Always a good chew Meg. Especially appreciated the 12 points on unpacking the definition of "worship', that it's more than just the awe of a fan for their idol, its about how all-encompassing it is, even in seemingly benign ways. I guess it speaks to our very nature for relationship, the giving of our hearts to someone or something. It reminds me of this verse "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:21
Thanks for the kind words and for subscribing, Paul. No intent to flatter, and you do seem to have a good community around you that I'm sure helps keep you humble, so I felt safe in using your name in the fictitious account. :) In all seriousness, thank you for leading the way in this topic. You've inspired something that is growing.
This post encapsulates what I've been thinking recently. I wonder how this ties in with meme theory, as well as the physical hardware of AI, what about memes? Even someone like Richard Dawkins is talking about 'sticky ideas' or mind viruses, apparently contagious thoughts which percolate through society. Are these also part of the Powers and Principalities?
This is a brilliant comment. I'm working on a piece somewhat related, but as to the memes and mind viruses part, I have a feeling you're going to tell us something about that in your own publication. At least, I hope so! My short answer, without giving away where I'm going in my piece, is that yes, I believe there is relationship with principalities and powers. Whatever you focus on, you empower. What you behold, you become. The battle is literally in the mind. "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
That is so kind of you. I don't have a publication....yet, but this is something that I've been thinking about a lot. Coincidentally I've been looking at Dr Susan Blackmore's book The Meme Machine, and it immediately struck me that there are lots of parallels between what she describes and what appears in religious texts as demons, spirits, dijinns etc.
Related to this I think is the concept of egregores, group consciousness, familar to anyone who's ever been to a football match. I see no reason why these couldn't also be part of the Powers and Principalities. Specifically the idea of Empire/the Machine which applies to a whole society. If you'd like to discuss these ideas further then I'm very happy to chat. I usually bend Paul's ear over on the Abbey of Misrule, but I enjoy a chat with anyone!
I started this publication hoping it would be a conversation, which implies two-way! :) I just had a sense that maybe you were thinking about starting some of your own writing, and this seems like a good topic. Anyway, I think I should have a look at Blackmore's book, or at least a summary of it, to begin with. "Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the mind...."
I don't want to bore you, but here are some thoughts I jotted down which you might like, no worries if not;)
'I think that the Enlightment has conned us into drawing a veil over the world. We live in a world of ideas as much as a material world. We walk on sidewalks made not just of stone, concrete and water, but also the ideas of the people who invented concrete, the official whose idea it was to build them, the men who used tools to build them. So our environment is a admixture of material and ideas, and our modern world is a superstructure of reified ideas, ideas which float through the airwaves to us.
I think the spiritual world which we see as siloed away from us, is in fact always with us, we just call it 'ideas' or 'thoughts' or 'imagination'. It is what gives 'fire to the equations', and we can't see, because we are used to seeing the world as a inert jumble and don't take the power of ideas and language seriously. Nor do we take the power of consciousness and group consciousness seriously. We think that we are 'buffered selves', and cannot see that we are all swimming in a sea of emotional states engendered by the media and technology. Underneath the material world that we live in, is the spiritual world of emotions and ideas that we pass to each other like a common cold. We do not and cannot see that this world contains both good and evil, and cannot see how easily bad ideas can get seeded into a culture and how emotional states can spread like a fire through society.
Spiritual warfare is real, and we see it every day played out on the pages of our newspapers and the screens of our televisions. It has always been with us, but in the past the gateways to our minds were manned by religions, and this gave us a psychological immune systems which protected us from the worse of the outside influences. Today we have knocked down the walls to our minds and let the citadel be overrun.....
Hmm, hmm, hmmm... If you don't start publishing, I'll be tempted to come over there until I find an Irish person living in Britain for 30 years with the initials BM and slap some sense into you! :D
Kidding, kidding, of course. But please do write more on this. It's very worthwhile.
These lines in particular: " Underneath the material world that we live in, is the spiritual world of emotions and ideas that we pass to each other like a common cold. We do not and cannot see that this world contains both good and evil, and cannot see how easily bad ideas can get seeded into a culture and how emotional states can spread like a fire through society."
And I want to hear more about how we have knocked down the walls and let the citadel be overrun. Can't help it, I'm a coach at heart, I guess.
Please keep going.
As to the content, not boring me at all. I think about this kind of stuff all. the. time. Scripture seems to intentionally leave this idea of principalities and powers quite open to interpretation. Quantum entanglement is pointing at something that may be similar. And on that random note, I'll leave it with you.
This post is so good it makes me want to delete all the drafts I've been struggling to put together.
