#4 - MED - Invitation to Mythophrenia, following this investigation
Greetings once again to each and all. You've reached John Lash on Mandala Effect Decoded. So now let's see if I can reach you.
This is talk number four in the series, The Gnostic Investigation, and it's entitled, Invitation to Mithophrenia, How to Follow this Investigation. You may recall that I've noted that talking directly to you out there in the world, whoever you are, wherever you are, via the medium of a YouTube channel is new to me. It's fair to say that I have hundreds of talks available on the Internet, on dozens of YouTube channels, dozens of interviews, links from Metahistory.org, Gaiaspora.org, and so forth and so on. But in all of the years that I've been teaching via the Internet, I've never tried to be in an interactive mode with the listeners, in a way that I'm doing now.
So I've noted that people who have YouTube channels generally introduce themselves with a catchphrase and sometimes sign off with another phrase. So I'm following that procedure. Some years ago I had an experience, it was August of 2008 to be exact, that really rocked my boat and had enormous repercussions in my life. And when I came through that experience, I had one realization that stuck in my mind and in my heart with particular ferocity. And that was the realization that I would be quite happy in my life going forward from that time, that is going on nine years now, I would be quite happy if I could just reach one human being in naked honesty. And that's an intention that I have held faithfully through these years.
It's the intention I bring to every encounter I have face to face with someone, to see if I can reach that individual in naked honesty, in the pure moment of truth shared, truth exchanged, and that is the motivation behind what I'm doing now on this YouTube channel. So that explains why I use that funny little introduction which might amuse you or engage you or you might find it irritating, I don't know. I don't know how long I'll stay with that but that's how I'm getting myself started here.
With that said, let's get on with the content of this fourth installment from Mandala Effect Decoded. Let me emphasize to all of you that it's quite important to follow the sequence of these talks. Logically, you should begin with talk number one, testing your PsycheQ. This test is not like any other test you've ever taken, I can assure you of that. The purpose of this test, and the benefits to be derived from it, will become revealed soon as these talks develop.
Now as of today, February 17th, 12 days from launching this project, I almost have the quota for the first report on the responses to the entrance exam. Nevertheless, any one of you can put in your entry at any time that you like. The way that you do that is you place it in the comment section of talk 1 or you can write me at the email address given if you're not able to comment on YouTube.
Or you can go to Facebook to Mandela Effect Decoded, that's under White Wolven, or to the John Lamb Lash group, public group page, and register your comments there as well. Also, my colleague and long-time friend Audrey Evers has graciously opened a page on Facebook, although I assure you she's not the kind of individual who's prone to manifest herself on social media. But on her page on Facebook, if you use Facebook, you will also be able to enter any kind of comment or criticism or question that you like regarding my investigation of the Mandela Effect. And on her page I will respond.
Obviously due to limitations of time and attention I cannot respond to every comment or question that might arise. But Audrey will be editing editing and monitoring the comments that come in on her page and I will from time to time reply there. So post your entry to the entrance exam in the comment section of talk number one or mail me at GnosticCodeX at MediHistory.org and otherwise contribute your comments, questions and criticisms to the areas, to the platforms that I've described.
Alright, just two more points to make in this talk, number four. First of all, I'd like to remind you of a saying that I've used down through the years and found to be extremely helpful. Students and friends familiar with my work also use this saying among themselves, and they find it to be helpful as what is technically called a hermeneutic device. Hermeneutic. Hermeneutic means that which guides the interpretation of something. So I assume you're listening to me out there because you would like to interpret the Mandela effect. You would like to interpret it yourself or have someone interpret it and then you will listen to their interpretation and decide if it makes sense to you, right?
It's natural for the human animal, get used to that term, to want to interpret things. It's part of the endowment of the intelligence of our species. We may be animals like other species, and I insist on this point strongly, and we are not necessarily superior but we are exceptional due to the faculties that we can demonstrate. One of those faculties is speech. So human animals have capacity for speech far in excess of other animals. Another is reasoning, dialectic, the selection process in thought, and also the capacity to interpret. But I would advise you that interpretation requires guidelines.
