旧約聖書 1The Old Testament, Part 1

Let us assume that the debris cast off when humans were alienated from nature is collectively called "the unconscious." Then, how does the true image of the world, which we assume we know without thinking, actually appear? Or can the existing image of the world be maintained in that moment? Shifting perspective, I wish to consider the impact on our existence if we reach a stage of deeper understanding regarding the form of the unconscious.

Because answering this question feels like an approach to the essence of existence that is unavoidable for each of us, especially amidst the rising tide of medical psychedelics. I particularly believe the world psychedelics cannot fully elucidate is the final territory we must challenge by erasing the separation between West and East, uniting in cooperation. Unless we do so, this kind of world will always remain hypothetical. However, we can surmise the approaches will differ: a Western approach cutting in scientifically, and an Eastern approach cutting in spiritually. The issue is not how to integrate them, but rather that an unprecedented, high technique of interfusion is required. Interfusion is not something that invites confusion, but a new era technique producing certain discernment within the blend. Broadly speaking, the issue can be positioned as consciousness and the unconscious. That is, the Western approach challenging the unknown domain consciously using advanced technology, and the Eastern approach challenging the unknown domain unconsciously using ancient spiritual wisdom.

First, a premise should be shared for such inquiry. I place this on the fact that an originary event of alienation from nature existed at the moment human consciousness was born. When we gouge out alienation from nature as the primal origin of consciousness based on this premise, a figure that can only be described as "that world" revealed by psychedelics crosses the mind at high speed. So to speak, when humans were originally alienated from nature, consciousness arises in the void of the torn tension between nature and existence. But this void is not empty; it is filled from the start. Meaning, consciousness was born to fill the anxiety of existence torn off by alienation. Because the void torn off at this time was not empty but filled with something, translated as anxiety for the primal human existence. Since then, humans formed history to cover up this anxiety. The investigation of psychedelics becomes equal to approaching this state where "something is filled."

However, the problem of illusion is not that simple. If what I just said is valid, the origin of consciousness arising in primal alienation would be an inherent internal problem occurring individually, and it should be born as an individual illusion. But the actual circumstances differ. Considering the solid fact that this manifestation of consciousness occurs commonly even with humanity exceeding 8 billion, it appears more likely that alienation in the sense discussed here, and the response to it, occurred collectively at some point. No one can elucidate whether it derived from a specific individual, occurred in a group, or happened simultaneously on a global scale. The Stoned Ape Theory proposed by Terence McKenna attracts great curiosity, but it should remain merely curiosity. At least, the only certain thing we can say is that if humans acquired this consciousness simultaneously on a group scale, it likely was born from communal illusion—to the extent we can say without confidence. To criticize in advance, asking whether individual illusion or communal illusion came first as a human form of illusion is a modern attitude and completely meaningless. Rather, it is more accurate to grasp that illusion was also undifferentiated and interfused due to the lack of differentiation between individual and communal at this time. It is not science but religion that has actively spoken of this undifferentiated figure. Conversely, if we consider the beginning religion has spoken of from this perspective, a hint of that origin may surface.

Among these, the Old Testament myth is personally interesting. First, God creating nature and animals in Genesis is an abstract narration of the long cycle of life circulation, and this is a common denominator of all myths. Men and women are created after that, but at this stage illusion is undifferentiated and interfused, and they have no names as they cannot be identified by consciousness. However, when Adam was formed later, it says human was created in the image of God. But as understood from being formed from the dust of the ground, this means a body inheriting the principle of natural existence. Actually, it speaks not of the body as flesh but of the body as mental illusion, but the important thing is that the perspective of place has already surfaced. In other words, nature and humans are not torn apart in form. The breath of life blown into the nostrils here does not itself indicate consciousness, but represents a breath of alienation that became the origin where consciousness is born. God places the born Adam in the Garden of Eden to manage it, which is a presentation of the originary world of communal illusion, and simultaneously speaks that communal illusion is not infinite like the natural world. Meaning, Adam is alienated from nature here, but since the alienation intensity is primal, Adam himself has not yet acquired consciousness that can be called human existence, and is placed in an originary position that transforms while being undifferentiated. Therefore, at this point he exists under God's control and works by the action of a specific communal illusion that is God.

