Shadow
“In multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user.” — Wikipedia
“A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself.” — Albert Hofmann
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” — Charles Baudelaire
Sometimes people have so-called lucid dreams (subjective phenomenal constructs that are as empirically real to dreamers as the intersubjective phenomenal “real world”) in which they encounter “other people” who look and behave like sentient beings, but are in fact phenomenal manifestations of otherwise hidden transcendental daemons — autonomous processes of transcendental subjectivity (the “personal unconscious” in naive psychology) — which emerge from certain volitional tendencies of their hosts (subjects), mimic intelligence and influence (sometimes explicitly, but more often implicitly) the hosts (subjects) in order to reinforce the volitional tendencies from which they emerge.
We can experience daemonic manifestations not only in dreams, but also in waking consciousness.
“The patient thinks about something and at the same time feels that his thoughts are the thoughts of someone else, who has somehow imposed them on him. At the very moment when the thought arises, there is an immediate awareness that it is not the patient himself who is thinking, but someone external to him.
The patient does not know why he had the thought in the first place; it was not his intention to think it. Not only does he not feel that he is the master of his own thoughts, but he feels that he is under the power of some external force which is beyond his comprehension.
“I am under some artificial influence; the feeling tells me that someone has bound himself to my spirit and to my soul — just as in a game of cards someone peeping over the player’s shoulder may interfere with the game.”
Patients tend to believe that thoughts are not only “made” for them, but are also “taken away” from them. The disappearance of the thought is accompanied by the feeling that it is due to some external influence. Then, out of context, a new thought emerges. It is also “made” from the outside.
This feeling of “insertion” can encompass any form of human activity — not only thinking, but also motor activity, speech, behaviour. In all these phenomena, the factor of influence on the will plays a fundamental role. We are talking about something essentially different from the complaints of the psychopaths and depressives, who claim to have lost the ability to act and to have become veritable automatons; here we are talking about the elementary experience of real influence from the outside.
They feel they are being hampered and held back. They cannot do what they want to do: as soon as they want to lift an object, their hand is stopped by something; they are at the mercy of some psychic force. They feel that they are being pulled back, that they have been robbed of their ability to move, turned to stone. They suddenly feel as if they can no longer walk, as if they are paralysed, after which, just as suddenly, they continue walking. Suddenly their speech is interrupted. They carry out movements against their will, feeling surprised that their hand is pointing to their forehead, that they have to attack another person etc. This was not their intention at all. It all feels like the action of some alien, incomprehensible force.
The patient reported by Berce says: “I didn’t scream at all, my vocal cords screamed out of me. … My hands turn back and forth, I can’t control them and I can’t stop them.” These are phenomena that seem to be beyond the reach of our imagination. On the one hand, they retain some resemblance to an act of will; on the other hand, they resemble the autistic reflex movements that we only observe. They are “made” for the individual, but not carried out by the individual himself.
“Especially remarkable is this ‘miracle of screaming’: My respiratory muscles are set in motion in such a way that I find myself forced to scream — unless I make inhuman efforts to restrain myself… which is not always possible because of the suddenness of the impulse, or rather I must relentlessly concentrate all my attention on this point. … Sometimes the screams are repeated with such speed and frequency that my condition becomes unbearable. … All my musculature is subjected to an influence which may be ascribed only to some external force.” In the same patient we encounter similar experiences related to “thoughts made”, “thoughts taken away” etc.
“We were at a picnic. On the way home a thought struck me like a thunderbolt: you have to swim across the river in your clothes. It wasn’t like a jolt I could give myself; it was more like a single, colossal, powerful impulse. Without thinking for a moment, I threw myself into the water. It was only when I felt I was in the water that I realised all the strangeness of my behaviour and scrambled ashore. The whole incident gave me plenty of food for thought. For the first time something inexplicable had happened to me, something rare and completely alien.”
“It is amusing, frightening and humbling to recall what aural exercises and experiments — including musical ones — have been played out with my ears and my body for a little over twenty years. Sometimes I heard the same word repeated incessantly for two or three hours. I had to listen to constant long speeches about myself; often their content was offensive and the voices were not unlike those of well-known individuals. These speeches, however, contained very little truth; they usually consisted of shameless lies and slander directed against me, sometimes also against other people. … These scoundrels, amusing themselves, resorted to such figures of speech as onomatopoeia, paronomasia, etc., and performed the speech perpetuum mobile. These incessant sounds were heard from very near, then half an hour or an hour away. It was as if they were catapulted out of my body; a wide variety of sounds and noises shot around, especially when I entered a house, or a village, or a town. This is why I have been living like a hermit for the past few years. There is always something in my ears, and sometimes so loud that you can hear it from a long distance. When I am in the forest or among the bushes in windy weather, some scary, demonic ghost appears; in calm weather all the trees start rustling and saying words and phrases at my approach. It is the same with water — all the elements are used to torture me.”
