PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY LUMINISM
By Dale R. Gowin
www.luminist.org
This essay was
written in 1996 while the author was incarcerated in a prison in New
York State. It was revised in January 1998, and further revisions were made in June 1998. It includes a summary of some of the concepts
contained in the Proposal for the Formation of the Church of Gnostic
Luminism.
The goals of Revolutionary Luminism are the total liberation
of the human race, individually and collectively, and a worldwide
expansion of human consciousness into higher, more inclusive states from
which the realities of our present historical and evolutionary situation
can be accurately perceived and properly addressed.
Revolutionary Luminism seeks to enable the self-actualization of every
member of the
human race, and seeks to implement a worldwide society that will insure
full liberty, autonomy, and security for every woman and man on Earth -
not a "world government": rather a worldwide grassroots free-market
anarchocommunist commonwealth based on voluntary cooperation, individual
liberty and personal responsibility - "all for (every) one and (every)
one for all".
This vision has been the goal of all true revolutionary
movements in history, though it has never been realized due to the
unripeness of human evolution and the counter-revolutionary strategies
of a privileged elite addicted to tyrannical power and personal profit.
The vision of a worldwide libertarian commonwealth has also been the
secret goal of an underground tradition which has existed within and
outside of the Freemasonic Fraternities of the world - a tradition which
traces its history through the Theosophists and Rosicrucians, the
Illuminati and the Knights Templar, the Gnostics and the Essenes,
Hermeticists and Pythagoreans, and on back into the mists of
pre-history.
We are now entering an era in which these strands are
twining together and this elusive dream of liberty is becoming both a
real possibility and a real necessity - at the least a necessity for the
preservation of civilization, and ultimately a prerequisite for human
survival on Earth.
The forces which oppose our goal are also uniting, and
are in fact in virtually complete control of Earth at this moment. Their
motivation is to squeeze Earth like a grape and quench their lust for
short-range profits on Her final agonies. As Jim Keith writes: "If you
haven't gotten the idea that this world is run by a criminal elite
lacking the slightest concern for the welfare of mankind, then you
haven't been paying attention."
This opposition is led by a dark cabal
of ultra-rich elitists who are plotting the establishment of a
totalitarian world government, a "new world order" in which the
institutional violence and coercion of State Authority will be cemented
into permanence. The top 3% of Earth's population who own or control 97%
of our substance seek to realize their 6,000-year-old objective of
world domination. They plan to use their technologies of mass
brainwashing and mind control, genocide, genetic manipulation, and
ecocide to totally enslave or eliminate entire cultures, classes, and
races of humanity. They plan to establish an omnipotent, monolithic,
hierarchical, insectoid technocracy which will crush human liberty into
extinction beneath its jack-boots.
We will not allow them to achieve their twisted apocalyptic dream. A
signal has gone
forth through the synapses of all sentient life, an alarm bell to wake the
sleeping
masses. We must rouse ourselves from our somnambulistic trance, shake
off the chains of State and Corporate conditioning and indoctrination,
and take our places in the spontaneously arising Legions of Light, Life,
Love, and Liberty that are unfurling their banners throughout the world.
The entrenched late-20th-century power structures of Earth comprise the
ultimate and absolute enemy of human liberty, equality and fraternity;
of biodiversity and ecological health; of truth, justice, and love; of
the survival of life on Earth.
Revolutionary Luminism is a flaming sword
that can slay this world-consuming Leviathan.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
The term Luminism (also spelled "Illuminism") refers to the experience of
"enlightenment" - the expansion of human consciousness into states which
allow direct personal experience of reality (gnosis).
This expanded
consciousness provides access to new perspectives from which the
apparent contradictions between science and religion disappear, as well
as those between the spiritual and the political.
For convenience, the
essential revelations made available by the gnostic experience can be
summarized under four basic philosophical headings:
(1) Ontology, or,
"What is real?"
(2) Epistemology, or, "How do you know?" (Both
grammatical senses of this question are implied; i.e., "What is the
source and nature of your knowledge?" and "How does knowing happen?")
(3) Ethics, or, "What is the right (good, virtuous, beneficial) way for us
to live and act as humans on Earth?" and
(4) Political theory, or, "How
should human society on Earth be organized?"