The point of this tale is conveying that alienation between nature and humans did not occur materially, but occurred first in illusion. Furthermore, there is a description where God created all animals and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. This is an act of making him aware of the abyss alienated from nature in the human mental state, and speaks of the origin where consciousness—to fill the abyss which is a filled anxiety—overflows endlessly. Because human consciousness created decorations such as language to cover up this anxiety. Saying that names humans gave to animals became all the names of those animals indicates that humans were almost assimilated with natural existence before this event. Here, the abyss tears open due to alienation in the illusion domain, and humans acquired the initial technique in consciousness to posit objects by names to grasp that abyss consciously. However, we must not overlook that what is happening here is typically in the relationship between God and Adam, and nature and the Garden of Eden, but strictly placed in the phase of primitive "communal illusion and individual illusion." As discussed recently in Shitsurae, modernity possesses the principle that "communal illusion and individual illusion stand in opposition," but in this dimension of Adam, it conveys the initial moment where a tear from the undifferentiated is born. Meaning, they are not opposed, but in illusion God is Adam and Adam is God in an almost equal relationship. Communal illusion and individual illusion being placed in such a relationship can be called the most originary mode of illusion.

But this alone is insufficient for human consciousness to deviate from the primal alienation in the illusion of natural existence appearing as God. Because at this point, human consciousness is merely one wave crest occurring in the sea. But since a partner suitable for Adam could not be found, God makes Adam sleep and builds Eve from a rib. This is also not talking about the flesh, but that the sprout of individual illusion manifested in Adam propagated to Eve. It is complicated, but God at this point can be called communal illusion, but indicates the undifferentiated interfusion of illusion itself. Meaning, here life as a human sprouted in Eve, and it is not an ideology tied to modern problems discussing whether man or woman came first. And what makes humans decisively different from other animals is prominent in Adam and Eve creating a pair illusion tying their mutual individual illusions. When the Adam-Eve pair illusion was created, the man and woman confined in the illusion of the father and mother until then tied their own pair illusion and headed toward independence. However, at this point the self-awareness of individual illusion is still immature, and illusion remains strongly interfused. Therefore, they are not ashamed even if naked. Because consciousness of the interests of the community intervening in the individual is not yet held enough to be sensed.

Humans have acquired high-level consciousness at this stage. Of course, this does not speak of the life of Adam and Eve as historically existing individuals, but compresses the movement of mental illusion occurring over an unimaginably long time, and forms it by entrusting the origin of the appearance of pair illusion to Adam and Eve. Changing the perspective, the creation of pair illusion by human pair relationship means the primal movement identified from the undifferentiated and mixed state of illusion occurred. Meaning, the origin where illusion can be identified separately as "individual illusion / pair illusion / communal illusion" like the present lies in the creation of the pair illusion side. Conversely, the illusion of communal illusion and individual illusion mentioned above was torn by the creation of pair illusion. Tremendous historical compression occurs here. And this point is extremely important. Actually, the beginning of Japanese mythology also tells of the appearance of gods representing the Japanese tie called Musuhi [産巣日] in the paired relationship of Takamimusuhi [高御産巣日神] and Kamumusuhi [神産巣日神], following the undifferentiated god of interfused illusion called Amenominakanushi [天之御中主神] appearing as the primal god. What these myths convey is that human existence is special compared to animals because of the tie of pair illusion. However, while it is assumed that this realization took tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, simultaneously this was not acquired as a linear right-shoulder rise, but can be called a sudden or accidental acquisition at a certain point. Here, Darwin's theory of evolution is discarded.

The Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were entrusted with management, is a safety zone prepared by God so humans would not have to look directly at the abyss revealed by alienation occurring in the primitive. This speaks of the origin of communal illusion, but it remains the same now as in the past that if an individual delegates individual illusion to the communal illusion side, they can live in a safety zone without looking directly at the anxiety of the real by their own will. In the dimension of Adam and Eve living in the Garden of Eden, alienation from nature has already occurred. But since the power of pair illusion symbolized by the two maintains high purity, communal illusion itself remains placed in an undifferentiated state undetected by consciousness. This indicates that in the era when the primal illusion where humans acquired consciousness was undifferentiated, pair illusion was stronger, and nothing that could be called communal illusion existed. Actually, thinking of hunter-gatherers makes this clear, as they move constantly in family units; so there is no need to worry about the interests of a fixed community, and movement is possible in a mode where the pair illusion of father and mother itself is transferred to communal illusion. However, this is not something that can be called communal illusion for people who settle. Meaning, the prototype of hunter-gatherer consciousness lies in the figure where pair illusion and communal illusion are interfused to the point of being equal, and settlers could not realize a living community based on agriculture with this. If so, what does God being set first in the Old Testament represent?

I think you can guess from this point, but the trick of the true meaning of the Old Testament where God appears first as communal illusion is because these tales were compiled retroactively in later generations. This compilation method of myth is common to all myths. This reflects that the consciousness of editors living in the era when the Old Testament was compiled lived in the period of a crack where communal illusion and pair illusion transferred from undifferentiated intensity to a separation tendency, and at this point communal illusion was already grasped as the consciousness of the living community. Therefore, handling communal illusion was a problem for them, so it was interpreted and deployed as if communal illusion existed at the beginning of Genesis. But the world for primal humans symbolized by Adam and Eve lies on the pair illusion side. But the compilation era had already acquired advanced community technology such as letters and documents. Therefore, if they continued to hold intensity in the pair illusion since the primitive, the individual would fall into a situation unable to respond to survival, so they began actively transferring the individual's individual illusion from the pair illusion side to the communal illusion side. At this stage, communal illusion and pair illusion coexist, but can no longer be identified with primal interfusion, and it can be said to be the decisive moment connecting to modernity.

Also, the Garden of Eden designed by God has one feature. This becomes visible from the fact that myth tells the prologue of long human history identifying consciousness and the unconscious. Put simply, the unconscious is realized for the first time when consciousness heightens the intensity realized internally in humans. This is because the unconscious cannot be grasped unless the individual consciously realizes consciousness itself, and this issue is self-evident from the fact that many religious figures have discussed it historically. However, it was modernity when the identification intensity of each of consciousness and the unconscious separated, and before that they maintained an undifferentiated state. Therefore, the figure of the unconscious in Genesis, compiled in an era when the distinction between consciousness and the unconscious was not separated, has already deviated from the vast and boundless state of nature itself, but is dwarfed to a range understandable by humans possessing consciousness at the time. This indicates that there was an outside for human consciousness in the Garden of Eden. This is the most interesting suggestion of Genesis. Because communal illusion appearing as God suggests that when the pair illusion of man and woman is tied, it cannot be kept within communal illusion. What can be extracted from Genesis is that in the dimension of individual illusion appearing as Adam alone, the will of the individual is at God's mercy as long as he is confined in the Garden of Eden because it can be made opposed to communal illusion. But when pair illusion arises through the tie of individual illusion and individual illusion called Adam and Eve, humans no longer subordinate to the will of communal illusion. That only pair illusion can oppose communal illusion connects to the true meaning mentioned in yesterday's article. That this wisdom is told in Genesis is truly interesting, and for me—thinking that only recovering the tie of pair illusion can break through modernity—this problem is serious. Conversely, for ancient people trying to form the interests of a community, this problem of pair illusion against communal illusion was a serious situation for community maintenance.

Because it tells that in the dimension where Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, the illusion in illusion was undifferentiated illusion of "individual illusion / pair illusion / communal illusion," but in the process of increasing the intensity of the Adam-Eve pair illusion, a situation arose where the communal illusion of God was alienated. This is an ancient memory conveying that it was a tremendous shock for the ancestor group of a certain era, even if the era is unknown. Because it can be said that humans learned in immature consciousness at this time that communal illusion can be extinguished by the power of pair illusion. Since the memory of what ancient ancestors learned in this immature consciousness is stored directly in the unconscious as it is, we can access this memory even now. In other words, what we should recover as one of the originary memories of humans is that the power of pair illusion is the light that can extinguish communal illusion.

However, this touches God's wrath. We will look at this true meaning in detail next time.