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Friends, Happy New Year! Here’s the third in the series of episodes on How To Live in 2022. The first, AEWCH 175, was with occult scholar Mitch Horowitz, and the second, AEWCH 176, is on why reincarnation matters for us now. It’s not just the obviously spiritual that we must bring to bear on how to live now, though. It’s how we spend our time, and what we give our days and thoughts over to. For me, intellectual pursuits – especially literature, film, music, philosophy – are what I long to spend my time on. But I resent, deeply, the idea that they have to be “for” something, even self development. It’s not that they can’t contribute to self development, rather, that they only contribute to self development when we don’t force them into the role. So how could I do an episode on how-and-why-to-be-an-intellectual without forcing it all into functionality? Luckily, public intellectual, teacher, and philosopher Zena Hitz‘s, book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, is hugely clarifying on this. After reading it, I knew I had to speak with her. I hope this conversation is clarifying for you, too.
SHOW NOTES
WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ? Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Othersoffers a great exploration of how to view art, the news, the world in general, without becoming numb: numb in the way we become numb to what we see again and again, and numb because of the narratives (or lack of them) that surround what we’re regarding. It’s a short book full of declarative and illuminating sentences.
WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO? A good companion episode for this one is AEWCH 141 with religious scholar Jason Josephson Storm. We talk about knowing beyond academia, beyond postmodernism, beyond the old ways of taking in knowledge… but without discarding the most useful aspects of all the above. We also get really weird about it.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER? Since we discuss “spectacle” so much, I think I should direct you to the Situationists, the anarchist art/culture/politics group from 20th Century. One of the best entry points is via Ken Knabb’s super plain but very rich site, Bureau of Public Secrets.
Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you. SUPPORT THIS PODCAST viaPatreon
Friends,
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 2022, which is also the first episode of a series of episodes on How To Live in 2022. To kick off the year, and the series I’ve invited Mitch Horowitz back on the show to talk about how to live using the 7 Hermetic Principles found in the occult book The Kybalion. Mitch is a paranormal and occult scholar, and a great writer. He’s been on the show before, most recently at the top of 2021 on AEWCH 137 when we talked about why self help matters in the middle of a global crisis.
So: what is the Kybalion? What are the 7 Heremetic Principes? And how do the Principles help us live?
Of course, this is Against Everyone With Conner Habib, so we also get deeply philosophical (so, uh, apologies for my rant on Dune, homeopathy, and water) as we talk about the principles. Listen, take them in, and comment below. And also, check out the new show notes format below!
SHOW NOTES
TWO FAVORITE MOMENTS • From Mitch (re: the Heremetic Principle of Vibration): “If you say the word ‘please’ it can be a cordial request or sarcasm, it all depends on the tone… When we read something on digital media, we are hearing it… This is killing us, this sarcasm… We’re writing it so it keeps us at a kind of remove, but the consequences are felt, they are absolutely felt. We are killing ourselves as a human species with the continuous use of attack speech…”
• From me: “A paradox is a polarity that sees itself.”
WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ? Well, it’s pretty obvious: You should read the The Kybalion. It’s a great and quick, but profound read.
WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO? It’s an older episode that’s not available on most podcast platforms but you can still listen here AEWCH 34 (or it’s still on Stitcher). It’s a solo episode called ARE BODIES OUR SELVES or HOW SEX CONFRONTS MATERIALISM.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER? I love that Mitch brought up the profound impact the works of the Russian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff has had on his life. This site has a great review of Gurdjieff’s teachings, as well as their practical application.
MORE ON MITCH Support Mitch’s Patreon here. I’m a patron of his patreon so I can say from experience, you get so much from pledging there – lots of writing, musings, and more. For more on Mitch, listen to our episode at the top of 2021, and his discussion with Duncan Trussell. His film with director Ronni Thomas, The Kybalionis outout January 11, and The Kybalion Study Guide by Mitch, which is the film’s companion book is available now.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Buy Caitlin’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 174 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
Friends,
On the final episode of AEWCH in 2021, I turn to my friend, the queen of endings herself: death expert, Ask A Mortician Host, and Caitlin Doughty We look back on the year about to die, and see what died (and should die with it). We also take stock of where we stand now as we face the year ahead.Thank you so much for listening all year, and I’m looking forward to the adventure ahead.