What a fantastic compliment. I’m also a book coach, so the coach in me says please don’t! 🪶
Always a good chew Meg. Especially appreciated the 12 points on unpacking the definition of "worship', that it's more than just the awe of a fan for their idol, its about how all-encompassing it is, even in seemingly benign ways. I guess it speaks to our very nature for relationship, the giving of our hearts to someone or something. It reminds me of this verse "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:21
Yeah, well-said—we're built for relationship, to give our hearts. Reflecting the self-giving nature of Christ.
I have only just found this. You flatter me! Bad for my pride, but also enjoyable ;-)
Thanks for the kind words and for subscribing, Paul. No intent to flatter, and you do seem to have a good community around you that I'm sure helps keep you humble, so I felt safe in using your name in the fictitious account. :) In all seriousness, thank you for leading the way in this topic. You've inspired something that is growing.
This post encapsulates what I've been thinking recently. I wonder how this ties in with meme theory, as well as the physical hardware of AI, what about memes? Even someone like Richard Dawkins is talking about 'sticky ideas' or mind viruses, apparently contagious thoughts which percolate through society. Are these also part of the Powers and Principalities?
This is a brilliant comment. I'm working on a piece somewhat related, but as to the memes and mind viruses part, I have a feeling you're going to tell us something about that in your own publication. At least, I hope so! My short answer, without giving away where I'm going in my piece, is that yes, I believe there is relationship with principalities and powers. Whatever you focus on, you empower. What you behold, you become. The battle is literally in the mind. "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
That is so kind of you. I don't have a publication....yet, but this is something that I've been thinking about a lot. Coincidentally I've been looking at Dr Susan Blackmore's book The Meme Machine, and it immediately struck me that there are lots of parallels between what she describes and what appears in religious texts as demons, spirits, dijinns etc.
Related to this I think is the concept of egregores, group consciousness, familar to anyone who's ever been to a football match. I see no reason why these couldn't also be part of the Powers and Principalities. Specifically the idea of Empire/the Machine which applies to a whole society. If you'd like to discuss these ideas further then I'm very happy to chat. I usually bend Paul's ear over on the Abbey of Misrule, but I enjoy a chat with anyone!
I started this publication hoping it would be a conversation, which implies two-way! :) I just had a sense that maybe you were thinking about starting some of your own writing, and this seems like a good topic. Anyway, I think I should have a look at Blackmore's book, or at least a summary of it, to begin with. "Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the mind...."
I don't want to bore you, but here are some thoughts I jotted down which you might like, no worries if not;)
'I think that the Enlightment has conned us into drawing a veil over the world. We live in a world of ideas as much as a material world. We walk on sidewalks made not just of stone, concrete and water, but also the ideas of the people who invented concrete, the official whose idea it was to build them, the men who used tools to build them. So our environment is a admixture of material and ideas, and our modern world is a superstructure of reified ideas, ideas which float through the airwaves to us.
I think the spiritual world which we see as siloed away from us, is in fact always with us, we just call it 'ideas' or 'thoughts' or 'imagination'. It is what gives 'fire to the equations', and we can't see, because we are used to seeing the world as a inert jumble and don't take the power of ideas and language seriously. Nor do we take the power of consciousness and group consciousness seriously. We think that we are 'buffered selves', and cannot see that we are all swimming in a sea of emotional states engendered by the media and technology. Underneath the material world that we live in, is the spiritual world of emotions and ideas that we pass to each other like a common cold. We do not and cannot see that this world contains both good and evil, and cannot see how easily bad ideas can get seeded into a culture and how emotional states can spread like a fire through society.
Spiritual warfare is real, and we see it every day played out on the pages of our newspapers and the screens of our televisions. It has always been with us, but in the past the gateways to our minds were manned by religions, and this gave us a psychological immune systems which protected us from the worse of the outside influences. Today we have knocked down the walls to our minds and let the citadel be overrun.....
Hmm, hmm, hmmm... If you don't start publishing, I'll be tempted to come over there until I find an Irish person living in Britain for 30 years with the initials BM and slap some sense into you! :D
Kidding, kidding, of course. But please do write more on this. It's very worthwhile.
These lines in particular: " Underneath the material world that we live in, is the spiritual world of emotions and ideas that we pass to each other like a common cold. We do not and cannot see that this world contains both good and evil, and cannot see how easily bad ideas can get seeded into a culture and how emotional states can spread like a fire through society."
And I want to hear more about how we have knocked down the walls and let the citadel be overrun. Can't help it, I'm a coach at heart, I guess.
Please keep going.
As to the content, not boring me at all. I think about this kind of stuff all. the. time. Scripture seems to intentionally leave this idea of principalities and powers quite open to interpretation. Quantum entanglement is pointing at something that may be similar. And on that random note, I'll leave it with you.
Here’s my “somewhat related” piece I mentioned above. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments there.
https://open.substack.com/pub/megmittelstedt/p/a-foundation-that-cannot-be-shaken