The concepts summarized
below are not presented as dogma to be believed; rather they are
discoveries made by empirically verifiable research, which can be
experimentally demonstrated and proven in the laboratory of the human
mind and heart.
I. Ontology:
Consciousness in itself is the First Cause,
the Prime Mover, the Supreme Being. Consciousness in itself comprises
the totality of "ultimate reality". Consciousness is prior to, not a
product of, material forms. Consciousness in itself permeates all of
time and space, yet it is not limited to the dimensions of time and
space; it may be referred to technically as "eternal" and "infinite".
Consciousness in itself is formless, yet it permeates and manifests all
forms.
Consciousness is a basic force of the universe, like gravity and
the nuclear forces that bind atoms together. The human brain does not
generate consciousness as an "epiphenomenon", like a generator produces
electricity; rather, the brain is analogous to a radio receiver that
picks up the "broadcast" of consciousness.
Consciousness is in itself
the ultimate identity or "true self" of every person and every living
being. The human "ego" or apparent self is an artificial construct
comprised of various levels of exterior identifications. These levels
include the mind (memories, habits of thought, mannerisms, personality);
the body (appearance, gender); one's physical accoutrements (clothing,
car, house, property, etc.); and one's "social self" (family, genealogy,
tribe, nation, class, race, etc.). The "true self" - the part of one's self that is ultimately real - is prior to all of these and dependent on none of them.
Your own innermost Self (whoever you are) is a pure
expression of universal Consciousness, embodying and enlivening the
various levels of exterior being that comprise your apparent self. As
such, the True Self has no beginning and no end, was not created and
cannot be destroyed (in conformation with the laws of conservation of
matter and energy). What we call "death" is the change that occurs when
one's essential Self separates from the various levels of exterior
identification that it has been attached to during a specific sojourn in
time and space. The True Self, your own most real essence, cannot die.
When the True Self separates from its outermost (physical) levels of
identification, yet retains connection with various intermediate
(mental, emotional) levels, it may retain connection to the physical
world and return to physical life in a new body (i.e. reincarnate). This
return occurs in obedience to a force of attraction caused by one's
deeds, words, and thoughts during a lifetime, which cause vibratory
reactions (every action has an equal and opposite reaction). This force
of attraction is called "karma" in Sanskrit and is a fundamental law of
the universe.
II. Epistemology:
Consciousness knows the truth about
itself and about all things. Every human being can access this knowledge
by "going within" or focusing one's attention on the subjective nature
of one's consciousness rather than one's exterior identifications.
This
inward focusing of the attention can lead to the experience of
Illumination, or spontaneous intuitive apprehension of reality.
Knowledge obtained in this manner is accompanied by a subjective sense
of certainty and authenticity. With experience and training, this sense
of certainty can be tuned and refined into an instrument of exacting
accuracy and precision. It may indeed become one of the standard tools
of 21st century science.
The Illumination experience can be nurtured
and developed by numerous methods that have been developed during many
millennia of underground Luminist experimentation and research. Among
these methods are yoga, meditation, religious practices, shamanism, the
martial arts, ceremonial Magick, Qabalah, sensory deprivation, modern
technologies like biofeedback and "brain machines", and - most
importantly for our own era - controlled use of entheogenic
(psychedelic) herbs and chemicals.
These tools and techniques can
facilitate access to altered states of consciousness of many sorts. One
classic reference to these altered states was written by the seminal
psychologist and philosopher William James in his Varieties of Religious
Experience: "Sour normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as
we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about
it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms
of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without
suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a
touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of
mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and
adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final
which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded."
Results obtained from the Illumination experience can be checked and
verified by the syncretic/eclectic method of objective analysis.
"Syncretic" implies awareness of and open-mindedness toward all
available sources of knowledge; and "eclectic" implies the selective use
of only those elements of each which prove to be valid after exacting
scrutiny and careful evaluation. When information deriving from gnostic
experiences is supported by a "preponderance of evidence" from multiple
sources, it may be tentatively accepted as valid. When one's personal
revelations harmonize with the "golden thread" of valid truth found by
syncretic/eclectic research in the myriads of religious, philosophical,
and scientific traditions of Earth, then the results may be accepted as
reliable and sound.