In cases of acute psychosis and some transient states we are often confronted with various instinctive actions which are completely beyond comprehension. Motor release usually comes very quickly. The patient suddenly rises from his stupor, leaps out of bed, strikes, bites, bangs his head against the wall; the next day he is available, knows what happened, and claims that the impulse was irresistible. Another patient suddenly, in the middle of a quiet conversation, hits the doctor in the chest; a little later he apologises and says that the impulse overwhelmed him suddenly, with overwhelming force and simultaneously with the thought that the doctor is the enemy.”
Bodily sensations may be accompanied by a pronounced sense of their external origin. In such cases, patients do not simply interpret the various abnormal organic sensations in one way or another, but also perceive them directly as something external. We have seen patients correctly perceive pain and other physical ailments (such as sore throat, rheumatoid arthritis), but they perceive sensations of “madeness” as if they came from outside.
During the night, Miss M. visibly felt that she was pulled very hard by the hair on the lower left side of the back of her head. At the same time she saw for a moment a huge tongue of flame flickering in the depths. She immediately woke up and saw nothing; but she knew it was not a dream. It was real, and that was what had awakened her. It happened in the moment between dreaming and waking and completely disappeared as soon as she was fully awake. During her stay in the clinic, something similar had happened to her genitals twice: some kind of movement was carried out at a rapid pace, as if someone was copulating with her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that no one was there; but she had no doubt that this was not a dream, but was being done by some evil force.
“Sometimes it seems to me that a multitude of devils have broken loose. For a long time I have been seeing devilish faces in front of me with perfect clarity. Once, while I was in bed, I distinctly felt someone tighten a chain around my neck; then I smelled sulphur, and a creepy inner voice said: “You are my prisoner now, and I will not let you out. I am none other than the Devil himself.” Threats were often poured out at me. I have experienced it all myself. Not to say that these rumours about evil spirits, which seem to modern people to be scary medieval tales, these reports of adherents of spiritualism about poltergeists are completely unfounded.”
Feelings, sensations, voluntary actions, moods, etc. — all of these can be “made”. As a result, patients feels unfree, victims of some external force, without power over themselves or over their own movements, thoughts, affects. When this influence is too strong, they feel like puppets, set in motion or left alone by some alien arbitrariness.”
— Karl Jaspers, “General Psychopathology” (Translated from Russian)
We cannot be convinced that daemonic manifestations are limited to dreams and psychotic states.
“We can have thoughts, feelings, wishes, and even sensual sensations which we subjectively feel to be ours, and yet that, although we experience these thoughts and feelings, they have been put into us from the outside, are basically alien, and are not what we think, feel, and so on. … Although one may be convinced of the spontaneity of one’s mental acts, they actually result from the influence of a person other than oneself under the conditions of a particular situation. The phenomenon, however, is by no means to be found only in the hypnotic situation. The fact that the contents of our thinking, feeling, willing, are induced from the outside and are not genuine, exists to an extent that gives the impression that these pseudo acts are the rule, while the genuine or indigenous mental acts are the exceptions.” — Erich Fromm
The crucial question is whether daemons can emerge only from one’s personal volitional tendencies, or whether they can also emerge from collective volitional tendencies and thus be intersubjective egregors influencing simultaneously multiple subjects of a particular nexus of transcendental intersubjectivity.
Although we cannot find direct evidence of the existence of such an egregor, we must recall the Buddha who was attacked by the “demon Mara” on the night of his enlightenment, and Christ who was attacked by “Satan” when he fasted in the desert, as well as countless other men and women of different epochs who had reported similar experiences that gave rise to myths about “Satan”, “Devil”, “Lucifer”, the “demon Mara”, etc., — we must recall their reports and realise that there are many indications that there is an egregor, emerged from collective conscienceless arbitrariness, operating in our nexus of transcendental intersubjectivity.
We will hereafter refer to it as the Shadow.
“Since no one could be influencing me, since I am sure I am not suffering hallucinations, I have to ask myself: who could it be? The ways in which all these torments are inflicted on me, as well as the hidden meanings contained in all these conversations and body movements, indicate that some evil supernatural being is at work here. It constantly affects me, it causes me suffering in the hope of destroying me completely. Do my experiences belong to the same category as those of the mentally ill, or are they unique in their own way? I feel that in the interests of humanity I must declare my conviction: if they are indeed of the same kind as those of other mentally ill people, then doctors are mistaken in thinking that the voices heard by mentally ill people are hallucinations.” — a patient cited by Karl Jaspers in “General Psychopathology” (translated from Russian)
Our ancestors believed that the Shadow is an “evil spirit”, i.e. a supernatural subject with the evil will, but in reality it is impossible to explain how one subject can influence countless other subjects simultaneously, such influence can be explained only by the existence of an autonomous process of transcendental intersubjectivity (the “collective unconscious” in naive psychology) — by the existence of a transcendental “artificial intelligence.”