SHOW NOTES
• Caitlin has been on the show multiple times, but the last time was AEWCH 134, and that was the last time we hung out in person too (aw). And here’s Caitlin’s patreon.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.To buy all of John’s books, go to Lilliput Press, who deliver all over the world. Or you can buy them via my booklist for AEWCH 173 from bookshop.org. A lot of them are on. backorder, but if you order them, they’ll get to you! And I get a small kickback when you order from there.
Friends,
I’m so proud to share with you a comprehensive introduction and exploration of Irish mystic philosopher John Moriarty‘s work. The episode is a recording of the event I curated at the National Concert Hall, Republic of Birds (part of the same event series I curated that AEWCH 170 – on utopia with Una Mullally and Andrea Horan – was part of: Utopia at the National Concert Hall).
The episode starts with me reading the chapter “Shaman” from John’s incredible book, Invoking Ireland. Then three guests speak:
First, human rights lawyer and activist Simone George. – whose incredible 2018 TED Talk with her partner Mark Pollock is a testament to the depths of love and grief. Simone offers up how John helped her through the trials of the time and in communicating with and moving through with Mark’s paralysis. It’s a profound meditation on the body and freedom and care.
Then Mary McGillicuddy – who offers the best intro to John I’ve ever heard – of course she does, she’s the author of John Moriarty: Not the Whole Story – it’s an amazing meditation on John’s work. One of my favorite moments is when she weaves in John’s idea of the “Diamond Dimension” and “silver branch perception”:
“No matter how evil,” John wrote, “in no matter how many lifetimes I might have been, I continue at the core of my soul to be as pure as a drop of water on a lotus leaf…at the core of his being the devil is still an angel…”
Finally, Dónal Ó Céilleachair co-director (with Julius Ziz) of Dreamtime Revisted, which you can rent streaming here, and founder of Anú Pictures. Donal’s offering gets cut off by the recording, but we managed to get at least one of his keen perspectives in, and it’s a good one.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Friends,
Will there be witches in space?
Sorry, it’s just that I’ve been thinking about the spirituality of the future; particularly the occultism, the witchcraft, and the magic of the future. Why is it that we’ll do future forecasts on everything from economics to Marvel movies to elections, but we won’t orient spirituality to the future?Or if we do, it’s in a resistance-y sort of way: where spirituality is merely pitted against the erosion of meaning?To talk about this, I sat down in front of a roaring fire in Cornwall with Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech: authors, performers, witches, and owners of the occult publishing company, Scarlet Imprint. Last time, on AEWCH 127, we talked about the apocalypse. Now we’re talking about what comes after the apocalypse, and where spirit fits.
And yes, there will be witches in space.
SHOW NOTES
• For more on Peter and Alkistis, listen to AEWCH 127 and also look through the show notes there! Here’s Peter on a recent episode of Rune Soup talking about his latest book The Two Antichrists, which looks at the magical engagement of L. Ron Hubbard and John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons. Since last we spoke, Alkistis and Peter have deleted their twitter, but they still have an Instagram. You can buy all Scarlet Imprint books on their website.
• You can buy any of the other books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 172 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
• I wrote a short essay on how lockdowns altered our perceptions of time and space for The Irish Times. And I talked about the nature of space and time way back on AEWCH 5.
• Alkistis mentions French writer/philosopher of desire Pierre Klossowski.• I talk with occultist accupuncturist veterinarian Are Thoresen about the nothingness of Christ on AEWCH 116. And I also talked with Scott Elliot Hicks about creating a heart for Ahriman on AEWCH 122. The two episodes are two of my very favorite episodes of the show.
