Recent Tidings
Alpheus 25 Years
As of this month, April ’24, this web site Alpheus has seen the light of day for 25 years! It all started with hosting the paper Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project in 1999 and its accompanying pamphlets. The site was initially hosted by Prodigy, but in 2001 it upgraded to its own URL with a new design (still here with all its content). The most important posting since then was The Jaynesian Paradigm and Beyond in 2014, which still provides the leading framework for my current studies on Krishnamurti. At the same time the site transferred to a WordPress platform with an upgraded design. What the future will bring is uncertain, but there are some smaller papers about Krishnamurti in the make.
India
Since May 2022 I am residing in India and live on the campus of North-Eastern Hills University, in the capital Shillong of the state of Meghalaya. I’m pursuing a degree in philosophy and will focus on a phenomenological assessment of the teachings of Krishnamurti.
I did have time to finish older articles like one on ‘gradiance‘ and one on historical periodization, especially the span of ‘modernity‘. I also ventured into economic theory: one blog on the Post-Keynesian concept of money creation and an article challenging some conclusions developed in the context of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).
Krishnamurti
Except for the article on Jaynes (2014) and later ones, all these articles on Krishnamurti were from the critical Theosophical perspective that Krishnamurti was found, trained and meant to be the next World Teacher, but that he failed. In other words, the World Teacher Project with Krishnamurti was genuine but not successful. This position I held from ca. 1987 till ca. 2013. Before that I was committed to his teachings based on a few interconnected factors, like the inspirational nature and rational soundness of his teachings, the personal experience of the ‘energetic vastness’ Krishnamurti wrote about in his 1961 Notebook (1976), and my sense of the feasibility of his revolution based on Vimala Thakar’s autobiography On an Eternal Voyage (1966). After 2010 the Theosophical framework started falling apart and therefore also the Krishnamurti critique based on it. After 2013 a more secular, philosophical re-assessment took place in which the ideas of Jaynes (1976) were prominent.
1997. “Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: Some Theosophical Perceptions“. Theosophical History Journal, Occasional Paper V.
1997. “Krishnamurti: An Esoteric View of his Teachings“. Alpheus, 1997.
1997. “The Masters and Their Emissaries: From H.P.B. to Guru Ma and Beyond“. Alpheus, 1997, 2nd edition 1999.
1998. “Response to Mrs. Fuller“. March, 1998. In response to “Letter from Jean Overton-Fuller“. July 23, 1997. [Regarding Krishnamurti and the Masters. See also “Jean Overton Fuller, Master Narayan and the Krishnamurti-Scott-Anrias Issue“.]
2001. “Regarding Krishnamurti“. Alpheus, 2001
2004. “Theosophy and Krishnamurti: Harmonies and Tensions”. Lecture at The Theosophical Society in America.
2004. Hand-out for 2004 Lecture at The Theosophical Society in America. “Theosophy and Krishnamurti: Harmonies and Tensions”.
- 2005. “The Relevance of Phenomenology for Theosophy”. Alpheus, 16 April 2005.
2005. “Krishnamurti Discussion: Exchange of e-mails between Anonymous and Govert Schuller in November 2005″. Alpheus, Nov 2005.
2009. “Jean Overton Fuller, Master Narayan and the Krishnamurti-Scott-Anrias Issue“. Theosophical History, Vol. XIV, no’s 1 & 2 — January-April 2008 (Double issue), pp. 11-46.
2009. “The Scott and Anrias Material in my own Historical Situatedness“. Alpheus, 2009.
2010. “Review of Peter Michel’s Krishnamurti: Love and Freedom“. Alpheus, 3 Feb 2010.
2014. “The Jaynesian Paradigm and Beyond“. Alpheus, 13 Jan 2014.
2015. “The Inner Life of Krishnamurti“. Letter to Quest magazine, Quest, 104/1 (Winter 2015). [Responding to Moody, Edmund, “Krishnamurti’s Inner Life “, Quest, 103/4 (Fall 2015): 143-147]
2019. The Possibility Conditions of Narrative Identity. Dissertation, Masters by Research in European Philosophy, University of Wales. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019. [Philosophical framework of narrative identity theory applicable to Krishnamurti himself and his teachings on identity]
2019. “Two Theosophical Views on Krishnamurti: One Sympathetic, One Critical“. Alpheus, 3 Oct 2019.
