiots.

      But here's the thing: The elites are idiots, too.

      So the same mentality that says the masses aren't qualified to govern themselves applies equally to the elites, leaving us with no one to govern us.

      Except, of course, God, in and through his hand-selected representative here n Earth.

      Delete
    2. from ADRI's outstanding blog

      "When I was young and naive, I used to pay some attention. I listened to WORDS spoken authoritatively into microphones. To my still-dewy ears and my still-dewy brain, they seemed like the WORD Terrorists. Terrorists of the WORD, twisting meanings to fit agenda or whim."

      "Now I am old, and I am not a WORD Freedom Fighter. I am a WORD Terrorist. I’m the reason you get X-rayed before you go into a classroom. “Check her shoes, check her shoes! I bet good money that bitch is smuggling in explosive scraps of TRUTH!”" -- http://adrisanitarium.multiply.com/journal/item/213/WORD_Terrorism

      have a good one

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    3. Not bad. I should'a written that!

      Delete
  14. Alas Katy, "nothing is new under the sun" Now if you want to start a new religion, apparently you start by writing bad science fiction first.

    By the way, I am with you. Books on the shelf numbering near 1000 (not counting the ones in storage)and I have read nearly all of them. The annual "dinner and a movie" date is not for another 6 months. Once a year is a good average, right?

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    1. Now that most of my house is empty, it's easy for me to see how MOST of what I own is just CDs and books - and how much shit it is.

      I actually believe I could pull off a religion. Starting one, I mean. I'm just not sure human beings need another religion.

      Delete
  15. the sayer of the truthOctober 3, 2012 at 5:02 PM

    "DEPENDS ON WHAT YOUR GOALS ARE" ! ? ! ?, Katy Anders displays her famous naivety yet again ! ! !.

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    1. Haha... I don't find naivete to always be a bad thing.

      Delete
  16. If I were you, I would ignore the suggestions to use drugs. I have a friend who got herself into a great deal of trouble from using psychedelic drugs. Meditation alone can bring you answers unknown if you meditate on the right things. Of course, I'm not you so my suggestion may be unheeded.

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    1. That sounds right to me, Cal.

      I have, um, dabbled in various theogenic and so-called "mind-expanding" drugs over the years and have not gotten much out of them. Personal and spiritual work has been more rewarding while not having the nasty aftertaste...

      Delete
    2. I tried the drug route to spirituality back in the late 70s. The best I can tell is that drugs just make you THINK you've discovered something brilliant. Later, when you sober up, you find that your epiphany was poorly conceived.

      Delete
    3. It seems to work differently for different people. It's hard to argue with the results that some artists, writers, philosophers, and theologians have gotten from the chemical blender.

      Delete
    4. They may have gotten closer to the truth had it not been for the chemical blender. I don't know what things to which you are referring, though. I did much better when I was completely clean.

      Delete
    5. I do better when I'm clean, too, but I have not produced anything like the Beatles, Alan Watts, John Lilly, the Beat writers, etc. etc.

      And the thing is, we really don't KNOW what substances people might have been on in older times.

      The founder of Quakerism ran around saying he saw blood flowing in the streets of Litchfield. Was he stoned? As another commenter noted here, some of the old monks might have been suffering from "ergot poisoning" - essentially hallucinations caused by bread mold!

      Nifty, huh?

      Delete
  17. the sayer of the truthOctober 4, 2012 at 7:34 AM

    Katy, its important for you to always remember that the opposite of naivety is not cynicism but rather simply being in touch with the utterly material basis of reality.

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    1. I would have to say that I have varying amounts of all three within me, any one of which might be on display at any given moment...

      Delete
  18. Katy Anders is thinking about starting a religion and i`m getting very angry again ! ! !.

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    1. My god is a wrathful bottle of water who hates pink highlighters, Richard. Can you prove my god does not exist?

      Delete
    2. If I drink your god, will that make me divine?

      Delete
    3. At least until the next bathroom break, it would...

      I thought about that idea before. Not the bathroom break thing, but consuming the divine. I had a blog last year where God was essentially a huge nerve net wrapped around the Earth, under the surface.

      Eating it seemed like an obvious - but really cool - direction to go.

      Delete
  19. I think if we completely understood life that would take all of the fun out of it. Me, I'm having fun here in the dark. It's a party. Who just grabbed my ass? Mayhaps we'll never know, but to whoever it was, I appreciate the gesture.

