Now this has led me to some very disturbing thoughts.
At first I was contemplating how it all could be applied to social and political activities and conflicts. Then what society would possibly be like if this was taught in all the major universities. I had to leave that one as very largely unknown but I suspect it would be much like Galileo’s postulations back in Catholic society. But then I started thinking - James apparently knew not only this but even more -
What must it be like - or was like for James - to look at a person and not merely see a person as we do - but more as depicted in that American movie The Matrix when Neo became enlightened and saw everyone as a group of streaming codes - seeing the very elements causing their behavior to be what it is - beyond what they could see themselves - and perhaps being able to speak just the right words to alter a bit of their programming to result in a very precise, predictable, and chosen change in their spirit - perhaps even being able to see their very soul - standing right in front of you as you watch them playing out all of the internal mechanisms that compose who they are in real time.
And even though that seems like a superpower - there is something more relevant.
James made mention of what it must be like to teleport back in time to ancient Rome and try to have a discussion about physics - pointless - no reason for anyone to believe a word you said. Even the idea of science and experimentation would be completely foreign to them. And imagine that you had to live for the rest of your life in that environment. Neo had the advantage of being able to pop back and forth between being completely one way or completely the other. But what if you didn’t have that luxury?
How much more lonely could you feel than to know not only so many things that conflict with current popular belief but also know that all of the struggles going on at that time will soon be irrelevant - and those that newly arise - equally as irrelevant because of what comes after that - centuries of suffering and pointless struggles due to so many false hopes and fantasies only to eventually get up to what you already knew was going to become the future - and you didn’t just guess - you absolutely knew - because you had been there - yet no one would have any reason to believe a word you said. Yet there you are for the rest of your life - endless days of not being able to converse with any significant impact.
And if you also knew precisely why everything was the way it was and what it would take to make any difference - perhaps you would know that there is nothing you even want to change in any significant way - because the codes just have to play out - perhaps.
But even without going back in time - if you could see the inevitable sequence of events currently in process and knowing them to be fact - even where they were going to eventually lead (which he mentioned) - isn’t that the same situation?
I have gone from being fascinated by the things James said - to wondering what he knew and when - to who he was really talking to - now to a deep feeling of sympathy - almost tears as I imagine what he must have felt every day. What does a person like that do with themselves?
Having merely tasted what seems a red-pill - I question whether I should continue down this red-pill rabbit hole or back away and just enjoy the blue blindness of popular life (as tragic as it seems to be getting).
I can already feel myself seeing people differently - the inevitability of their behavior and the influence maintaining it that way. I find myself less willing to just blindly step into a conversation - even with friends - a twinge of hesitancy to lend comment or argue - or even to agree. Where will it lead? What actually comes from deeply “Observing JSS’s thoughts on Psychology”?
Perhaps another unrequited question for James.
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