so I was thinking about the internet (mostly the internet as a space where the roles between consumer and creator and curator are incredibly blurred, like on social media sites) and how I have this [[extremely intimate relationship->personal diary]] with it. Like, I tell the internet things I wouldn't even tell my closest friends, but I guess the whole idea is that you can make friends and connect with people that you don't have a [[material relationship->virtual connections]] with? On the Internet, distance is basically totally collapsed (a bit like in quantum physics when entangled particles can communicate instantly from one end of the universe to another). On the Internet, maybe we're all entangled?"The Internet is my Religion" - me <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>do you ever feel like these completely virtual connections we have through social media are [[physically charged]], almost as if they have a materiality to them? like your online self is in some way more real, more tangible than your physical self, your body, your irl persona? maybe it's because my online self seems better than me in every way, because it's so easy to hide the shit parts about myself. (but it is also easier to [[reveal the shit parts->fucktheory]], in a controlled way, in a way that's more comfortable for you - after all, nobody sees you have a breakdown on the internet, unless you want them to)"I would be much happier about the massive resurgence of astrology if so many people weren't using it as an excuse for their shitty behavior." - @FuckTheory, September 3rd 2015. <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>but also they're psychically charged, you put all this mental energy (and emotional labour) into existing online, which is odd, because I don't know about you, but a physical existence is already a lot of labour to maintain, so why we put all this extra burden on ourselves to exist in a different form? I think maybe it's because of the promises of technology, like the promise that one day it'll relieve us of the burden of having to live in the material world, that it'll solve death, that it'll make us super-post-more-than-human. So we put our faith in technology, we give it access to us in extremely intimate ways, which will only increase. (Even though technology/the internet is used to push forward things that we're not always comfortable with, like the erosion of privacy, [[the use of our selves to raise money->social media]] through targeted adverts) We believe in technology, and [[we believe in internet->the internet is my religion]], even though a lot of it is invisible, invisible waves, forces, that we swim in. we've created this whole sea of invisible [[electromagnet->electricity]] waves that we take for granted in so many aspects of our lives, and we don't have a lot of power over them (at least not individually!), and a lot of us don't really understand what they are.I guess if [[a particle can be a wave]], which is a strange duality that I don't think anybody fully understands, then why can't a human be two things, a physical and a virtual? maybe we need both, like how we can't explain the universe without the particle/wave duality, maybe we've always had this virtual us inside of us, a recreation of ourselves that only we can see, and that intimately shapes the physical us? and maybe, just maybe, the internet/social media/these extra outlets that technology has given us, is a way for this virtual to be made more real, more external, and that opens up a different way to have a dialogue between these two selves"Wave–particle duality is the fact that every elementary particle or quantic entity exhibits the properties of not only particles, but also waves. It addresses the inability of the classical concepts "particle" or "wave" to fully describe the behavior of quantum-scale objects." - Wikipedia <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>I see the internet/social media/the non-physical self that I associate with on the internet as a [[ritualistic practice->ritual def]], as in it is something that I have a spiritual relationship with (as in it is something that has incredible power, but is also invisible, not an entity as such, but more of a naturalistic force that we cannot really control, a bit like an animistic belief I guess?) so the internet as this "being" or thing that I connect with, and I can access the power of the internet to achieve outcomes. So I use the internet to bring together and create and perpetuate this new self, like an idealistic self, not exactly a humanoid figure, but more a collection of ideas, a big sparkly, holographic blobby shape, and I use this like "pure self" to bring myself closer to this in the physical. I guess it's sort of like a role-playing game, you role-play a more ideal self, through the curation of your online profile, through your profile picture and username and the images that you allow to be public, and you do all of this through [[these rituals->chaos magic]], through the "like" and the "share", and all this [[energy]] that you put into these systems get pumped into the algorithms that control our networks."patterning of bodily actions and symbols/connects public and private" <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>it's just that there's something comforting about saying things, without having to explicitly tell anybody - you're just shouting things out into the void, and that's so nice, it's like you're releasing all these things that have been contained into your mind, like all the small thoughts, ideas, hopes, aspirations, nightmares, and you're letting them out into a void where they'll either shape themselves (like this has done I guess), or just fade away. <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>I guess the internet has become my [[personal diary->shouting into the void]], but it's also a self-curated support network, and it's also built upon layers and layers of [[pretending to be someone/something else->creating yourself]], so it's like extremely personal and truthful while still being built around this persona that isn't exactly me (well at least not the physical, material me). So you use the internet as a medium (as in a media but also I guess as in a psychic medium) to [[link between these two selves->duality]].