so easy to forget // a machine for making gods
Infra #10
Strata
By the time we reach adulthood, we’re mostly used to the insanity. We’ve adapted to being tied in knots, to the strange social games, to years of not being allowed to move our bodies when we’re supposed to sit at a desk and listen; we’ve adapted to the sirens and the shouting and the flashing lights and screens, the music in our earphones to cover the music on the loudspeakers; we’ve adapted to the over-engineered food and the chemical tang of the water, to the air thick with pollution and other people’s breath. We’ve adapted to the world we made.
When the adaptation stops working, danger is ahead.
If you start to introspect, to journal and meditate; if you take psychedelics and look up at the stars; if you start listening to sutras and doing breathing exercises; if you learn about your nervous system and take up weight lifting and cut down on alcohol; if you take up somatic awareness and emotional release — you don’t realize at first that you’re unravelling all that careful adaptation.
Bit by bit, it’s harder to block out the sirens, to feel at ease with all the flashing screens. Your stomach no longer accepts 3 beers and a plate of microwaved pizza rolls as valid attempts at nutrition. Being belittled and ignored by a coworker no longer rolls off you with an apathetic shrug.
It’s so easy to forget that the world is insane, that no part of our bodies, hearts, or minds evolved to deal with the glut of stimulation, poison, information, or suppression.
It’s so easy to forget that the road to sanity puts us back in touch — again, again, again — with the core insanity of our surroundings.
It’s so easy to forget. It’s so easy to forget. Don’t forget.
Encounter
Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands.
Theirs is the responsibility for deciding if they want merely to live, or to fulfill the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for making gods.
~ Henri Bergson1
Artifact
adapted for clarity and density
I realized that this was exactly what was going on the past couple of weeks. I started actually paying attention to my body, and realized it was constantly screaming.
Brilliant article!