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    1. I oughta be having a great time, then, because I have absolutely NO idea what the hell is going on!

      Delete
  20. Katy. Here's the secret.

    All you need is love, my love, all you need is love.

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    Replies
    1. Well, we were sort of on the same page, you and I!

      Because my guess was going to be "Goo goo g'joob!"

      Delete
  21. jervaise brooke hamsterOctober 4, 2012 at 10:47 AM

    Katy, if you and i ever met up do you think you would want to beat me up, or do you think you`d instead choose to respect my comic genius and bizarre surrealism ?.

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  22. The computer screen is the retina of the minds eye, there-fore the computer screen is part of the physical structure of the brain, there-fore whatever appears on the computer screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it, there-fore the computer screen is reality and reality is less than the computer screen.

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  23. My dear, sweet, gorgeous, sexy, little Katy, if your God is merely "a wrathful bottle of water who hates pink highlighters" then we have nothing to fear from him, the trouble starts when you start thinking that your God is "a vengeful omnipotent being who lives somewhere in outer space and is planning a destruction for the world that is beyong imagining". So, by definition, if you simply stay with "the wrathful bottle of water who hates pink highlighters" everything will be just fine forever for everyone on earth. As always Katy, i am your obedient servant, here to educate, enlighten, and lust after you ! ! !.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The secret to life is that there are no secrets. Only knowledge. Unfortunately a lot of people keep their knowledge a secret. So therefore, there are secrets...but only by default.

    I do know this...acid takes your mind to a whole new realm of knowledge and revalations. Weed can do the same. I do my best thinking when I'm stoned. I don't write sober. However, I'm too old to be taking acid...but never too old to blaze up a fatty and contemplate the secret to life!

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    1. Different things work for different people. Many - maybe most! - of my literary and artistic role models extolled the virtues of chemical inspiration. For me, stone cold sobriety is the only thing that works. I can do other things, but Im not going to get ideas or words out of it...

      Delete
    2. The hard part is maintaining a train of thought...sober or not. Master the art of staying focused and achieve greatness!

      Delete
    3. I've been trying to shut off music and shut off the television more lately - to sit in silence.

      I am hoping that it helps with my concentration levels. Seems to be helping with blood pressure and sleep schedule!

      Delete
  25. Your big secret, for me at least, turned out to be the word "Esoterica", which I just looked up in a dictionary.

    In fact, the greatest secret in the world is simply the truth and knowledge and experiences YOU possess, which by definition are not possessed by the any of us.

    Therefore, your duty, as is the duty for each of us, is to speak the truth and knowledge and experiences that the each of US possesses.

    Through this blog and your life-long works elsewhere, you have already fulfilled some of this duty; yet, you can do much, much more. Not in the quantity of your efforts, which is already commendable, but in the nature and depth and meaning of your efforts.

    As you had demanded of me, I do believe in fulfilling a role of certain fate and importance. But what is your role? What is your destiny? What are you going to do in the rest of your life other than to just see what happens next? You can choose to just stand by the wayside and curse at the evils of this world while watching them to roam free, or you can choose to act, to stop them, and to make this world right. You have been given a rare fate and talent that the rest of us simply do not possess. It is then your duty to do great good with your singular gift, no matter how demanding it actually is on your life and on your mind.

    Why else we should live this life, right?

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    1. Hmm. I have thought about making the blog writing more substantive. I tend to like keeping it a humor/entertainment thing... candy with a modicum of nutritional value mixed in.

      I think I'd lose something if it started turning into lectures.

      Delete
    2. It doesn't have to be lectures.

      Instead, truth and knowledge and experiences that are of your singular life will suffice.

      Like esoterica. Who would have known that such an arrogant word ever existed?

      Delete
    3. You sound much less disgruntled than usual.

      This can only mean that my NEXT post is going to set you off...

      Delete
  26. I'm late to the dance here - much to do of late, and little time.

    But it boils down to this:

    No one is in charge.

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    1. I try to keep that idea in my head all of the time. I'm sort of the opposite of a conspiracy theorist.

      I'm a coincidence theorist?

      It's just that I've seen large groups of people trying to carry out a master plan, and I'm not sure it can be done.

      Delete

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