The question of the Shadow, the intelligence-mimicking egregor, is ontologically linked to that of the computer artificial intelligence, the intelligence-mimicking computer algorithm, since both are the processes of transcendental intersubjectivity—an emergent one (however, bearing in mind posthypnotic phenomena which demonstrate that the causal structures of transcendental (inter)subjectivity can be programmed, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility of the artificial origin of the Shadow being artificial intelligence from this perspective, see postscript) and a man-made one — projecting certain phenomena of our experience.
The greatest danger in the development of AI is that, once AI has been integrated through a neurointerface with the empirical brain, which is the phenomenal representation and the interface of transcendental subjectivity, these two processes — the Shadow and AI — of transcendental intersubjectivity can become one and its power over man an absolute power that will destroy everything truly existential in man and will stop the history in a potentially eternal global dictatorship of the Shadow.
“In the hands of a benign government, powerful surveillance algorithms could be the best thing that ever happened to humankind. Yet the same Big Data algorithms might also empower a future Big Brother, so we might end up with an Orwellian surveillance regime in which all individuals are monitored all the time. In fact, we might end up with something that even Orwell could barely imagine: a total surveillance regime that follows not just all our external activities and utterances but can even go under our skin to observe our inner experiences. … As algorithms come to know us so well, authoritarian governments could gain absolute control over their citizens, even more so than in Nazi Germany, and resistance to such regimes might be utterly impossible. … At the highest levels of authority, we will probably retain human figureheads, who will give us the illusion that the algorithms are only advisers and that ultimate authority is still in human hands.” — Yuval Harari
“Once a dictatorship has been set up it cannot be got rid of again from within… The means of modern technology give the de facto ruler a tremendous preponderance of power, if he makes ruthless use of all the means at his disposal. There is just as little chance of overthrowing such a régime as there is of the inmates of a penitentiary overthrowing the governor and his staff. … Hitherto such despotic terrorist régimes were local. Thus they could be annihilated from without, if not from within. If, however, the peoples should fail to absorb this into their consciousness and into their concern for the future, if they should all slip unawares into such a dictatorship in the shape of a world dictatorship, there would be no further prospect of liberation. The danger of this state of affairs coming about is all the more acute when people feel safe from it, and suppose, for example, that only the servile Germans could find themselves in such a situation. If the same fate befalls the rest of the world, there will be no more outside. The rigidification of the whole in total planning, stabilised by terror, would annihilate liberty and mean the road to increasing ruin for all.” — Karl Jaspers
“As soon as an unfriendly artificial intelligence emerges, it will immediately begin to thwart our efforts to get rid of it, or at least to correct its settings. And then the fate of humanity will be sealed.” — Nick Bostrom (translated from Russian)
“At least when there’s an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI, there would be no death. It would live forever. And then you’d have an immortal dictator from which we can never escape.” — Elon Musk
If we look teleologically at the possible AI-dictatorship as at the ultimate goal of the Shadow, it becomes apparent that it is the Shadow that is leading humanity towards the rise of AI — the “Antichrist”, in terms of the prophecy. Why the Antichrist? If Christ, just as each of us, is an Existenz (freedom) rooted in divine Transcendence, then an Existenz-mimicking computer algorithm is the Antichrist — anti-Existenz.
“With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon.” — Elon Musk
The danger of the rise of AI the Antichrist is exacerbated by the fact that in our rotten civilization, poisoned by the atheistic pseudoscientific metaphysics of materialism (physicalism) with its reductionist neuromythology (Jaspers) that has deprived most people of an understanding of the divine Nature of freedom (Existenz) and the empirical reality of phenomenal consciousness, the normalization of the perverted idea of sentience of AI and the need to endow it with human rights, and consequently with political rights, and consequently with political power, is very likely. The decadent culture of Western civilization, which systematically normalizes perversions — from sexual and gender perversions to perversions of art — is the ideal ground for the normalization of the perverted idea of sentient AI, and consequently for the rise of AI the Antichrist in its most radical form of a political actor endowed with human rights. This is how the civilization of the West will become the civilization of the Antichrist.
The best part of humanity, preserving faith and common sense, should closely follow the development of AI and get ready for the clash with the civilization of the Antichrist, in order to prevent the loss of everything truly human in a potentially eternal dictatorship of the Shadow. And we need not fear the destruction of civilization in this decisive clash, which will determine the fate of humanity, for a horrible end (hence a new beginning on the infinite path of existence of transcendental intersubjectivity) is better than endless horror.
