Into Digital Slavery

The real Covid agenda?

Don’t get me started, dear reader.

I’ve been fighting tooth and nail with the digital / Ahrimanic¹ influence for decades. Some powerful force in the world wants the majority hooked into a digital matrix, addicted to things that aren’t real.

The problem is, even when something ‘real’ comes through, it soon becomes unreal, polarizing, oversimplified. You respond to the love of your life in a casual or heartless way. You blow up at that distant little digital photograph because they aren’t real enough to be taken seriously: you can’t smell their sweat or hear their heartbeat.

Here are some general characteristics of the Ahrimanic influence:

1. Materialism: Ahriman is strongly associated with materialistic philosophy and the tendency to deny or ignore spiritual realities. This includes a focus on the physical and tangible aspects of existence to the exclusion of spiritual values and experiences.

2. Intellect without morality: Ahrimanic forces are often described as promoting intellect and cleverness devoid of ethical considerations and human warmth. This can lead to the use of knowledge and technology in ways that may be harmful to humanity and the environment.

3. Mechanization and control: The push towards mechanization, control, and surveillance of human life is considered an Ahrimanic tendency. It manifests in the drive to quantify, predict, and regulate all aspects of existence, often reducing individuals to mere components in a larger system.

4. Coldness and separation: Ahriman is said to foster a sense of isolation, coldness, and disconnection from others and the natural world. This includes a breakdown in community and a loss of empathy and human connection.

5. Denial of the spiritual: A key aspect of Ahrimanic influence is the denial of spiritual dimensions of life and an exclusive focus on the empirical and scientifically provable. This worldview can lead to a loss of meaning and purpose beyond the material.

6. Fear and anxiety: The Ahrimanic influence can instill a sense of fear, anxiety, and pessimism about the future, often as a result of the uncertainties brought about by rapid technological change and the perceived loss of control over one's life and environment.

7. Rigidity and dogmatism: Ahriman can also manifest as rigidity in thought and dogmatism, where the intellect is used to enforce narrow viewpoints and suppress new ideas or perspectives that might bring about spiritual or moral growth.

That seems fairly straightforward, doesn’t it?

Physical Symptoms

There are also physical symptoms of being under the yolk of this influence:

Upper body symptoms in the cranium (headache, congestion, perhaps) and a quick temper².

Once these symptoms root too deeply, the mortal disease can follow.

The world.

Teenagers walk through stores without any knowledge of the world around them, other than a fictive world that exists in their hand-held screen. Watching a video of the Eiffel tower makes them believe that there is no reason to go to France. Or seeing a 30 second snipped makes them feel that they understand Shakespeare.

As we know, some influences are not so easily distilled into seconds, minutes, or even hours.

Now, there is an invitation to strap a screen to your face and go walking around. Sex is digital; money is digital; love is digital. I know at least one family member that has a digital relationship with someone that delivers pictures that are clearly not the person at the keyboard.

Clearly the world as we know it is suffering immensely due to this Ahrimanic force. For now, I advice you to begin to see these influences as metaphorical. Then you can at least learn to spot them without succumbing to the rigidity of disbelief and doubt.

What is to be done?

Well, when a force is surging like a tidal wave, threatening to encroach on every remaining human freedom, what I do is look at the opposite.

Here are the polar opposites of the results of the Ahrimanic influence:

• Spirituality: Emphasis on the spiritual dimensions of life, recognizing and nurturing the non-material aspects of existence and human consciousness.

• Ethical intellect: The use of intellect and knowledge with a strong moral foundation, aiming for wisdom that incorporates ethical considerations and promotes the common good.

• Organic growth and freedom: Favoring natural, organic processes and the development of systems that support human freedom, autonomy, and creativity, as opposed to rigid mechanization and control.

• Warmth and connection: Cultivating a sense of warmth, empathy, and deep connection with others and the natural world, fostering community and mutual understanding.

• Acknowledgment of the spiritual: Openness to spiritual experiences and realities, integrating them into a holistic understanding of life that balances empirical knowledge with spiritual wisdom.

• Hope and courage: Promoting a sense of hope, optimism, and courage to face the future, inspired by the potential for spiritual growth and positive change.

• Flexibility and inclusiveness: Encouraging flexibility in thought, openness to new ideas, and inclusiveness, enabling a more dynamic and adaptive approach to challenges and diverse perspectives.

In my mind, these can change the world. Or at least tip it back into balance.

Steiner might call this constellation of influences The Christ Impulse, by the way. Most of his books revolve around this force being the saving force for humanity. Though whether we collectively defeat this Ahrimanic influence remains to be seen. It is not so far looking good, and this is coming from an eternal optimist.

There are a few other considerations.

The Ahrimanic influence causes an over-reliance on technology, and is, by its very nature in this age, digital.

So another counter move is:

NON digital. Aka Analog.

If you counter digital with analog, you’re a hero now. Who would have thought?

It’s a revolutionary leap, of course. The ‘backwards’ leap forwards.

And some miraculous souls never took the digital plunge at all. At least wherever they could avoid it.

