[Main Blog Post] The Trouble with Authenticity

[jprussell]

I've been trying to write this one for months, but I didn't actually have anything new or useful to say, and then the other day, I read a book review, and it's way of defining a seemingly unrelated topic gave me the key I needed to put it all together.

So, what is the Trouble With Authenticity?

Read on to find out!

Comments

[randomactsofkarmasc]

I enjoyed your post very much. Parts of your story remind me of my path. I found JMG when I decided I wanted a deity (or deities) and I happened across an article of his that led me to the Druid Handbook. It took me a while to find my pantheon, but you are right... when it is right, you can feel it. And I have no interest in being a Reconstructionist. ;-)

Your post is a logical well-written explanation of things that I have felt but would struggle to express with words.

[jprussell]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! I had to kind of be dragged kicking and screaming into the Druid side of things precisely because it was so different from the mostly Reconstructionist tack I had been taking before, but I'm much better for it.

As for putting in words, thank you again - I had to struggle with this for a long time to be able to articulate it at all, and the editing for this post was a lot more involved than usual, so I'm thankful it had the desired effect.

Incidentally, I wanted to say that I enjoy reading the speculations and connections in your comments on the Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic book club posts, but I rarely have anything substantial to add, as I've barely studied Tarot or Cabala at all, I haven't engaged with the CosDoc as deeply as it deserves, and though I'm reasonably familiar with Greek mythology, I haven't ever meditated through it or taken a serious look at it since taking up esoteric study. All of which leaves me feeling like I've got nothing to contribute - but I still feel smarter having read your comments, so thank you, and please keep it up!

[randomactsofkarmasc]

Ha! Back at you! Your posts are always thoughtful and interesting, but usually about topics I have little background in (so I don't have anything to contribute, either!). :-)

[causticus]

So you had your major TSW moment! Literally jolted out of materialism, eh?

What you wrote makes a ton of sense on why LARPing is so rampant amount hardline recons, and I guess with the general state of religion today. So many people have no real belief in anything non-material, but there's certain social advantages that come from play-acting something resembling a religion.

While I was never that hardcore of a materialist back before I had any solid metaphysical beliefs, I never took spirituality that seriously until I had a few very weird experiences of my own.

TSW indeed.

[jprussell]

Yeah, it was... not subtle, but also entirely subjective. I gained a lot of insight into what folks have meant all down the ages about ineffable experiences that you can't confirm outside of yourself or properly explain to other folks.

And I think you're right about folks not having belief in anything non-material, but maybe even more important is a lack of gnosis - before my unexpected and memorable experience while meditating, I literally didn't know what the heck religious folks were talking about. I knew about what they were talking about, but I didn't truly know what I was missing by not getting it.

At any rate, these days, technically, I still accept the possibility that all of this might be within me and not evidence of how reality is outside of my own mind, but I have no counter-evidence either, and believing it's real gives me a better life, so it's not a hard choice.

[thinking_turtle]

Thanks for another interesting blog! JMG wrote that magic is neither science nor religion, but a third thing. From the introduction to Way of the Golden Section:

You turn to science to learn about matter and energy; you turn to religion to learn about faith and morals; you turn to occultism to learn about consciousness and the unseen worlds that lie between the realm of Deity and the realm of matter.

In a comment on Ecosophia, JMG wrote:

Religion is the art and science of managing human relationships with disembodied intelligent beings, such as gods and spirits.

So when you write "being at least open to the thought that the Gods were really real", that sounds like religion, but when you mention rituals like LBRP, that sounds like the occult.

My occult "TSW" experience was much less intense than yours. I've always liked rolling dice or flipping coins. Divination is the art form of what I was dabbling in before. So for me it wasn't really an aha! moment, but like turning a corner and seeing a wide new view.

For my list of abbreviations, I assume LARP means Live Action Role Playing. "A gathering of many people who re-enact a real or fictitious event, often complete with clothing" What do you think of that description?

[jprussell]

So when you write "being at least open to the thought that the Gods were really real", that sounds like religion, but when you mention rituals like LBRP, that sounds like the occult.

True, but I believe elsewhere he has mentioned that the borders of these categories are a little fuzzy, and that often the different practices support and inform one another. In my case, I mention the occult/magical practices because they were one of the two things I changed from what I tried earlier (thing 1: give the belie that the Gods are real a try, and thing 2: do a different set of occult practices), and because my "whoah" moment occurred while doing a guided visualization right after the LBRP and MP. Once that "seal" was broken, I started finding more exclusively religious practices (like prayer) more rewarding and helpful, but I suspect that I might not have gotten there (or at least taken longer) without the occult practices opening up certain channels for me.

My occult "TSW" experience was much less intense than yours. I've always liked rolling dice or flipping coins. Divination is the art form of what I was dabbling in before. So for me it wasn't really an aha! moment, but like turning a corner and seeing a wide new view.

If I've gathered anything from hanging out around the Ecosophia community, it's that folks have very different experiences with this kind of thing, and I've come to appreciate that. For what it's worth, besides that initial encounter, divination has also been the place where I've gotten the most frequent, but not all that intense, indication that something is happening here.

For my list of abbreviations, I assume LARP means Live Action Role Playing. "A gathering of many people who re-enact a real or fictitious event, often complete with clothing" What do you think of that description?

Ah, yes, I should have defined that in the main text rather than relying on a silly link, but yes, "Live Action Role Playing" is indeed what LARP stands for. The one quibble I would have with your proposed definition is that it sounds more like "reenactment," like folks who do historical battles or farmsteads or the like. LARPing is an outgrowth of the tabletop RPG scene and so usually has more of a flavor of a game, without settled outcomes. Someone comes up with the initial scenario and acts as the referee/game master, the rest of the participants take on the roles of various characters, and then they interact "in character," both playacting as the character they have chosen/been assigned, but also making decisions and taking actions that might be abstracted away into rules. For example, in one LARP ruleset, if two characters get in a fight, they play "Rock, Paper, Scissors," but some of the conditions to win change depending on your characters abilities (for example, if a soldier character got in a fight with a reporter, maybe the reporter needs to win 2 or 3 rounds of RPS, but the soldier only needs to win 1 to win the fight).

All that being said, I might propose a definition something like "Live Action Role Playing. A term that originated for games where players take on the role of a character and interact with each other within the terms of a fictional scenario. Similar to tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, but 'acted out' by dressing up and moving around a physical space, rather than describing actions or representing them on a map. Sometimes used somewhat derisively to refer to actions seemingly taken in earnest that the speaker views as somehow fake or lacking substance."

[thinking_turtle]

Indeed, the categories of religion and occult seem to overlap even by JMG's definitions.

Beautiful definiton of LARP, I'll keep it like you wrote it.