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Identity within daimonic reality?
Radicalisation of Existence and Identity (Part #13)
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Identity? These considerations apply equally to any individual sense of identity, otherwise held to be strictly defined by "identity papers", increasingly backed by extensive database profiling (augmented by photo and biometric ID). This modality tends to be further reinforced through elaboration of curriculum vitae (CVs) held to be vital by many, as with the often desperate cultivation of a profile on social media (Facebook, Linkedin, etc).
Given the crisis of identity which many face in psychosocial contexts disproportionally populated by immigrants, how is the individual to imagine a meaningful identity? What response can be envisaged when any homeland no longer constitutes a qualitatively viable "place to be" (in the terms of Christopher Alexander)? The challenge for some goes further to include the question of whether and how they themselves exist -- beyond their capacity to nourish themselves. This has been remarkably articulated by R. D. Laing (The Divided Self; an existential study of sanity and madness, 1960), as excerpted separately (Collective Memory Personified: an Analogy, 1980). Laing's description was used as a means of providing a perfect, if tragic, summary of the condition of world society -- particularly in terms of the condition of collective memory.
These various "dimensions" can be explored through the 7 WH-questions, highlighted in the animation above: Who? Where? When? Why? What? How? Which? However in a daimonic reality, for a radical it is precisely the non-definitive nature of any answer which characterizes the experiential nature of individual identity. The focus of existence is outside the box by which "inside-the-box thinking" endeavours to contain that reality.
More curious is the comprehension associated with the sense of coherence which any quest for identity may be held to offer. Indeed, as indicated above, Am I Question or Answer? Problem or (re)solution? The definitive answer conventionally sought is challenged by the possibility of an identity framed by the dictum of Hinduism: Neti Neti -- hence the key offered by apophasis, otherwise applied to comprehension of divinity (Being What You Want: problematic kataphatic identity vs. potential of apophatic identity? 2008).
Destruction? To the extent that particular comprehension of identity is offered by action, the current preoccupation with the attitudes framed by suicide bombing call for the most careful exploration. Understood more generally however, they highlight the nature of the stories on offer with respect to dying. It could be argued that the variety of stories is remarkably impoverished and endangered -- as with biodiversity. The menu of cognitive options though which to die is very limited. A daimonic reality implies a far richer range of metaphors, as may be discussed (Metaphors To Die By: correspondences between a collapsing civilization, culture or group, and a dying person, 2013). That exploration calls into question the irony that cosmologists and physicists do not seem to have applied such insights to themselves, despite their extensive insight into richer metaphors of "ending".
Curiously it could be argued that the manner in which reality is atttributed increasingly to the externality of existence through the course of a life is intimately associated with aging and the manner in which it is ensured. Astrophysical metaphors inspired by the aging of a Sun, are suggestive of how the internal energy (by which it is sustained) is progressively lost to the point of final collapse. The question is the nature of the possible engagement with externalities to counteract such an existential drain (Existential Embodiment of Externalities: radical cognitive engagement with environmental categories and disciplines, 2009).
The obvious concern at this time is the strategic commitment of individuals to "blowing up" things (and themselves), purportedly in service to a higher cause. Simplistic condemnation unfortunately omits consideration of the founding myth of Christianity, namely the violent actions of Jesus in the so-called cleansing of the temple. It also avoids consideration of the analogous response to the iconic Golden Calf of the Israelites. Although remarkable with respect to cultural heritage, their destruction invokes otherwise missing dimensions and gives meaning to them -- as with any suicide pact. Placing icons in museums makes a pretence of the reality of which they are indicative.
Many religions are quite systematic in their destruction of the icons of cultures they seek to dominate -- as more recently evident in the actions of the Catholic Church in Latin America and elsewhere. Islam is quite categorical regarding the problematic nature of imagery -- especially that purporting to offer indications of any transcendent reality. The approach is seemingly basic to assertion of collective identity, as with recent threats to blow cultures back to the Stone Age (Nick Clasher, Bomb them Back to the Stone Age: an etymology, History News Network).
What multidimensional experiential reality is obscured by focus on an external iconic image in three dimensions? Why the remarkable enthusiasm for killing and destruction in movies and video games -- from the youngest age? Is there a sense in which any destruction frees a daimonic reality to some degree? Is self-destruction -- and taking others with it -- indicative of a more fundamental understanding of this, for which there is currently no other modality?
Clearly there is a case for careful exploration of the sense of identity in relation to the representations with which subtle modalities of existence are believed to be associated -- especially when they are termed "real estate". In echoing the architecture of temples, it is curious to note the extent to which "pillars" are now used in strategic constructs -- virtual temples? -- most notably in the case of the European Union (Coherent Value Frameworks: pillar-ization, polarization and polyhedral frames of reference, 2008).
Ways of being? Rather than the conventionally restrictive understandings of identity, is the issue a matter of recognizing the variety of ways of being? Some of the metaphors noted above are indicative in this respect.
- periodic table of chemical elements as indicative of the variety of ways of being? This offers a way of relating the more common modalities (meaning normal?) to those which are rarer, and even to the sense of radical -- possibly even dangerously radioactive. Could current strategic thinking regarding "eradication" then be compared to any aspiration to remove all radioactive elements?
