Hereby a post about Prometheus and Atlas by Jason Reza Jorjani. This is not a review, merely some lines about one or two aspects of it.
This is a look at a book from 2016. A doctrine of some value for us today. Prometheus and Atlas.
Now, first I must go into some "disclaiming" stuff. Thus I say: I don't fully endorse the Jorjani doctrine. It's a bit too "titanic" for me. And the "Nietzschean relativism" advocated is against my concept of Perennial Truth. This book is denying elements like "divine light, divine influxus, human soul as part of Lux Aeterna". Of course, these concepts aren't even mentioned in the book, but the following must be said, by me, now, for the benefit of the Perennial School I run: the topical work is not exactly a divinely inspired doctrine.
Prometheus and Atlas might be needed for its stressing of supernatural elements and the need for a new ontology, see below -- but, for the record, it isn't "Perennial Tradition", it isn't fully in harmony with the divine path I walk.
This must be clarified before we start.
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In 2016 Jason Jorjani published the conceptual essay Prometheus and Atlas.
The most interesting aspect of it is the discussion about scientific theory and images of reality.
I'm talking about the ontological aspect. Of how we see reality, “what is real” -- that is, the discipline of metaphysics.
Metaphysics is pretty much looked down upon in today’s academia. But Jorjani, for his part, doesn't care about that. He grasps the nettle of this subject, giving us a metaphysics for our time -- and this is a sorely needed approach if we even want to understand the world. Metaphysics and related issues (esoterism, occultism) are by Jorjani called “the spectral aspect of reality,” and this provides an angle for incorporating metaphysics into today’s scientific discussion.
According to Jorjani, this “spectral” (= ghostly; cf specter, a sign in the sky) aspect can also be associated with “spectrum,” suggesting holism. This is great. A holistic view is needed now. A holistic view of scientific phenomena is opposed to reductionism, which, for its part, merely reduces reality based on the way it is examined. Today's science denies the reality of everything that doesn't fit into its model of investigation, such as the existence of a soul and God, etc.
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Jorjani believes that a full understanding of science can only be achieved through "the spectral perspective." Now, he doesn't use words like "God" and "soul," but his book lives in a gray area where these concepts can be applied. Those concepts, and supernatural stuff like ESP, near-death experiences, and UFOs.
You could say that Jorjani gives the spiritual camp intellectual ammunition. Spiritual people are often not so familiar with academic concepts and academic presentation; new agers talk about "God is love" and "the soul is energy," etc., but they don't have much more in their conceptual apparatus. Now, however, with Jorjani's doctrine, they can broaden their vocabulary with concepts like "spectral," "uncanny", "reductive materialism," and ideas like "if you reject the supernatural you'll only be left with the unnatural"...
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20-30 years ago, rather many books were published that challenged the state of the orthodox scientific community. Paul Davies' God and the New Physics and David Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order spring to mind. Prometheus and Atlas continues the tradition and is to be highly recommended for this.
However, the stakes are higher this time. The consensus shaping post-war culture is gone now. Now we have an all-imbuing propaganda war (= Astral War, war of nerves, Weltanschauungskrieg) -- and in that struggle Jorjani is in the camp of the opposition. He is anti-establishment. He is, as I see it, a representative of the "Dark Englightenment". Details aside this means being open to radical conservatism, the right-wing, post-humanism...
This has got to be clear... the fight is on... no one is neutral in this Astral War... since your soul is the battlefield.
I coined that phrase -- "your soul is the battlefield" -- and Jorjani, to me, is "mindful enough" to realize this. To allow for this "immaterial, mental" aspect of today's struggle.
Well then, there you go... this is the nature of the beast. This is the zeitgeist of the 2020s and beyond. Therefore Prometheus and Atlas can't be avoided by the conceptually interested student.
Related
Actionism (2017)
Astral War (2023)
New Infinities
Swedish Mystique
Richard Wagner -- A Portrait
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