The Daemon in Antiquity

Ab antiquo,  Ab aeterno " From the ancient, from eternity"

It is interesting that the daimon or daemon which appears in classical Greek philosophy and mythology bears those  traits which can be understood now,  in the 21st century,  within the framework of the Peakian dyad and Imax.  And yet the latter  in no way alters the timeless quality of the ancient reflections;  rather,  it adds the dimensions of technology and quantum scientific theory :  Thus is the daemon expanded.  It fills history.   Meade has written an excellent essay called On the Daemon;  it appears in the online journal of Philosophy and Theology,  Theandros.  Some of what is found therein:


Plotinus in the Ennead 3.4 speaks of the daimon in terms of the principle of Unity:  the soul of man is a miscrocosm,  and thus does the daemon partake of all the powers in the cosmos,  or at least has access to them.  Plato's Pheado 107d and the Timeaus 90a speak of the daemon as being that which,  at the moment of death,  leads the man to the gathering of dead souls.  It is spoken of as a guardian,  a higher self,  and partaking in the transcendent qualities of the soul.  

The daimon of Socrates was seen as the indwelling spirit of genius which guided him. 


A wonderful essay appears online,  by a professor of philosophy,  Rick  ( I will have to check his surname!)  entitled,  On Daemons and the Heraclitean Flux.  The author is of course referring to that greatest of all Pre-Socratics,  Heraclitus,  and his idea of the transitory and fluctuating nature of the world of appearances.  Within this essay,  he weaves the theme of fatherlessness in his boyhood, and in our culture.  As  I read him,   I am brought at once back to my student days,  steeped in early Greek thinking;  yet also to 2007,  and the finding of an essay called Cheating the Ferryman  by Anthony Peake.  The philosophical /Heraclitean essay ends with the assertion,  Sol fide?  Nope:  Sol Immanuel.  God with us!    And to me,  this is what makes Peakian theory so beautiful:  spirituality is no longer at war with science,  nor is it given over to rank new age drek:  but it is indwelling,  within the dyad,  as was the daemon of Socratis.  Sol Immanuel!    I think that there is much that is philosophical which may yet be tapped into,  in terms of further lectures and writings by Tony  ( which is why I have saved many essays,  along with commentary by yours truly,  for future use-lol!);    and it is always a thrill for me  -  when reading some of these  wonderful essays,  and the quotes of the best sages of antiquity  -  to see traces of the ideas of Anthony Peake,  sofly glowing from them.   

Time Anomaly

I am currently reading 'Suddenly Psychic' by Maureen Caudill. This is her account of her experiences following her work with The Monroe Institute. She was trained in mathematics and physics, and worked for many years in the field of artificial intelligence and neural nets. Probably about as analytical as you can get.
The Monroe Institute is based upon the pioneering work of Robert Monroe in altered states of consciousness, using binaural beat sound signals to induce various frequencies in the brain. It has a long and respected record in this area.
Anyway, I am relating this story, which is not unique, but really does shatter common sense conceptions of time. The author's experiences in fact totally shattered and reformulated her world view.
Basically, Maureen Caudill was given an exercise involving a form of remote viewing. She was given a name, time and place relating to a particular woman. She deduced through her psychic skills that this was a woman suffering from breast cancer, at a date 8 months previously. She employed a visualisation technique given by The Monroe Institute, involving sending an image of a golden dolphin to provide healing energy. As an innovation, she left the dolphin with the patient.
The patient was apparently found to be aware of this activity. This in itself violates the consensus world view. But she claimed to have an intuitive awareness of the imaginary dolphin from 8 months ago - at the time her details were documented by the Monroe Institute!
One is free to believe that all this is fabrication or imagination of course, but I for one find that the writer seems sincere and reliable, and I am willing to accept her testimony. The book is published by Hamptons Road, 2006, and is full of interesting material on science and consciousness.

A Foray into Will vs Consciousness: Some Remarks

Peakian Dyad may be viewed as Will rather than Consciousness:  Reflections after reading Woodsprite's Critique of Dark Knight. . .


Kant tells us that "the world is empirically real but transcendentally ideal",  and in terms of the dyad,  one could say that this describes the eidolon and the daemon.   I have often thought that  -  philosophically speaking  -  the distinction between will and consciousness is an extremely important one when viewing the daemon (as Tony has conceived it).

A text which I have been reading lately  -  by Chris Hedges,  author of American Facists,  and now a polemical speaker against both fundamentalist Christians and atheists in America  -  points out the contrast most aptly.  In the model which Hedges uses  -  and he draws on Schopenhauer,  Nietzsche,  and Samuel Beckett to make his point  -  will is the ground of life,  and not consciousness.  This leads to a very important and telling conclusion:  Memory   is not what we conceive it to be in the rational mind,  not at all.   For concsiousness is a surface and a pretense;  thus does memory in its authentic state arise from willing alone.  Schopenhauer  -  and Nietzsche after him  -  has said that our true self is "  a secret self,  which knows only willing."  Memory in this sense works secretly,  and comes and goes unbidden by our rational constructs.   It is "not consciouss recollection of life"  says Hedges.  It is rather,  "wisdom".  Hedges asserts that knowledge is the domain of science,  but wisdom belongs to "real memory".

I had often thought,  after "meeting" Tony through email,  that it would be a profound debate,  to question him on whether he believed his "daemon" conception is conscioussness or will.   This feeling of mine increased several-fold when it became clear to me some months ago that Tony had a philosophical partner at his side  ( Le Marcs).   That this question is one in  which the entire debate between science and spirituality hangs,  to my thinking flags it as material for public discourse.

  Memory and will lie in the substrata of life,  and contain secret quasi-alchemical powers,  which consciousness  -  "the parasite of will",  says Schopenhauer  -  misunderstands.    Now that Woodsprite (Di)  has posted on the forum her beautifully written and reasoned critique of Dark Knight,  I think that this debate can extend beyond Tony himself,  and his Philosopher;  it can be taken up on forum,  whether under the categories of philosophy,  consciousenss,  or even  -  if we want to stick with Di's example  -  Itladian film.  For Di has said that she cannot conceive of the character of the Joker as being daemonic,  in the Peakian sense,  for 2 reasons:  1.  He does not recollect Batman's life  2.  He is not the upholder and moral guide of Batman.  These assertions are indeed true,  when viewed through the lens of consciousenss.  However,  when viewed through willing,  I argue that Joker may be seen as both containing true memory and as being an upholder of a kind of morality  ( Nietzschean morality).  And anyone who attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week would be hard-pressed to say that Barack Obama does not seem an incarnate example of Schopenhauer's "Will and its Representation"!   In any case,  at some point this discussion ought to be taken up on forum.  I would be interested in hearing others' thoughts on this matter. 

The Daemon - Official Book Launch

It has now been confirmed that "The Daemon, A Guide To Your Extraordinary Secret Self" will be launched upon an unsuspecting (or very "suspecting" if you are a blog or FORUM regular)on Wednesdya 24th September at 1830. Full details can be found at:

http://linghams.co.uk/display.php?id=47

This will be a very informal affair with drinks and nibbles.I will do a short and very generalistic talk followed by a question and answer session.

Tickets can be bought in advance from Linghams (tel:0151 342 7290)and can be collected on the night.

Daemonic Evolution and Neuro Atypicality: A Theory

This synopsis was posted a few weeks ago but then mysteriously disappeared!! I have reposted it here and on the forum and look forward to feedback from my fellow ITLADIAN's both old and new! (Thank you to those that posted the first time round, I would appreciate it if you would comment again)

This is a synopsis of a piece I have written theorizing the evolution of the daemon and how neuro atypicality may serve a very real purpose in such an evolutionary cycle.

Karl has theorized that there has to be a Virgin Life when it all begins and an Ultimate Life when we lose sentience and return to the objective consciousness field. By applying Cantor’s rule, eventually our particle of consciousness cannot be divided any further and we lose sentience.

What I suggest is that we don’t just suddenly reach our Ultimate Life and become daemonically fused. The daemon evolves gradually and as it does, eidolonic influence diminishes until the sentient being is functioning primarily as a daemonic individual.

The Quantum Zeno Effect suggests that constant self-observation of the brain/mind tends to sustain certain brain states more than others. A daemonic individual will therefore, naturally, have greater effect on the more eidolonic individual. The daemonic individual exists in a different conscious state of perception than others.

The daemon cannot exist independently of the eidolon. I suggest that fusion of the dyad doesn’t take place in the Ultimate Life. Experiences of the eidolon grow the daemon. The eidolon is an absolute necessity for the daemon to flourish.

Now imagine a Virgin eidolon born with the doors of perception wide open. It would know something was wrong but would not be able to make sense of it. This, surely, would cause neuro atypicalities such as schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder. If the Virgin Life is the start point, the baptism of fire, once within the Bohmian IMAX, the daemon comes into play. This traumatic start point will lead the strongest of daemons

Karl has kindly given me permission to use him and his neuro atypicality as an example to help support the theory I have posited.

Karl’s Virgin /Ultimate Life state has oft been debated on blog. There is something on an unconscious level that affects individuals that come into contact with him.

Could it be that he is a very evolved, daemonically living individual?

If this is the case, then his amazing memory would not be unusual. Karl has much more access to the playback and therefore exhibits much higher levels of recall.

I posit that as evolution continues the corpus callosum diminishes and the eidolon has less and less access to the daemon. The individual is living daemonically, is reaching full potential and the eidolon is losing sentience.

This may explain why Karl also has strange effects on people. They have reported being unable to have déjà vu experiences around him and personally, I have noticed that my daemonic activity is much reduced around him. If we go back to the Quantum Zeno affect this would make sense. As a daemonic individual Karl in functioning ahead of others. He is the primary observer in any interaction and if we apply the MMI, Karl will always be the one to cause decoherence in any interaction. This would preclude anyone else having a déjà vu and reduce their daemonic activity as well.

It also explains why Karl doesn’t have precognition and déjà vu himself. The corpus collosum is much reduced; the eidolon has very little access to the daemon so nudges and hints like precognition and déjà vu are just not necessary.

If we look at Karl’s neuro atypicality we can also see the functioning of a primarily daemonic individual.

Simply put Bipolar disorder manifests as extremes of mood. I have observed that Karl has overcome the debilitating symptoms of this condition through self awareness and wisdom to help him grow.

If we look at some of these symptoms we can see clearly the eidolon/daemon balance

Daemon – Hypergraphia hyperlexia, intelligence, memory recall, thinking ahead, constant brain/mind self observation.

Eidolon – Low energy, sometimes low mood, chronic fatigue.

In conclusion I suggest:

The dyad of eidolon and daemon always exists as the eidolon is the experiencer to enable the daemon to grow.

• Fusion of daemon/eidolon therefore does not occur. I suggest that as the daemon grows in awareness the eidolon’s sentience diminishes. The corpus callosum link also diminishes as this process evolves.
• Over time, the percentage balance increases in favour of the daemon. That is the primary goal from the start.
• Neuro atypicality can now be seen to serve a purpose. We may not be able to see it in this present moment but if we look at the big picture of many, many reruns within the Bohmian IMAX past life memory playback, it makes sense. The individual who starts from a position of having too much perception will eventually have the strongest daemonic existence.
• The eidolon begins learning with unconscious/incompetent (doesn’t known and doesn’t know it doesn’t knows). Then moves to conscious/incompetent (doesn’t knows but is aware of it). Then conscious/competent (learning is taking place but conscious effort required to understand). Finally, unconscious/competent (integrated learning that requires no conscious effort). At this point the individual is primarily daemonic in existence.
• In coming into contact with these highly evolved daemonic individuals the lives of others will be affected, enabling them to further their own evolution. This, again, suggests evolutionary synergy. It is not an individual goal but also has bearing on the potential of others.

Nietzsche and the Daemon of Socrates

Just a brief post,  as I found something interesting while reading Peter Durno Murray's  Nietzsche's Affirmative Morality.  I had just recently posted on the forum about the philosophical underpinnings of the concept of the daimon ( the spelling in antiquity) and its depiction as a higher or second self which serves as witness and guardian to the earthly man in life in  the  Deo Socratis  by Apelieus of the second century.

Now,  while reading Murray's text on Nietzsche,  I have come across a section on Socrates and his daimon.  Nietzsche asserts that Socrates  ( and hence,  Plato and the entire neo-Platonist tradition,  including Arthur Schopenhauer) erred grievously in limiting  discourse always to reason and the rational,  thereby  dismissing   -  and dishonoring  -  the darker Dionysian elements of life,  art, and culture.  He points out that the daimon of Socrates seemed wholly aware of this error,  and limited Socrates in order that he not "blaspheme these deities"  of the irrational and creative realms within the human.

I found this an extremely  interesting assertion in the light of Peakian daemonology:  During the historical transition from the ancient Greek world to the rational  world of Platonism (which would become the Christian and democratic Europe of his day;  and  of which Socrates was the prophet and the spearheading master)  -   the daemon itself was making provisions,  and  holding in reserve almost,  the Dionysian realm,  and not allowing Socrates a wide berth with regard to its mysteries and secret animus.   As a philosopher,  to see a Peakian idea leap out of a page written by a  very astute philosopher,  on one of the greatest philosophers of the modern world,  is very invigorating,  very inspiring.  ( By the way,  that photo is a favorite of mine:  Wasn't Nietzsche the sweetest thing as a teenager?)  SMK

The Scientific & Medical Network Blogspot

As you will be aware I am a member of an organisation called The Scientific And Medical Network (as are about half a dozen members of this site). I am delighted to see that they now also have their own site on Blogger.

The blogmaster of this new site (Dr. Olly Robinson) has asked me to become a regular contributor to this infant site and my first contribution will appear soon.

Please check this site out. Although CTF and ITLAD are known by a few members of SMN (I have been invited to talk by four SMN Groups - Western Switzerland, Yorkshire, Manchester and Devon) I feel that we need to become actively involved in helping this 'baby' blog grow.

The SMN is fertile ground for itladian theory and I feel that if some of us here place comments on their Blog Site it can only attract more attention to the ideas and theories so wonderfully discussed on these pages.

The site can be found at: http://scimednet.blogspot.com/

MAYA.

We take for granted that we have the free will to make conscious decisions to choose between different possible courses of action.
However, recently conducted experiments in the Max Planck Institute in Germany on the functioning of the human brain, have put that presumption into doubt. The researchers have concluded that free will could, in fact, be "little more than an illusion". The experiments indicated that our subconscious mind decides on and dictates our actions, long before our conscious mind actually realises it. If human beings are not able to act independently, then that makes them, in the words of one of the researchers, "...little more than automatons, mere machines, pieces of biological clock-work that have no more free will than a Swiss watch".
Do the experiments suggest that an unseen power thinks for us, decides and tells us how we must act? Are not actions in our control?
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, "The Supreme dwells in the heart of all beings revolving them all by His mysterious power, Maya."
The Supreme, however, does not control living entities as a puppeteer controls puppets. The control is through a subtle mechanism that works under material nature (prakriti). The Gita says, "Everywhere, in all the material universes, the dispositions of nature ^ gunas of prakriti ^ perform all works. But deluded by egoism, man thinks, 'i am the doer'."
Man is born with samskaras, or tendencies, that he acquires commensurate with his activities ^ karma ^ in previous lives. These samskaras are made up of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. The proportion of each guna in an individual is what makes his character. All his thoughts and actions are then dictated by his samskaras because nature compels him to act according to his character.
The Gita says, "Not even for a moment can man remain without performing any action. Everyone is forced to act according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature or gunas." The Padma Purana says that the fate of five things in one's life is already decided at the time of one's conception in the womb ^ the aggregate wealth one will acquire, one's occupation, education, lifespan, and when, where and how one will die. Happenings associated with these five are preordained and will come to pass, no matter what, and can be termed one's destiny. One's character, moulded by one's samskaras, will then make one act in such a manner that events play out as destined.
Are we mere cogs on a machine operated by the Supreme, or do we have free will at all to act independently? Krishna tells Arjuna, "Thus I have imparted to you wisdom that is more secret (profound) than all that is secret. Reflecting over the whole teaching, do as you think fit." Here He clearly states that man does have free will to think and act independently
Moreover, the Law of Karma, which is based on the concept of cause and effect makes us the architects of our own destiny. To be able to shape our own destiny, free will becomes a prerequisite. Without free will, the Law of Karma becomes inoperative. We could use the limited free will that we have, to pursue purely material pleasures that might degrade our future samskaras, or we could perform noble deeds which would generate sattvic samskaras and help us evolve spiritually and ultimately take us to the goal of human life, that is, moksha.
(taken from 'THE TIMES OF INDIA')

Philosophy's Fading Light

Philosophy Supports Peakian Theory;  Peakian Theory Enriches Philosophy:  Yet Philosophy Sputters and Fades on ITLADiam Forum

One of the supremely rewarding and invigorating things about finding the Cheating the Ferryman Thesis,  was the manner in which it both drew from,  and gave to,  the discipline of Philosophy.  The dyad and the Bohmian Imax not only "fit in" with the main branches of philosophy,  but actually answered them.   They enriched and informed the areas of epistemology and phenomenology,  which form the basic support for philosophical questions.

In America ,  New Age Phenomenology has turned its back on the elegant language and phraseology of philosophical discourse,  betraying its truest ally.  It has thereby gone quite astray.  It has bitten the hand which best fed it, and it has softened considerably in the aftermath.

We philosophers tend to be outcasts:  We are defending a classical tradition,  which has its roots in antiquity.  The philosopher,  unless posting on blogs or forums specifically aimed at that esoteric breed known as "academic philosophers",  is often treated as a dinner guest whom no one seems to know why,  exactly,   was extended an invitation.   Tolerated,  seen as slightly insane at times,  and often ignored,  because he drags the classical language from centuries ago into today's glaring light,    and utters phrases which are not drenched in the popular culture of the fast -paced media, with its sound bites and jargon.  Too often,  the philosopher struggles valiantly against the tide of competing ideologies and disciplines more geared toward modernity,  or postmodernity,  until in bewildered silence he leaves,  to slip once more  into the shadows from whence he arose.

I have tried to be optimistic amidst the scorn with  which American academia in general has treated this elegant and most beautiful of all disciplines.  With patience,  I have struggled to place Peakian theory within philosophical discourse with essays which I am aware do not have broad  popular appeal.   But feelings of foreboding and uneasiness push to the surface,  become urgent,   when I write  posts for the ITLADian forum,  and keep within the bounds of simplicity and brevity,  and the purpose fails utterly.   That purpose:  To facilitate debate and discussion;  to make Peakians/Itladians interested in the philosophical underpinnings of Tony's work;  to share the excitement of Tony's uncanny ability to beckon, and to address,  this elegant monster of antiquity.  But I  feel a certain sense of dismay  -  perhaps even alarm  -   as I see that this is not occurring.  Unless Tony or his Philosopher can tell me what it is that I am doing wrong,  the manner in which I am  approaching the forum incorrectly,  I am left to assume that philosophy's light is fading,  not only in American culture,  but in the Itladian culture as well.  I hope that this does not prove to be the case.

Evidence of "Future Memory"?

(Comment also posted on the FORUM)

Sometimes the strangest things take place in my life ... things that really reinforce the whole itladian theory. But sometimes these events are so self-referential that it is as if fate (The Daemon?) is amusing itself by leaving clues all over the place.

The day before yesterday I was travelling through London en-route to a business meeting in Kent. I stopped off at Euston and walked down to Foyle's Bookshop in Tottenham Court Road (probably my favourite bookshop). Foyle's is always a great place to find the more obscure and specialist books. In the psychology section I found two or three books that I hoped to find together with another that I had never heard of It is called The Uncanny and was written by Nicholas Royle, professor of English at the University of Sussex. It was published in 2003. What attracted me to it was that it was a review of the implications of Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay "Das Unheimlich" - the Uncanny - in regard to contemporary thinking in literature, film, psychoanalysis etc. Although quite expensive I decided to add to the pile.

This morning, on my way to work, I began reading it. I Immediately spotted something that I had not seen when I picked it up two days before .... there was a chapter on Deja Vu. I decided to read this chapter first and what I read stunned me!

But a bit of background first. Way back in 2000 I wrote the first version of Is There Life After Death - The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When You Die (ITLAD). Some sections of this original version ended up being edited out of the version that appeared in the bookshops in 2007. However one section that did stay was a particular description of the frustrations (and circularity) that I found in trying to isolate a dictionary definition of paramnesia. On page 276 of ITLAD I describe this. I wrote:

'An attempt to gain a definition from elsewhere was also cyclical; if one looks up the word (deja vu) in the Oxford Concise English Dictionary one will find a reference but no definition. Indeed it refers directly to another entry; that entry being for deja vu! So it seems that having a deja vu is, by definition, an example of paramnesia, which is, by definition, an example of deja vu.'

My frustration is only thinly disguised. I clearly remember the irritation I felt on that day back in 2000 even now. However even at the time I thought it was odd that I felt it necessary to place this descriptive narrative in the book itself. There were lots of similar issues at the time but something (my Daemon?) insisted that this be recorded for posterity.

Why this was so became clear this morning when I read the following (page 173) observations by Royle with regard to the frustrations he encountered when trying to find a dictionary definition for deja vu:

'Both the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and Chambers (Dictionary) see to it that "deja vu" be defined as 'an illusion' or 'illusory' and both delegate the authority for such a definition to the discipline of psychology and in particular to the psychological concept of paramnesia. Thus in Chambers we read: 'deja vu: a form of memory disorder paramnesia. If we then look in Chambers for a definition of 'paramnesia' we discover with seemingly unremarkable irony: ' a memory disorder in which words are remembered but not in their proper meaning .... the dictionary itself seems subject to some form of paramnesia'

Note the startlingly similarities between my last sentence and that of Royle.

Now could this be evidence of "Future Memory" on my part? That I 'remembered' reading this in 2008 during my last Life re-run was so taken by how Royle illustrates his frustrations with regard to the definitions of deja vu/paramnesia that during my next life (i.e. this one) I wrote it in my own book before I experienced it in this one?

Of course to be "significant" a coincidance has to be self-referential. How self-referential can be that both Royle and myself are writing about Deja Vu ... a phenomenon that implies "Future Memory" or precognition?

Really, really weird!

The FORUM

After doing a quick review of the FORUM I feel that it is the ideal place to place some of the more informational postings that we have enjoyed on this Blogsite over the last year or so. I am sure that all of your regular contributors have one or two of your own that you are particularly proud of. As long as the post can be amended slightly to be understandable to the novice itladian then I feel that these could be re-used.

I have taken a few of my early posts ... specifically the PKD ones ... and placed them on the FORUM. Clearly I had to explain the background but I am fairly pleased with them.

So if you guys have any historic gems that you are proud of think about "forumising" them and placing them on there.

Tony

ART!

MADONNA CRYING by ALEX HAAS
when i saw this image i was reminded of the POPULAR sunday services!

Schizophrenia and migraine

I'm reading "The Daemon" and was reminded how much migraine aura visual disturbances were similar to the cat pictures of Louis Wain.

Wain was an artist who specialised in painting cats. Over time he became more and more subject to schizophrenia and his paintings vividly describe how his perceptions changed.

Migraine aura

WOWIO - Some Thoughts

I am assured by my publisher that downloads on Wowio will not impact upon general sales of "The Daemon". I remain to be convinced about this but they are professionals in the publishing business and I have to assume that they know best.

However this does not take away my fear that the ability for people to read the book on-line for free will have a negative impact upon hard-copy sales. With WAP phones and such like, individuals can read the book as and when they like and although reading on a screen is not ideal sales of the "Amazon Kindle" device in the USA has shown that people are getting more used to reading something on a portable screen. To be able to do this for free rather than spend money on a book is, to me, a very rational decision ... particularly in a world facing an economic down-turn.

I agree that this may open up my theories to many more people ... people who would not ordinarily buy my books ... and that is a good thing but this is not the same as the 'relationship' that is created between writer and reader when the have the intimacy of a tactile book in their hands (a fully portable device that does not have to be switched on and off!)

However I feel that potential readers should find "WOWIO" in their own way without any assistance from me. as such I will wait a few days then "pull" any reference to Wowio of this blogsite, my website and my other various web-locations.

I would like request that you guys also use WOWIO in a useful and dynamic way. If you consider that the only way a friend or associate will become aware of Itladian ideas will be through the free access to WOWIO then by all means let them know ... but please be careful. I am worried that both books may become very popular and generate absolutely no revenue which will really be a two-edged sword. I make very little from my writing to begin with. To end up losing what small revenue I receive will be economically disastrous for me - I will become much more famous and much more poor at the same time. Indeed such a scenario would really make the writing of a third book economically non-viable.

We have to manage this very carefully.

Wowio - Daemon book straight in at number 4

Clearly a lot of people are downloading the pdf copy of my second book, The Daemon - A Guide To Your Extraordinary Secret Self. It has entered the Wowio "Best Sellers" list at number 4! I am really pleased that the book is "selling" so well. My only hope is that this will not detract from sales of the real book.

Of course it is somewhat ironic that I am fascinated by the idea that reality may be an inwardly generated construct - my "virtual book" is selling well before my "actual" book exists in bookshops, on Amazon etc etc!

the daemon as an island!

From The Odyssey to The Beach, islands have been one of the most powerful and magical inspirations to writers... Islands work as social laboratories, says John Harding.
"an extraordinary amount of fiction has taken place on islands, for reasons that are both psychological and practical. In Jungian dream analysis, the sea represents the unconscious mind, and it has been suggested that the island symbolises the ego or the conscious self. Indeed, some psychotherapists ask patients to draw their own island, with the result examined as a self-portrait. It's impossible to be beside the sea and not feel the tug of elemental forces, the kind of forces that gave rise to the earliest stories." going through the Odyssey, Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and others the writers claims that every novel seeks to create its own world and entice the reader into it. "On a fictional island, the writer has complete control, and if one of the main motivations of art is to make order from chaos and so make sense of the world, the opportunity is here in spades....Islands are places to escape to, not only for writers freeing up their imaginations but also for their characters and readers.....perhaps most interesting today as an early example of sci-fi, an island genre that had some currency in the 19th century, before writers discovered outer space . ". " The idea of the island as self. That's another thing about islands. Take a trip on one, and keep going long enough, and you will always end up back where you began.......

(taken frm artcritical.com - Island painting by ALAN DAVIE)