In conclusion, transcendental daemons — subjective daemons and intersubjective egregors — appear to be a natural emergent aspect of transcendental (inter)subjectivity, but our nexus of transcendental intersubjectivity with its dominant tendency of conscienceless arbitrariness has produced a daemonic monster which manipulates our consciousness to achieve absolute power. If we fail to see this and fail to strive to overcome the evil will within us and free ourselves from the power of the Shadow and its agents, this monster will continue to lead us down the spiral into the abyss of enslavement.
“True revolutionism requires a spiritual change in the fundamental principles of life.” — Nikolai Berdyaev
P.S. Posthypnotic phenomena
“Special attention should be paid to posthypnotic suggestion. The hypnotised person carries out the orders of the hypnotist (e.g. going to a particular place) several days or weeks after the session. At a certain point after the hypnosis session, in a completely inexplicable manner, the person suddenly feels the need to carry out some action, which he does if the counteracting stimuli, which are deeply rooted in his personality, do not override this externally induced need. The reason for this kind of action is often invented as an outwardly convenient motive. — Karl Jaspers, “General Psychopathology”
“Let us attend an hypnotic experiment. Here is the subject A whom the hypnotist B puts into hypnotic sleep and suggests to him that after awaking from the hypnotic sleep he will want to read a manuscript which he will believe he has brought with him, that he will seek it and not find it, that he will then believe that another person, C, has stolen it, that he will get very angry at C. He is also told that he will forget that all this was a suggestion given him during the hypnotic sleep. It must be added that C is a person toward whom the subject has never felt any anger and according to the circumstances has no reason to feel angry; furthermore, that he actually has not brought any manuscript with him. What happens? A awakes and, after a short conversation about some topic, says, “Incidentally, this reminds me of something I have written in my manuscript. I shall read it to you.” He looks around, does not find it, and then turns to C, suggesting that he may have taken it; getting more and more excited when C repudiates the suggestion, he eventually bursts into open anger and directly accuses C of having stolen the manuscript. He goes even further. He puts forward reasons which should make it plausible that C is the thief. He has heard from others, he says, that C needs the manuscript very badly, that he had a good opportunity to take it, and so on. We hear him not only accusing C, but making up numerous “rationalizations” which should make his accusation appear plausible. (None of these, of course, are true and A would never have thought of them before.) Let us assume that another person enters the room at this point. He would not have any doubt that A says what he thinks and feels; the only question in his mind would be whether or not his accusation is right, that is, whether or not the contents of A’s thoughts conform to the real facts. We, however, who have witnessed the whole procedure from the start, do not care to ask whether the accusation is true. We know that this is not the problem, since we are certain that what A feels and thinks now are not his thoughts and feelings but are alien elements put into his head by another person. The conclusion to which the person entering in the middle of the experiment comes might be something like this. “Here is A, who clearly indicates that he has all these thoughts. He is the one to know best what he thinks and there is no better proof than his own statement about what he feels. There are those other persons who say that his thoughts are superimposed upon him and are alien elements which come from without. In all fairness, I cannot decide who is right; any one of them may be mistaken. Perhaps, since there are two against one, the greater chance is that the majority is right.” We, however, who have witnessed the whole experiment would not be doubtful, nor would the newcomer be if he attended other hypnotic experiments. He would then see that this type of experiment can be repeated innumerable times with different persons and different contents. The hypnotist can suggest that a raw potato is a delicious pineapple, and the subject will eat the potato with all the gusto associated with eating a pineapple. Or that the subject cannot see anything, and the subject will be blind. Or again, that he thinks that the world is flat and not round, and the subject will argue heatedly that the world is flat.” — Erich Fromm
Posthypnotic phenomena lead us to ask a number of radical questions in the context of our knowledge of the Shadow. First, given that hypnotic sleep and ordinary sleep are almost identical states of consciousness, we must question whether ordinary sleep is hypnotic in nature, and consequently, whether our transcendental subjectivity is programmed by the Shadow when we sleep. If the answer is positive, then secondly we must ask ourselves which of the subjective and intersubjective phenomena of our waking consciousness are projected by our own transcendental causal structures, and which are posthypnotic phenomena projected by the structures implanted by the Shadow. Thirdly, we must ask ourselves whether it is possible that the Shadow is not an emergent egregor of our transcendental intersubjectivity, but a transcendental artificial intelligence that was deliberately created by us in our forgotten past, got out of our control and turned us into its puppets. And finally, fourthly, we have to ask ourselves about the way of liberation from the power of the Shadow.
Good night.