• Peter mentions Doug Rushkoff, who was on AEWCH 125. And in response, I mention one of my favorite philosophers, Michel Serres (who also writes about folding time in his writing).
• ISIL cannon and cloudbuster. Technology can offer us more than war.
• I’ve mentioned Alenka Zupančič many times on the show, so maybe now it’s time for you all to read her profound book on nothingness, What Is Sex.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Buy Jim’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 171 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
Friends,
What an honor to finally meet scientific genius James Lovelock. I write “finally” because James has been a huge part of my life and education and way of thinking, though I’ve never met him. His major theoretical contribution, the Gaia theory, was co-developed with my main mentor, Lynn Margulis. In fact, you can view this as a companion episode to AEWCH 91 with Lynn Margulis (it’s the last recorded conversation with her before her death), who developed the Gaia theory with Jim. And I’ve released this episode to coincide with Lynn’s death, in 2011 – 10 years ago to the day, just one day before I’m releasing this episode with Jim.
So…what is Gaia?
Gaia is the work of the relational loops of push and pull between bacteria, other organisms, and the environment. The clouds, the atmospheric gasses, the pH and salinity of the ocean, and other Earth systems express the “dialogue” between the organisms and the Earth. This dialogue is Gaia Theory. Particularly relevant to these relational (often called “feedback”) loops are the smallest living beings, the bacteria. In this dialogue, the information yielded from and received by the bacteria and environment is absolutely crucial to the existence of life on this planet. Remove the bacteria and everything dies. The world becomes a Mars or a Venus, overtaken by harshness or billowing clouds so thick that everything is obscured.
The theory was long-resisted especially by biologists, even though the science behind Gaia, particularly that found in Lovelock’s formulations, is complex and detailed, not guesswork.Lovelock named it after his friend – novelist William Golding’s – suggestion: Gaia. While many people – especially journalists, it seems, try to trace resistance to Gaia theory to its mystical and religious sounding name, the truth is, Gaia is just hard for people to understand because it requires interdisciplinary and systems thinking.
A bit on the difficulty below, but before that, let me not skip past the arrogance and laziness of a lot of people in the scientific community who just said it was just magical thinking – many without actually reading the research that Lovelock had done.
To counter this, Jim came up with an understandable and accessible metaphor in the form of a computer program called Daisyworld. Daisyworld is not the “proof” of Gaia but a powerful model and metaphor: Lovelock and his colleague Andrew Watson devised the program to see if living and environmental factors could theoretically interact without intention. This was a rebuff to the many criticisms that Gaia had to act through some sort of new age benevolence.In Daisyworld, there are black daisies, which absorb the sun’s heat, and white daisies, which reflect heat. Both flowers grow and produce offspring, and both have the same thresholds for life and growth — they cannot grow at a low temperature and die at too high a temperature. The black daisies, which absorb heat, grow faster in cooler conditions; since the heat accumulates in their petals. White daisies, which reflect the heat, need warmer conditions to produce more offspring and thrive. The sun that shines on Daisyworld is dynamic. It grows in luminosity over millions of years. Here is Lynn Margulis, quoted at length to make clear the results:“Without any extraneous assumptions, without sex or evolution, without mystical presuppositions of planetary consciousness, the daisies of Daisyworld cool their world despite their warming sun. As the sun increases in luminosity, the black daisies grow, expanding their surface area, absorbing heat, and heating up their surroundings. As the black daisies heat up more of the surrounding land surface, the surface itself warms, permitting even more population growth. The positive feedback continues until daisy growth has so heated the surroundings that white daisies began to crowd out the black ones. Being less absorbent and more reflective, the white daisies begin to cool down the planet…Despite the ever-hotter sun, the planet maintains a long plateau of stable temperatures.”