You cannot just wildly launch into an interpretation. You know, if you were doing downhill skiing and you took the tramway, you took the lifts up to the top of the mountain, then you jumped down into the snow with your skis and you just went down the mountain helter-skelter, you would be acting in a reckless and dangerous fashion. Because when you downhill ski, you have to follow certain guidelines down the mountainside so that you don't go off a cliff or go into a tree. So even though you can ski in a wild and free manner, with exhilarating freedom, you still follow certain guidelines so that you don't harm yourself.
Well, likewise with interpreting something, especially some mysterious and baffling phenomena such as the Mandela effect, it's advisable to follow guidelines, hermeneutic guidelines for the interpretation, and I intend to provide these, and I'm providing a major guideline in this very talk right now.
By the way, these are optional, you don't have to follow my guidelines if you don't want to, but I'm offering them for what they're worth, and that's for you to determine by using them and testing them according to your own standards. Come to think of it, the Mandela Effect entrance exam has been designed, I have designed that exam so that you can realize and recognize what your standards are, your standards for truth.
It's really important, it's imperative at the outset of this investigation, to know what your own standards of truth are, so that you can get to the truth about the Mandela effect. Now I mention a saying, which is in itself a hermeneutic device, a hermeneutic aid. And the saying goes like this, all the clues in the world don't count if you don't know what crime has been committed. Now if you want to follow this investigation for the maximum benefit for yourself, bear that saying in mind, reflect on that saying. Now I consider it. Let's see if I, or how about, how about if I take you on a little imaginary journey with me?
Imagine that we're riding together in a car down a highway somewhere. Let's say it's somewhere in Germany and we arrive at one of those places which is called a rest area. They have different names in different languages but in America we call them a rest area. So you pull the car over when you want to take a break from driving, right? So let's imagine that you and I pull into this rest area and that there is a couple of picnic tables there. There's even a place, a little fireplace, where people can come and barbecue and eat. So it's provided with services for people and back over 50 or 60 feet from the parking area are the restrooms where you can go in and wash your face and so forth and so on. So get out of the car, you get out with me, and I invite you to walk over to one of these tables. And I indicate to you to look at what's on the table, and in fact to just give a look around the area generally.
Well, what's on the table? Well, funny, but there's a carton of milk sitting on the table, and if you were to go up and touch it, you would find that it was almost completely full. It had just been opened. There's a paperback book with a bookmarker in it, sitting on the table as well, and curiously, located halfway between the table and the restrooms, there is a sneaker on the ground. And let's see what can I add. Oh yeah, there's a small backpack under the table, which someone apparently has forgotten.
Now, why are we at this rest stop together? I didn't explain to you why before I invited you to come along, did I? So let's assume, I would ask you to assume that I know why we're there and you don't. Let's say that I'm a detective and this is a crime scene. A crime has been reported, which I know about, and I have been advised to go to this rest stop as the scene of the crime and to investigate what I can find.
So as a detective, I look for clues. When I see that carton of milk on the table, to me that's a clue. The paperback book sitting beside it, with a marker in it, where the individual left off reading is also a clue. It so happens, by the way, that if you open the paperback book and you look at that marker, well, it happens to have a reference on it to a certain restaurant in Hanover, Germany. So, what does that mean to you? You're holding in your hand a paperback book, let's say it's the German translation of Light in August by William Faulkner, an American writer.
And you find that the bookmark gives the address of a restaurant in Hanover, Germany, and what does that mean to you? Well, it can't mean anything really to you unless you know what crime has been committed. But to me, the detective, that could be a very significant clue, not only to how the crime was committed and why, but to the perpetrator of the crime.
So I walk around this rest area with you and I see the sneaker, the training shoe on the ground, only one. I see these other clues, including the small backpack under the table. We haven't examined the contents of that yet, have we? We go into the restroom and I see something is written on the mirror. Hmmm, and it says, “Charlotte was here”.
Well, is that a clue to what happened or not? Well, I'm not sure, as the detective, it could be, and I make a note of it, but you don't even know if it could be a clue, because you don't know what crime has been committed. So you can see how this sentence is supremely important, not only in regard to real events in the world, in real events in life in general, but in particular regarding the investigation of the Mandela effect.
I have to tell you at the outset, to be totally honest and transparent with you, I only want to reach you in complete honesty and transparency. Nothing else counts for me. I do know the crime that's been committed here. I do know the plot within which the clues presented by the Mandela effect make sense. But I'm not going to tell you what that is at the outset. I could.