- species in the environment, following traditional recognition of contrasting ways of being in totemic cultures. In this respect, a form of biomimicry is to be recognized in use of species to frame collective strategies -- notably so-called marketing warfare strategies (Dudley Lynch, Strategy of the Dolphin: scoring a win in a chaotic world, 1990)
- axes of cognitive bias as a means of distinguishing options for being, following the articulation of W. T. Jones (The Romantic Syndrome; toward a new method in cultural anthropology and history of ideas, 1961), as discussed separately (Patterning the varieties of radical experience, 2015). The axes indicated there are:
- Order versus Disorder
- Static versus Dynamic
- Discrete versus Continuous
- External versus Identification
- Sharply versus Implicitly defined
- Comprehensible versus Incomprehensible
- Due versus Spontaneous process
The latter highlights the possibility that identity for some, or under some conditions, may not be a matter of a sharply defined, ordered focus in relation to externality, for example. With respect to the daimonically radical, identity may be better explored as the alternation between a variety of modalities -- as would be characteristic of the waveform sense of identity noted above. This is consistent with the questionable quality of "existence".
Cognitive "management"? It remains intriguing as to how such dynamics might be "organized" and "managed" as a cognitive process -- especially when the identity and existence of the "manager" is a feature of the dynamic. It is in this sense that the most complex collective endeavour at this time -- the design of a nuclear fusion reactor -- offers a particularly valuable metaphor (as noted above). It offers a way of thinking about "cognitive fusion", namely a means of integrating otherwise incommensurable perspectives which cannot be otherwise contained. There is then clearly a case for exploring how attention can be "managed" and "invested" to engender psychosocial energy such as to sustain some form of identity coherence (Investing Attention Essential to Viable Growth: radical self-reflexive reappropriation of financial skills and insights, 2014).
The toroidal design of ITER in three dimensions obscures the sense in which any viable psychosocial analogue might require at least a fourth dimension. This is currently implied by the external management of the ITER process. However in the psychosocial case the toroidal design can be more fruitfully understood in terms of of the topology of the Klein bottle (mathematically related to the torus). Any "management" function is then integrated into the paradoxical "insertion" into the bottle through the fourth dimension --- only partially comprehensible through depiction in three dimensions. This could be considered consistent with the self-reflexivity of a higher order of cybernetics (as mentioned above).
The irony of the acronym of ITER, being the Latin word for "the way", offers further potentially fruitful associations at this time, given the Biblical declaration: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). As a "design specification", the question is then how comprehension of identity takes the form of a vehicle with the degree of complexity of ITER. The psychosocial energy engendered by the processes of the vehicle offers further associations between the astrophysical metaphor of "Sun", as traditionally associated with "Father". Does this specification suggest that identity could be explored as a dynamic embodiment of the processes of "ITER", as previously argued (Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006)?
Pattern language of radicalisation and daimonisation? The possibility of such a "language" was suggested above. There is a possibility that the elements of such a language already exist in visual form in the light of the reflection within various religions over the centuries. Curiously, despite the unresolved difficulties of interfaith discourse and the theological differences which reinforce them, there is a visual form which is reasonably common to a number of major religions -- if not central to their iconography.
The patterns in question are the centro-symmetrical geometrical forms which figure in architecture and on other media. In the case of Islam they are recognized as "Islamic patterns" (Yahya Abdullahi and Mohamed Rashid Bin Embi, Evolution of Islamic geometric patterns, Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2013; Keith Critchlow, Islamic Patterns: an analytical and cosmological approach, 1976). Christianity recognizes them best in the form of rose windows and circular mazes (Painton Cowen, The Rose Window, 2005). Buddhism and Hinduism recognize them in the form of mandalas, of which Hindusim recognizes a particular yantra form (Madhu Khanna, Yantra: the symbol of cosmic unity, 1979). As a language these forms are more systematically explored by Keith Albarn (The Language of Pattern, 1974)
In the light of the potential cognitive implications with respect to "managing" attention in a daimonic context, and the metaphor offered by the control of nuclear plasma within the ITER toroidal container, there is a case for imaginative exploration of such patterns. It could be assumed, for example, that they are effectively cognitive screenshots of intuitive insight -- much as such images are produced during operation of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Rather than considering them as static and only implying a dynamic, they could be embodied in animations suggestive of the dynamics of a daimonic reality -- namely the challenge of embodying/containing the core dynamic (as suggested by the case of the "plasma snakes" mentioned above with respect to ITER).
The following animation is an example of the possibility, made up primarily of many Islamic patterns, but with the first being the central portion of the famed Sri Yantra of Hinduism. The animation rate is designed to reinforce the argument regarding the dynamic nature of daimonic reality and the cognitive "flows" which contain it through momentary mnemonic associations. The words tentatively framing the animation are suggestive of different modalities of engaging with normal reality.
| Animation suggestive of various understandings of coherence | ||
| See the world otherwise (radical worldview) | ||
| Make otherwise (transformation) identity through action "make-over" |  | Radical acceptance (believe otherwise) "perfection of what is" through deeper insight |
| Be otherwise (be the change) reinventing oneself and reinventing the world | ||
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