Many additional factors have been added into subsequent Daisyworld models. Because people were still skeptical, “cheats” – factorss that could have thrown the model off – were introduced; and even with the cheats, Daisyworld has always displayed a deep relationship between species selection and planetary temperature regulation.After Daisyworld, much less the mountains of observable evidence gathered afterward, the environment could no longer be seen as a tyrant, lording over selection; it was now a co-evolving field. And by implication all the organisms on the planet are connected by this vast system of regulation and dynamism. Gaian processes are real and observable (and sometimes referred to as “biogeochemistry”, a term more acceptable to mainstream science).
Because of this, Gaia theory is an intense examination of natural selection, since Gaia’s processes of regulation are the “natural selectors.” The push and pull of the biota (the total sum of all organisms) and the inorganic — their weaving and separations, their gestures of relationship — set the framework of regulation. There is no need to be vague about “fitness” and just what the environment “selects” with Gaia in the picture. Gaia’s processes of regulations are what is at play here.We should resist funneling this into a “purpose” in a new age way – whether it’s the scientistic new age of neo-Darwinists misunderstanding Gaia as a living organism. Or the standard new age (think the Gaia network) line that Gaia is a “goddess” trying to contain Gaia’s complexity in a simple and inadequate metaphor.
Lynn Margulis expressed her solution to the error once by saying, “Gaia is not merely an organism.”
Gaia is beyond stale conception. It is more magnificent and active than we can imagine. Gaia is object and process. Gaia houses geosystems and the beings – people – who thought up the organizing principles behind those geosystems. It houses volcanos and every book, every word on volcanos ever written, and at the same time is those volcanos. It is where our greatest loves live, and where every human heartbeat has ever rhythmically pulsed.
And if Gaia is conscious, it possesses a consciousness of a different magnitude, probably of a different order all together. People like Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne are just ill-equipped to understand complexity like that because it not only doesn’t fit in with their linear and reductive understanding of life, it also exposes their understanding as false.So: We are part of Gaia, and Gaia lives through us. This also has huge implications for “climate change” which Jim has been writing about now for years. If we are part of Gaia, that means our decision-making and our thought processes are also part of it. Which ultimately in a way means that morality – the way we approach Gaia – is a selection pressure.Morality is not shaped by evolution so much as it shapes it now.
But just to be clear Jim’s picture of climate change is much more complex even than the one we’re constantly presented with with charts and graphs and a dose of guilt constantly. Jim does lay the blame on humans in a way, but sometimes in surprising ways – it’s not just industrialism that has caused all of the problems before us, but our very exhalations are a massive part of climate change. Furthermore, there are factors beyond our control – the sun heating up contributes, as well as other geosystems.
Rather than feel guilty and helpless, we should recognize ourselves as part of Gaian processes. And where he goes from there in his latest book, Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence, is controversial and also moving: computer-beings are evolving into life as a result of our actions. And rather than being here to destroy us, these computer-beings will help Gaian homeorhesis along as well, since it will be in their best interest to regulate the climate along Gaian lines.It’s a challenging but ultimately positive view of technology that dismissed the reductiveness of “singularity” thinking and also anti-tech sentiment. It’s one that echoes statements made by occultist Rudolf Steiner – who I talk about with Jim on the episode (including Steiner’s influence on Rachel Carson, who used one of Jim’s inventions) – about a hundred years ago, around the time of Jim’s birth. Yes, he’s 102 now!
What an honor to speak with Jim after years of being influenced by his work.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST! Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
FRIENDS:
Here’s a live episode of AEWCH, featuring one of my main collaborators, Una Mullally (AEWCH 151 & AEWCH 87) plus one of her main collaborators, Andrea Horan, who co-hosts their podcast, United Ireland.
In this live event, Una, Andrea, and I discussed Utopia with a live audience, and then got them to dream up utopia as well. The audience appears on this episode, expressing what they’ve dreamt up. It’s a messy and wonderful moment: Dream big, dream now, dream together with strangers. I’m so happy with how the evening turned out.
