Conversations with good Info

With Info, a bright young fellow from Seattle...

He referenced the desert people of Dune, with their "still-suits" that reclaimed and recycled all water leaving the body.

"I like the way religion was treated in those books. It seemed way more realistic to me that a vibrant technical society is ruled by a caste that interfaces regularly with the Unmanifest, than the dreary opposite case, seen in much science fiction, where religion has been eliminated as a "scourge" on mankind. That trope is so ignorant of human psychology," I offered, rather pedantically, I admit!

Though Info agreed, adding that in his own experience as a modern, technical being, the impetus for further expenditures of energy, further penetration into matter, must come from a kind of blank space, rather than from a rational process. In fact, such processes are often just energy sinks. 

We went on in this vein, leaning on logs in the shade under Mt. Taylor, happily discussing the underlying goal of all techniques of "escaping" the tyranny of the rational mind, whether by mediation or some (hopefully benign) use of drugs. We saw that this very activity of the long hike is in this direction.

We left each other... Info is fast! But he rests often. So I was happy to find him again:

"I had another thought on our talk. I think we are talking about fracking. The fracker sends a pressurised hose deep into the earth, then causes it to rattle about with hard metal objects on steel cables, hoping to break through into rich gas pockets."

"And we are doing this, in some way, with marijuana, or meditation? I think so," he said. "But it might be dangerous. There are some pockets that should only be explored in a clinical environment."

"Right!" I said. "This is the story of the 'bad LSD trip' and things like that. It's a bit unwise. On the other hand, failure to explore the Self might be a kind of sin. You are in charge of a great garden, and to leave it unwalked by perception would insult the host."

"So we walk a knife-edge." I don't remember which of us said that, but the feeling was clear.

And so it went through the day, and to our mutually chosen camp at night. Deep discussion...a rich life under the stars... Perhaps, a kind of prototype life that should have been. One which we can always speak back into being.

Thanks Info!