I prefer, however, to lead you through the evidence search, and to lead you through the proof process that I myself went through to determine the origin and purpose of the Mandela Effect. So if you really want to follow this investigation, bear that in mind. Bear in mind that I am leading and guiding you through the investigation in that particular way. Namely, in the manner in which a detective would do who was giving you a tour of a crime scene. Alright, now to conclude this talk, I'd like to explain the reference in the title, Invitation to Mithophrenia.
One of the options you have in following the Gnostic investigation I'm proposing is to look at my site, metahistory.org, at particular material on the site which is relevant to this investigation. And foremost in that material is the page which introduces the topic of Mythophrenia. What I've written there about Mythophrenia stands by itself. It's not a long discourse. You can read it in five minutes. What I want to concentrate on right now is the definition of Mythophrenia because it is essential to what you can acquire, what you can learn and attain, yeah that’s the word, what you can attain by following this investigation of the Mandela Effect. I propose that Mythophrenia be defined as the art and practice of visionary self-guidance, or self-direction, using the tools of myth, symbol and language.
That's how I would define it, and you will find that in the text to which I'm referring. How does Mythophrenia relate to schizophrenia or schizophrenia? You can pronounce it both ways. Well, it's something that would enhance your day if you had the understanding of the distinction between those two words. Basically, schizophrenia is not a pleasant affair, I assure you, and being a schizophrenic is not fun, it's terrifying and confusing.
Nevertheless schizophrenia might be regarded as the entry into an initiation process that may result successfully in Mythophrenia. So you could say that Mythophrenia is a successful management of schizophrenia. Well, why would that concern you if you're not a schizophrenic? Well, I assure you that schizophrenia is the disposition of the entire human race at this particular moment in time and history. A great part of the human race, if not already schizophrenic in the negative and problematical sense, is due to become so very soon.
So if you want to survive and retain your sanity in the future you might well undertake a study of the difference between schizophrenia and Mythophrenia. And I'm proposing that Mythophrenia is what comes to you in the realization of the origin and purpose of the Mandela effect. The effect is there, yeah, as an initiation process. It is there to lead you to something. It is there to lead you to this mastery of self guidance.
What does the Mandela Effect have to do with myth? You find the word Mythophrenia in myth, right? It has everything to do with myth, because there is a myth that frames the Mandela Effect. The myth is the plot. The myth is the crime. If you're uncomfortable with the term myth, I can understand that. Unfortunately, and I'm a mythologist, so I might have some authority to speak here, unfortunately the word myth has become tainted with the connotation of a false explanation. That is absolutely wrong and incorrect. And there are certain myths that are accurate explanations and descriptions.
They are veracious and verifiable. The myth that frames the Mandela effect is a verifiable myth. So, perhaps if you're uncomfortable with the word myth, you could substitute other words like plot, or how about this, narrative, because a myth is nothing but a narrative. It is impossible to understand the Mandela effect without placing it in the framework of a narrative.
Again, all the clues in the world don't count, unless you know what crime has been committed, unless you know the plot or narrative that fits the clues. Just consider for a moment two of the most popular explanations giving for the cause of the Mandela Effect. A great many people around the world, mainly Christians, have proposed that Satan or the devil or Lucifer is causing the Mandela Effect. Unfortunately, they confuse and confound the words Satan and Lucifer, which are absolutely different terms. A large number of people are suggesting, proposing, insisting, arguing that the supercollider at CERN is the cause of the Mandela Effect.
Well, step back for a moment and consider that those two explanations depend on a plot. They depend on a narrative. If you're going to say that Satan is causing the Mandela Effect, that assertion is meaningless unless you have a narrative about Satan going. If you’re going to say that CERN is causing it, that assertion is meaningless and unverifiable unless you have a narrative about CERN, what CERN is doing, who created it, why, how it's possible for CERN to produce such effects.
Without that narrative or plot, the assertion is meaningless. Clear enough? Fine, so I'll conclude on that note. Again, I assure you that if you follow this investigation, you may attain a sense of what it means to be self-guiding that surpasses and excels any previous conception you have ever had of guidance. And on that promising note, I'll conclude this talk, as usual, with my little turn of phrase, and may your attention be rewarded by the truth.