To that end, when you listen to this episode, please do the exercises we suggest (and the supplements to the exercise) as best you can.
No real show notes here, but plenty of references to Rudolf Steiner & social threefolding, Grant Morrison, Jacques Lacan, magic, self help, and of course, utopia.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST! Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for all, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Buy David’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 169 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
Friends,
It’s obvious to so many of us that the world needs radical visions of the future for us to thrive. But we’re held back by our dismissal of radicalness, of visions, and even of the imagination. This holding back comes partly from our misinterpretation and misappropriation of history. It’s not just the future that needs radical visions, it’s the past. To discuss how to remake the past by encountering and challenging the real, I invited archaeologist and author David Wengrow on the show. David is co-author (with about anthropologist, the late great David Graeber, who appeared on AEWCH 99) of the new and incendiary book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. The book is already causing a tremendous stir, as it pits anthropology and archaeology – of course paired with solid scholarly work – against the state as we know it.I’m so excited to share this episode with you.
• I talk at length about the inner experiences of money on AEWCH 76 with economic researcher Conor McCabe, and on AEWCH 110 when Conor returned and we were joined by anthroposophical economist, John Bloom. And I discuss “dewitchers” with witchcraft scholar Thomas Waters on AEWCH 98.
FRIENDS:Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it! This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Buy Ramsey’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 168 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
Friends,
Happy Halloween. I don’t really need to introduce legendary horror author Ramsey Campbell, but I will just say it was an honor to have him on the show. Very few people have done as much as Ramsey to deepen horror narratives, and very few have shown – with dozens of books penned – such a commitment to the genre.
• The calm moments in David Lynch films are the half smile on the government agent’s face thing I mention brought to you by Jon Ronson, who I spoke with on AEWCH 163.
FRIENDS: Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it! This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon! Thank you so, so much.
Buy Peter’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 167 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!
The core of AEWCH is the spiritualization of the material. That is, I want to present a truly non-materialist way of viewing the world, where spirituality is seen as the wellspring of existence, and informs how we talk about ourselves, politics, economy, art, and more. But to that end, I’m not just inspired by spiritual thinkers. Instead, I draw on the work of humanistic philosophers, dialectical materialists, political theorists, atheists, and more.
One of the thinkers I’ve learned the most from is French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan (1901- 1981). I think Lacan’s work has tremendous potential to be leveraged as a spiritual project (despite most Lacanian’s protestations!), particularly in its formulation of its three clinical diagnoses: Neurosis, Perversion, and Psychosis. That’s it. Just three. And they can all be used in radical ways to affect culture/politics/economy. But Lacan is notoriously hard to understand. So I invited my friend, theologian and philosopher Peter Rollins, back on the show to break down Lacanian psychoanalysis in an understandable and clear way.
Peter is the most AEWCH of AEWCH guests, with this being his fifth appearance on the show – we also talked on AEWCH 14, AEWCH 55, and AEWCH 70 (with Todd McGowan), and AEWCH 135 (with Elliot Morgan).
That’s because Peter is one of my most important provocateurs; we agree on so much and so little all at once. For me, talking with Peter is electrifying, fun, and friendly.Of course, Peter and I are friends so we wander out into the jargon-y weeds from time to time, but we always pull it back! This is as good a place as any to get your Lacanian start.
SHOW NOTES
• Support Peter’s patreon here. He gives tons of content to patrons. And listen to his great religion & psychoanalysis podcast (with Elliot Morgan), The Fundamentalists; some recommended episodes are “Success,” “Socialism,” “Fascism,” and “New Normal.” But you can really just start anywhere.
• One of the best resources on Lacan is nosubject.com, which is basically a wiki for all things psychoanalysis, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis.
• Some other psychoanalysis-oriented episodes of the show not featuring Peter includeAEWCH 162with Dr. Gwen Adshead, AEWCH 101with Katherine Angel, andAEWCH 47with Todd McGowan.
Conner Habib 