Hurtling Toward an Evolutionary Event Horizon

Paul Atreides, also known as Muad’dib, is a messianic figure from the Dune books who manages to throw off the balance of power in a galactic imperium. Paul’s prescient visions begin to emerge when he’s fourteen years old. As an adolescent, Paul survives a rite that involves imbibing the “Water of Life,” a frequently lethal hallucinogen variant of what’s called “the Spice” or “mélange.” Paul emerges from the nearly fatal rite as the “Kwisatz Haderach,” which in the Fremen language means “the one who can be many places at once.” According to Wikipedia, the phrase, “…bears close resembles to the Hebrew phrase ‘Kefitzat Haderach’ (literally ‘Contraction of the Way’) a Kabbalic term related to teleportation.” Paul’s prescient vision has become godlike, and, like all others who have survived the Water of Life, he is now aware of the psyches of all others, living or dead, who have similarly survived this rite. Paul is a personification of what I have termed “the Singularity Archetype” and the networked telepathic awareness of other psyches is a frequent aspect of this archetype which I call “Homo gestalt.” Paul deserves some special sympathy as a fiction demi-god because he was unfairly despised by his own creator—Frank Herbert. I discussed [...]

This overview of the artwork of Alex Grey (also published as a multi-part series on Reality Sandwich) looks at problems the art world has with spiritually themed art, Alex’s transforming relationship to darkness and shadow material, what his art says about sexuality, and the public roles Alex plays versus his studio work.

On October 12, 2012 Jonathan gave a talk on the Singularity Archetype and the evolutionary event horizon at the Boulder Evolver. The first 40 minutes are available as two Youtubes: Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7CfJP7zq6s Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEFmT8U4fwU You can also listen to the complete audio of the talk hosted on disinfo.com: http://www.disinfo.com/2012/11/jonathan-zap-on-the-singularity-archetype-and-human-evolution/

Note: In order to make this description concise it is necessarily dense.  The book is much more readable. A better intro to the book is the free PDF download or podcast of the introductory chapter. Crossing the Event Horizon provides evidence that we are, both individually and collectively, hurtling toward an evolutionary event horizon. Using the tools of Jungian psychology, the nature of the singularity is defined by its myriad manifestations emerging from the collective unconscious. These include dreams, motifs and themes found in art, science fiction and fantasy literature and films, religious cults, and the paranormal, especially near-death experiences and UFO encounters. Key aspects of the Singularity Archetype include: “Logos Beheld” (visually comprehended linguistic intent often associated with a collective telepathic network), Homo gestalt (a new species where individuality is conserved but also telepathically networked), and a parallelism between the individual event horizon of death and eschaton (the collective event horizon of the species). Apocalypticism is analyzed as an example of the Singularity Archetype pathologizing. A study of the Heaven’s Gate saucer/suicide cult illustrates what can happen when people become possessed by the Singularity Archetype and are driven by it into delusory projections. The Singularity Archetype is viewed apocalyptically [...]

Awakening from uneasy dreams, I was aware of myself as a self-reflecting starship. For a few moments I lingered in that warpy place between dreams and wakefulness, still feeling partly caught up in some painful drama with another starship that had played itself out as I slept. Slowly the dream faded, and the waking consciousness returned—that all-too-familiar sense of myself as a middle-aged starship, about halfway through its lifecycle in an era where well-maintained starships often lasted a century.

This expanding document includes dialouges between me and John Major Jenkins, author of seven books about the Maya, and also between me and Ron Lampi, author, poet, visionary

The definition of pushing the envelope I have come up with and will employ here is: Boundary expansion into a zone of novelty previously unexplored by the species or an individual.

Raphael 1483-1528, The School (Plato and Aristotle)  This is just a visual representation of Socratic Dialogue—it doesn’t mean that John and Jonathan are Plato and Aristotle! Recent email dialouge between me and John Jenkins about the nature of time: Zap: Hey John, Sometime before Monday I want to talk to you about your concept of the “center of time.” It think that is one of the most incisive, rhetorically effective statements, “It’s not the end of time, it is the center of time.” Last time we discussed whether time can be seen as a circle or is there a teleology that can stretch that circle toward a spiral if the universe, as Terrance and I believe, seeks an increase in novelty, self awareness? Is there an arrow in time, an evolutionary goal? Teilhard de Chardin seems to make a good case for this. This of course is hard to reconcile with a more Eastern, eternal reccurence, which to me offends my aesthetic intuition of reality as it seems uroboric, monotonous, mechanical. For example, with the perennial philosophy, what my aesthetic intuition wants to be true is that the new golden age be an advancement on the previous golden age of [...]

Journal books I decoupaged on a table I decoupaged   Image and Glossary copyright Jonathan Zap, 20111 Alchemical Tautness — A state of metamorphic tension.  “The eminent anthropologist A.L. Kroeber said that the ideal condition for any person or society is ‘the highest state of tension that the organism can bear creatively.’” —Duane Elgin, in Awakening Earth Androgyny, Androgynous, Androgyne   Androgyny refers to the integration of archetypal Masculine and Feminine qualities within a single individual. It is the sacred inner marriage or union of opposites, of yin and yang also known as the hieros gamos. Androgyny is an intrapsychic orientation and not necessarily related to physical appearance, gender preference and other attributes with which it is often confused.  An androgynous person could look distinctly male or female, while an androgynous-looking person may not be androgynous.  Similarly, bisexuality, an interpersonal orientation, is not necessarily a sign of androgyny. The androgyne represents a conscious fusion of archetypal masculine and feminine qualities, while the “hermaphrodite,” as Singer adapts the term, is a person where masculine and feminine are merely confused. Many people who are costumed in an androgynous way are actually hermaphrodites.  In The Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas, Jesus defines androgynous wholeness: .”Jesus said to [...]

© 2004, 2008 Jonathan Zap Edited by Austin Iredale Note: This is not meant to be a serious meditation on 2012, but is more of a somewhat surreal journal entry describing a zone of heightened synchronicities, etc. To find out what I really think of 2012 read: Carnival 2012—a Psychological Study of the 2012 Phenomenon and the 22 Classic Pitfalls and Blind Spots of Esoteric Research The Equinox party at the Circle A Ranch—a communal living situation created by young anarchists at the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado—was a magical nexus for me, one of those zones of heightened synchronicity where many threads of the great tapestry wove together into a pattern recognizable, even revelatory. With a luck that felt almost uncanny, the unpredictable lottery of high desert weather had produced a glorious winner. The first day of spring turned out to be a preview of summer, and the unexpected warmth of the evening felt almost like an enchantment, an invitation into mystery. The Circle A Ranch has an improbable location, surrounded by many acres of open fields, at the distant circumference of which were the twinkling lights of suburban houses and strip malls. It seemed to be placed at the center of [...]