Lecture, Philosophy: Introduction to Medeist Philosophy

[Solnath]

In the beginning, there was a big event that started this whole shebang we commonly know as "the Universe" or "existence." Some experts say that this was ultimately a bad move. Others disagree and say that the show must go on, fuzzy slippers.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with this lecture, I just didn't think of anything sensible to start it with. Except for the first basic principle of Medeism, which is basically:

Thou Art God.

Of course, it isn't quite as direct as it sounds like. I have yet to see anyone create anything out of thin air and most people can't even walk on liquid water unaided. Nevertheless, taking the statement a bit less literally and expanding it makes it more sensible. You, I and everything else, are a part of God. It can be stated that God is everything; the scent of roses, the visage of a sunset, the roar of a thunderstorm, the distance between the Moon and the Earth and the tiny voice that speaks to me when I'm all alone and the power goes out.

But these statements are fundamentally erroneous as they fail to convey the true form of God. God cannot be defined to limited words and all words are restricted by definitions and connonations. Even when stripped down to the most basic form, God is, the limitations are quite visible; God is confined to existence and thus to this Universe and possible multiverse without. That is why Medeistic philosophy prefers to state things as being a part of God, rather than them being attributes of God. Also, it is preferred to avoid using Him, Her, It, Supreme Being or any other restrictive term. Even the term God is too narrow for God, but a word is needed and that one will do best.

Second in line is Know Thyself. If you do not know who you are, you do not know where you are and hence cannot know who, what and where others are. Knowledge in this relation is power, because the more you know of yourself, the more fluently you can place yourself and come to harmony with others and thus, with God. On the same lines, Love Thyself is important because only if you have peace with yourself in relation to your past, present and future states can you have peace with others that are God. Love is here defined as trust, respect and caring on a fundamental level; although someone might want cause you harm - meaning that they are in discord with themselves - they still have the basic capability to achieve the harmony and as such should be helped to achieve that state.

Now, I must point out that there has been criticism that this harmony would remove the purpose of living. However, that assumption is false. Even when personal equilibrium has been gained, it has only been gained on one level and also that which is without your person may still be offset. It is important to remember that what we see and feel are not all that is, was or will be. As we walk the paths of the mazes that our minds are, once we have seemingly cleared all the obstacles and reached the end, we can see that beyond those walls is something grander and more complex than we could anticipate. Imagination is a powerful tool, but it is still based on our experiences and if we have not heard of anything of the likes that lie beyond that boundary, we can not but stand in awe of it if and when we reach that threshold.

Although it might not appear to be so, that borderline is very tangible. Another metaphor for the process would be imagining our spiritual development as a spiral that goes upwards. We reach new levels constantly until we either falter on the heavy path or - for those who find the inner strength to carry on - die. There may be an end to that spiral - I do not know and I see none as it is - but every time we finish a rotation, we have elevated ourselves a bit higher, we have become slightly more human, slightly more attuned to God. Because what Medeism believes to be humanity is not the basic animal needs that drive us from time to time; it is sentience that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and which gives us the ability to realise a vague notion of the concept of God.

The human mind is layered. On the bottom most layer is the reptilian "thinking," summarisable to "fight or flight" and "kill or be killed." Above that are more complex animal notions, mammalian "thinking:" basic cooperative skills are the most utilisable ones from this, protection of the pack and the females and children. Basic logic and manipulation of physical properties such as opposable thumbs and being able to construct tools. Finally, the most advanced part is the one that provides us with the sentience we experience, human "thinking." Note that even this is supplied with quotation marks as there is much room for improvement. Hopefully we all know the benefits of this: communication first and foremost, moral conduct and critical thinking. The ability to adapt thought patterns is crucial to the evolution of thought.

Unfortunately, although the theory of evolution is quite far applicable to the human mind, there is no natural selection going on in that department as we speak. There is no pressure to adapt and thus all humans can survive to breed regardless of their prowess in that department.