<img src="dog-ritual.jpg"> <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %><img src="dog-ritual-2.jpg"> <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %><img src="chaos magic - videoconferencing.jpg"> <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>This energy that we put into these systems isn't a physical energy at all, it's a virtual energy, I guess it's a product of the time and emotion that we have given to these systems. Without all this energy that we've invested into the internet/social media, it wouldn't be able to exist, it is like a ghost being that is only brought forth into this world through the constant feeding on our selves. But also this sort of thinking might be giving too much power/authority to a [[human energy over natural energies]], like that of [[electricity]], which is way more vital to the upkeep of the internet (as in it wouldn't exist at all without it)Like: Electricity -> The Internet <- Human Energy But why do people see the internet as something that we can affect but can never affect us? It's the same for loads of things, like this idea that the act of owning a [[tarot->tarot - 01/09/15]] deck somehow taints the energy of the deck, but the autonomous energy in the deck can never affect you except for when you, as a human, use your energy to get something out of it? Why can't we accept that we create these alternative forms of energy, such as spiritual energy, and technological energies, and that these, once they are given a life of their own, can then change and even form us without perhaps our permission or approval? [[These energies are our children, and they have a life of their own.->dog ritual 1]]Tuesday 1st September, 2015. one card reading - "please help me"<br/> feeling really shitty today, looking for some comfort of some sort.<br/> Really want to cut. reverse 99 of wands<br/> transendence, do we practice spirituality/do things in order to save ourselves? I guess a lot of things I do are to try and save face/justify my existence, maybe some of it is hoping that I'll do enough good to balance out my shittiness and it'll make things better in whatever comes after this world/life. The book says to move onto the next card, so I'll do that. reverse king of cups<br/> "can you catch him, can you pin him down? is this even a good idea?" story of my life.<br/> don't really know how to read this in reverse, seems to be about secrets and slipperiness but also fighting your demons yourself? <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>when we [[first started discovering->disenchantment]] and playing around with electricity, we thought that it was innately connected to life and the life force (which I guess it is through things like the brain and nerves) through this we thought that we could use things like the telephone to contact the dead (as they're still around in the form of energy/electricity) and the whole spiritualism movement around the 19th century was based around this idea too, like the whole "rationalising spirituality through adopting a form of the scientific method" thing, but also maybe a way to [[re-enchant a more and more disenchanted society->capitalism]]so this rise of science and the disenchantment of the (un)natural world - through things like scientific discoveries and explainations, and the push towards secularisation, led to an appropriation of these discoveries by the ideas that they had tried to eradicate in the first place? <%= window.linkPreviousPassage() %>this seems quite similar to what is happening now, I keep on seeing these people on [[social media]] that are [[experimenting or practicing->dog ritual 2]] with spiritual activities, and it reminds me of the spiritualism movement - using [[the technologies->market]] that are disenchanting our world as a medium in which we can re-enchant it.'like, we've grown up with this immaterial, invisible force of "the economy" that's all-powerful & must be pleased' the whole idea of like a capitalist, market-led society is a lens through which we have been brought up to see the world, and through this we have found web-spirituality (especially pagan/wiccan beliefs) as a way to "[[go back->thinking about the internet]] to nature" (through technology), but also as a way to reconnect with more natural-feeling forces, like magicthere is a big problem with our growing dependency on the internet and social media as a way in which we explore and develop ourselves - and that is the capitalist nature of social media. basically, we're pumping all this extremely [[personal data->physically charged]] into these systems, and then it is being packaged up and sold, to raise profits for the companies, so you're creating this self but at the same time you're also giving it away to be sold, and you never get to see any of that money