III. Ethics
All living beings, as has been said
above, are expressions of the same universal essence (which may be
referred to as Consciousness, Life, Spirit, God, or the Self, according
to personal preference). The recognition that other beings share one's
own essential Self forms the basis of all truly valid ethical
principles. The ideal referred to as "the Golden Rule" in Christianity
reflects this central realization. In practical terms, it might be
expressed in the words, "Pain hurts (and pleasure pleases) the other as
much as it does me." Thus compassion and empathy are valid guides to
ethical correctness in all situations.
To exterior appearance, living
beings seem to be separate, but the eyes of Illumination reveal that the
Many are fundamentally inseparable from the One. Therefore, ultimately,
anything which benefits another also benefits oneself, and "an injury to
one is an injury to all". The principle of mutual aid follows from this
realization. Actions which benefit others as well as oneself are
ethically sound, and aid to some degree in the upliftment of the
collectivity of which the individual is a part; and actions which
benefit oneself at the expense or to the detriment of others are
ethically wrong in that they detract to some degree from the wellbeing
of the whole.
The accuracy of the information that flows between
individuals in society is an essential element of the healthful
functioning of the totality, in the same way that the flow of
neuroelectrical data through the human nervous system and the synapses
of the brain is integral to the healthful functioning of the body and
the cells which compose it. Therefore truthfulness is an essential
ethical principle of the highest importance. Truthfulness may be defined
as an honest attempt to embody and bear witness to the truth to the best
of one's ability, and to refrain from deliberately deceiving or
misleading others. On a personal level, truthfulness eliminates the
accumulation of subconscious "baggage", lingering thoughts and feelings
that are repressed from conscious awareness. This "baggage" impedes the
consciousness expansion necessary for Illumination and insulates the
individual from participation in the telepathic or transpersonal psychic
experiences which provide meaning and enrichment to our lives and aid in
the acceleration of human social evolution into more humane and
intelligent forms.
Harmlessness, ahimsa in Sanskrit, is the attempt to
live in such a way as to inflict the absolute minimum necessary harm to
other living beings, rooted in the realization that they are not truly
"other" but co-participants with us in an organic totality. One
immediate application of this principle is vegetarianism, the choice to
refrain from eating the flesh of animals or using products whose
production involves the death or suffering of animals. On a purely
physical level, there is strong evidence that humans are not genetically
designed to digest animal flesh, but that the human teeth and digestive
system was engineered by evolution to process seeds, nuts, grains,
fruits and herbs. Anthropological evidence indicates that our early
human ancestors were not hunters, but scavengers who harvested
bone-marrow from the leavings of carnivores during shortages of plant
proteins. Actual flesh eating probably originated from the extreme
environmental pressures of the Pleistocene ice age. Continuation of this
practice in times of abundance is detrimental to human health. On a
spiritual level, vegetarianism aids in the development of empathy,
compassion, and the realization of the unity of all life.
Another
essential principle is pacifism, the choice to refrain from deliberately
harming or injuring other humans. Aside from the minimum force necessary
to protect the life and liberty of self and loved ones, it is wrong to
participate in the infliction of harm on others, either personally or by
participation in social institutions formed to inflict wholesale harm.
Conscientious application of this principle requires us to refrain from
supporting such institutions in any way, even by taxation, and to do
everything within our power to aid in their reduction and elimination.
Similarly, anarchism, considered as an ethical principle, is the choice
to refrain from any form of coercion, and refusal to participate in any
social institutions that practice it (i.e. government, which actually is
a form of organized crime wearing a thin veneer of pretended
legitimacy). By extension, this principle requires us to aid the
deconstruction and dissolution of such institutions, and their
replacement with institutions based on voluntary cooperation and mutual
aid, in every possible way.
The principle of biostewardship is the
responsibility we share as humans to care for and preserve the
ecological health and safety of the natural world of which we are apart,
and the biodiversity of our environment. We must actively oppose any
institution, "public" or "private", which needlessly endangers or harms
the flora and fauna of Earth.