Respect All That Is God, the fourth and final official principle, is perhaps slightly redundant as respect is a basic necessity for loving all that is God. However, this has implications that exceed the third guideline; respecting all that is God requires one to acknowledge that those things, however insignificant their value may seem to be, have a value as part of God and that that value may be considered by some to be higher than yours. In layman's terms, this means that we should not believe that we hold some perfect infallible truth, because others may think so too and if others are mistaken, well, maybe you are as well. Also, this sentence advocates the fact that everything belongs to the sum of God and as such, interact with each other and influence others. That point is crucial to achieving peace of mind and inner harmony as what is within is closely related to that which is without.

All that said, I hope this has been a thought provoking lecture and I hope that those who agree with me and my words will understand why they do so and those who do not will do the same and possibly point out some flaws in this. After all, everything could be better and without change, there can be no progress.

Yours truly,
Soly


First lecture. Pwnage.

[Solnath]

Humans are all unique and come in all shapes and sizes. This, however, does not mean that they do not follow certain patterns in their behaviour, attitudes and pretty much everything else as well. As a result, one skilled in people often knows how to interpret people that they have just met from small hints and signals that are hidden to the untrained eye. From the Medeistic point of view, everyone can be divided into three archetypes and this distinction is perhaps the most important quality found in humans as it determines what their maximum potential as humans is. From least to greatest, they are titled animals, robots and humans.

The critical separation lies in the human mind. Animals cannot accept all of reality, so to say, cannot understand new things and thus are incapable of one of the defining functions of our species. Animals can fine tune ideas, but they cannot create new ones, merely refined versions fit for already existing models. Some exceptions exist, of course. Even remarkable breakthroughs can be achieved by the animals, although these always serve some primal need or the other. The animals are named so because they do not and - more importantly - can not strive to fulfill their potential, instead protecting their self-centered worlds with the vigilance only ignorance begets.

Robots on the other hand, will not embrace existence. More often than not, the reason for this is fear. They are afraid of changing themselves and their personal worlds. In most cases, the reason for this is irrational and absurd and based on a simple misinterpretation of past and current experiences. The robots are in a unique position as they can slip to either extreme; they can make themselves see or they can blind themselves completely. As they are partially sighted but not completely able to comprehend what they see, the robots prefer to shut what they see out and rely on basic and learned instincts. Without outside influence, this crystallization of the mind almost always leads to degeneration to animality. Robots are called such as they have been "programmed" not to take in everything, usually out of self-inflicted pain but very often by society's teachings of a finite existence that limits the amount of the world they can even believe to exist, much less see and live in.

Humans - the real humans - have liquid minds and both of their metaphorical eyes are open. They see the world and understand it to the largest degree and in doing so they yearn to become even closer with the world. The more human a person can become, the more in harmony with themselves and God they can place themselves in, the happier they are. What animals and robots fail to believe is that this growth in joy is exponential to a great extent; the difference between someone who is "barely" human, opening their eyes completely for the first time, and someone who has seen the world for a short eternity is immense.

The terms "liquid mind" and "crystal mind" on the other hand refer to the nature of personality someone possesses. Animals have completely or almost entirely crystallized minds, rigid, unchangeable and easy to scratch and shatter. The pain of damage or even the fear of it leads the animals to war, anger, hate, chaos and destruction. In their world, might makes right, but only their might and their might alone. On a subconcious level, animals cannot even realise that other members of our species are equally valuable for themselves. Robots are semi-solid, comparable to the flowing of glass. They can adapt and transform, but it is not easy.

Humans are completely liquid, though they come in many degrees of viscosity. The only significance of the rate of flowing is literally speed - how fast the humans can adapt to new situations, ideas and how quickly they can discover them. Too much emotional and mental pressure can solidify a thick liquid, but in the progress of humans there comes a certain point, a threshold, after which the world cannot spawn enough havoc to wreck the human. At this point, the human becomes truly Human, forever above the animals and robots, indestructible in spirit. Just like water, striking it will not harm it. Anything others and the world can put against these Humans just flows past by and the internal gravity of the mind is so strong that little droplets do not disperse. In fact it is this gravity that pulls the world closer and makes experiencing new aspects of it much easier than it is with any of the three basic archetypes.