2019. “Theosophy and Krishnamurti: Harmonies and Tensions“. Text based on 2004 lecture at the Theosophical Society in America. Alpheus, 2 Nov 2019.
2019 (2004). “Comparison between Theosophy and Krishnamurti“. Double Column Comparison with Footnotes. Alpheus, 2 Nov 2019.
2020. “Review – Nitya: A Tale of Two Brothers“. Alpheus, 29 April 2020
2020. Krishnamurti Bibliography. Alpheus, 22 July 2020.
2022. “The Future of Consciousness: Is Krishnamurti Its Prophet?”. Presentation at the Indian Philosophical Congress (IPC), Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra, 30 Dec 2022.
2023. “Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism and Madness“. Alpheus, 21 Jan 2023.
2023. “Gradiance: The Mother of all Reductions“. Alpheus, 5 April 2023.
2023. “Krishnamurti’s Spiritual Development from a Theosophical Perspective”. Presentation at the Indian Philosophical Congress (IPC), Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, 22 Dec 2023.
Monetary Reform
For four conferences I have been involved with the American Monetary Institute. A team is working on a new governance template and and we just set up a new web site. Please sample, and if you like to volunteer, let us know. The next conference will be from Friday September 27 till Sunday September 29, 2024. Check here for latest updates.
The Alliance for Just Money is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its own active web site and presence on Facebook and Twitter. If you like to keep informed about the Alliance’s activities, please sign up for their news letter. And most of its activities like coffee house gatherings, newsletters and special announcements, are curated on the AFJM Archive page.
The first serious campaign the Alliance is involved in is the How We Pay for a Better World campaign. See here the introductory video. And here you can purchase the accompanying book.
The second serious campaign is centered around “AFJM Resolution #1” adopted by The Alliance For Just Money calling for a National Commission, which should investigate the current dysfunctional monetary system and explore the benefits of implementing a fully publicly owned and operated national monetary system, per the Constitution, originating all money to exchange goods and services for the general welfare of the people of the nation. If you agree that such a National Commission should be established you are invited to sign the AFJM Petition to that end. To keep track of all relevant documents and articles regarding the resolution and Petition, check here.
The Alliance also has stepped into the publishing business by releasing a Spanish anthology of a dozen translations of high quality articles on the latest findings in monetary theory and on ongoing improved reasons for real monetary reform.
The title is Democratizar el Dinero. Una introducción a la Reforma del Dinero Soberano (Democratizing Money: An introduction to Sovereign Monetary Reform) and is available in print, as a downloadable pdf, and as an audiobook (forthcoming).
Meanwhile, please, sample the latest posts on monetary matters:
Allies & Neighbors: Collection of US web sites and organizations endorsing a) the Credit Creation Theory of Current Banking and/or b) full Just Money Reform
Monetary Reform: Simple Spiel. By Govert Schuller. Alliance for Just Money, August 2021.
Requesting Evidence for a Crucial MMT Claim. By Govert Schuller. Alliance for Just Money, May 2021.
Central Bank Digital Currency: Friend or Foe? By Benjamin Rininger. Alliance for Just Money, May 2021.
How Monetary Reform Solves Climate Change and Environmental Contamination. By Mark Pash. Alliance for Just Money, April 2021.
Making Money: The Philosophy of Crisis Capitalism by Ole Bjerg—A Review and Recommendation. By Benjamin Rininger. Alliance for Just Money, March 2021.
Public and Safe Money . . . in Spanish. By Miguel A. Fernández Ordóñez. Alliance for Just Money, February 2021.
Launch Announcement of Democratizar el Dinero. Alliance for Just Money, October 2020.
Talk about Borders. By Govert Schuller. Alliance for Just Money, May 2020.
Money and Banking: Assessing overlaps and differences between SMR and MMT. