Deep State Consciousness
‘The world we inhabit is abundant beyond our wildest imagination. There are trees, dreams, sunrises; there are thunderstorms, shadows, rivers; there are wars, flea bites, love affairs; there are the lives of people, Gods, entire galaxies. The simplest human action varies from one person and occasion to the next…Narrowly defined subjects such as thirteenth-century Parisian theology, crowd control, late mediaeval Umbrian art are full of pitfalls and surprises, thus proving that there is no limit to any phenomenon, however restricted.’
Welcome to the Deep State Consciousness website. The above quotation is by the 20th century philosopher of science, Paul Feyerabend. It is from his final work, Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being.
This website, this philosophical project, concerns how we bridle that untamed being—the world we inhabit—with abstractions—narratives, concepts and paradigms. These narratives can be enriching and liberating: allowing us to make sense of our world, to understand and conquer it. At the same time however, they can become prisons, confining our perceptions and limiting our view. They can make us talk past each other, and become locked into ceaseless and fruitless conflict with our fellow humans. They may even become psychological crutches, upon which we base our very sense of identity.
How, then, may we juxtapose the depth of absorption into a narrative necessary to fully investigate it, with the freedom to drop it and fully adopt a different and conflicting point of view? And what role does consciousness play in any of this? Surely the thing that is witnessing the world is even more mysterious—more abundant—than that which is being witnessed.
The term deep state—borrowed from the political arena—is used in combination with consciousness to reflect this depth and richness. Politically, deep state contrasts with the classical image of conspiracy theory. Whereas the latter tends to posit one ultimate centre of power, the formed more humbly proclaims movements on the surface result from the depths. Applied to consciousness, it is intended to reflect that same mystery and depth, in contrast to either reductionist materialist or idealist positions.
The subjects covered are somewhat arbitrary, somewhat idiosyncratic, but always concerned with the human drama. This could be the individual’s drama, as they search for meaning and wholeness, or the dramas of whole nations, collectively searching for liberation—to live lives free of violence and tyranny.
The book Conquest of Abundance opens with Coleman Barks' poetic translation of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī's Story Water. which captures the essence of this endevour:
A story is like the water
you heat for your bath.
It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!
Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing
inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.