We know of some writers, like Woody Allen, that still compose entirely on a typewriter, along with Danielle Steele. And Jerry Seinfeld, who writes out his jokes on a legal pad; and Dan Kennedy, a consultant who doesn’t use email and makes the ‘facebook ad guys’ look like morons running in circles without accountability (and he probably does mean to).

We also know of every writer pre digital that did the same, such as Nobakov with his note card system.

A system.

Recently I’ve been reading Scott Scheper’s Antinet Zettelkasten: A Knowledge System That Will Turn You Into a Prolific Reader, Researcher and Writer . It’s about setting up a card system for dynamic, organic thinking.

I’m also an advocate of paper in a digital world (though sometimes the clutter overwhelms me. The digital clutter overwhelms me as well, so there must be an alternative that involves the common denominator (me).

Whether you type notes, this organic system can bloom into something that contains your deepest learning. I’ve, for instance, read thousands of books. Of course, the knowledge is somewhere, and manifests as something, sometimes.

Sometimes, I wish it was more predictable. I think of notes, authors, feelings, and I wonder what became of them.

Meaning-making.

There’s a version of analog card project management for Homemaking called SHE (sidetracked home executive) where you place cards in a rotation, and they come up when the task needs doing.

That’s for someone that wants to excel at parenting in a non-digital way. For instance, if you’re managing your household in Trello cards, which I have tried, you fail.

This Ahriman story above is certainly meaning-generating for me. Without it, though, I can create meaning around being human.

My purpose is to help humans be more human: I owe a deep debt to my humanity, that I’ve carried across timelines and lifetimes.

I broke my neck and was ‘reborn’ in the ocean, and I believe that this occurred so that we could come alive collectively, and some of us could be a part of it.

Whatever you’re doing now is as rewarding as it is meaningful to you; as it fits into the context of your life story.

So find a meaning to return to your more human nature: your higher nature.

Ditch these digital influences that turn men and women into literal beasts, clawing at one another about politics; losing lifelong friends over vaccine choices or other bipolar narratives.

The agenda is to turn you into a commodity: do not comply.

I believe that the agenda of Covid was to pull everyone into screens by necessity, in the hopes that no one could get back out.

WRONG.

My own fight.

• I parent.

• I help people live most fully.

• I maintain my biological organism.

• I fight the digital power.

• I dive into the matrix to leran about it.

• I enhance my own consciousness and understanding.

My systems are vast and varied: I have a macbook pro, a 1923 Hammond, a startlingly cool Groma Kolibri, a Mont blanc pen (college graduation gift), a Remarkable 2, an Astrohaus Freewrite.

It all gets so complicated. I’m streamlining here.

My question is, how can a few priorities enfold a few others.

For instance I parent (support my kids) with a business which is delivers analog tools to digitally burned-out writers and humans, so that they can be more present and life more fully.

I do this all from a 10x10 foot room. I put the typewriters away when I have a client on zoom.

So I fight and the ashes of the fight nourish my family earth. And I fight without violence, but by supplying weapons to the non-violent resisters, who ‘resist’ with thought.

I sit in meditation and resolve every thought: replace ‘negative’ with ‘positive’ until my mind is a shining jewel. And then I go out among the swarthy, muddy fighters who try to tear me to shreds; my composure anyway.

Minimalism and my quest.

This is what I will create + refine this year:

• A system of cards that are typewritten and handwritten, fed by…

• An inspiring portable writing station that is completely non-digital. (Typewriter).

• Transition to a minimlist phone (currently often use a Lightphone 2 which barely works, but is a beautiful idea.

• A low-screen publishing opinon that feeds =>

• A PAPER newsletter for ANALOG warriors, with hand made and typewritten elements. (Did I say PAPER?)

• In-person meetings with clients to transform the consciousness of all involved (to replace zoom meetings).

• Typewritten letters to loved ones and a profound slowing down to fall in love with life again.

• A business that is thriving and portable as needed for travels.

• A loving and giving spiritual life with abundance to provide for those in need.

• Leveling up my creative and intellectual life to its FULL capacity (without digital distraction or the stupid impulse to crank out mediocre content)

• A visual art practice that is dedicated, focused, and inspiring.

IS it too much to ask? Maybe, so I demand it. Our life is a projection of our consciousness. Stop choosing small life, I remind myself.

But what’s more, I’m inviting you onto the journey!

Love and rapture,

Steven Budden Jr.

The Classic Typewriter Company

»»» The Rapture Papers. A Paper Newsletter on Finding Creative Flow in a Digital Word. «««

[I’m going to transition this channel to a paper newsletter: first issue is free + shipping.

Reply or comment ‘Newsletter’ and I’ll send you the sign up link. Through this paper you’ll hear about my in-person seminars and meetings.

1. Ahriman is a powerful ancient Persian dark entity who was elaborated upon lugubriously by Rudolf Steiner in many a lecture series. Steiner suggests reading Goethe’s Faust to understand this character.

2. See Are Thoresen’s books on Disease and Translocation.He’s a Clairvoyant that would watch entities move in and out of his subjects during treatments.