IV. Political Theory:
Every human being is
a citizen of the Universe, prior to citizenship in any lesser
jurisdiction such as nation or race. Proof of citizenship is the fact of
existence; your membership card is your belly button. Universal
citizenship confers certain inherent and inalienable rights, including,
as Thomas Jefferson phrased it, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness".
Every person who is alive on Earth is a co-heir of Earth,
entitled by right of inheritance to a fair and equal share of the
resources drawn from the planet by society. Thus, no person can
legitimately be deprived of access to the necessities of life, including
food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education. A clear indicator
of the degree of justice in a society is the extent to which it insures
these rights to every citizen. Any society that denies the essential
prerequisites of survival to any person is unjust, an outlaw state; and
it is the moral duty of all honest Earth-dwellers to work tirelessly
toward the abolition of such states, and their replacement with
alternative social institutions based on voluntary cooperation and
mutual aid.
The just society will recognize the Royal Sovereignty of
the Individual. Within the sphere of private actions which do not
infringe upon the liberty and autonomy of others, the freedom of the
individual is absolute. Any coercive interference with the freedom of
individual action, if such action does no harm to others, is tyranny,
and may justly be resisted by any means necessary.
The authority with
which the collective decisions of a just society will be enforced will
be legitimate only if it has the full, informed, voluntary consent and
agreement of every person affected by it. "Authority" imposed without
consent is tyranny, and may justly be resisted by any means necessary.
A worldwide social system based on these Revolutionary Luminist
principles is destined to come into being on Earth; its pattern is
programmed into the DNA code of the human species. The ancient prayer,
"Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven", expresses a
foreshadowing of this future society. However, our achievement of this
genetic destiny is threatened by the dark powers that rule the planet in
these last days of the Old Millenium - forces intoxicated by the evil
and averse dream of world domination, armed with geocidal megadeath
machines, blindly pursuing the illusory loot of profit and power at the
expense of all else. A choice must be made between these two destinies,
and those who are now alive on Earth must make this choice.
The
worldwide voluntary/cooperative society of the future can be prefigured
by the social-organic metaphor. The goods and services required for
survival and happiness will be provided to every individual by society
in the same way that the bloodstream nourishes each cell of our bodies.
A technological communication and information system will connect every
member of society just as the nervous system connects the cells and
organs of our bodies. In a healthy organic system, every discrete unit
is autonomous and self-regulating; each cell follows its own built-in
instructions (i.e. its own "will").
The economy of the future world
society will not require money as a medium of exchange; it will be a
gift economy. Goods and services will be provided as free gifts to
whoever needs them, and the work of production will be performed
voluntarily, as each worker chooses. The motivation for production will
be the natural human desire to provide superior enjoyments for self and
others. The increased efficiency afforded by a voluntary/cooperative
economy, coupled with the technologies of cybernetic automation, will
provide virtually limitless abundance and leisure for everyone.
Bringing this future society into being will require an act of
revolution on an unprecedented scale. It is the nature of coercive
authority to resist relinquishing its grip on its victims at all costs.
The 6,000-year-old conspiracy of darkness that rules the Earth today and
threatens us all with, in George Orwell's words, "a boot stamping on a
human face forever", is so entrenched and all-pervasive that it can only
be deposed by a spontaneous, simultaneous worldwide uprising of the
people. Bringing this revolution about is the only activity that is
truly worthwhile; it provides the only hope for a future of liberty,
security and peace, for an end to the suffering, tyranny, and ecocide
that characterizes 20th century Earth society. We have had the First and
Second World Wars; now we must have the First World Revolution.
But
"revolution" does not necessarily imply "violence". Such tactics as work
stoppages, boycotts, tax refusal, and organization of cooperatives and
collectives, have the potential to bring the planetary death machine
down, if enough people participate.
The Revolutionary Luminist strategy
for creating the necessary worldwide social revolution involves making
the miracle of Illumination available to as many Earthdwellers as
possible. As minds and hearts around the world are opened to the light
of revelation, the innate intuitive recognition of the necessity of
change will be unavoidable for more and more women and men every day. A
clear consensus of "the way it ought to be" will begin to emerge as a "critical mass" of humanity becomes awakened.
a great site crammed with ideas by dale gowin & other luminist authors:
www.luminism.org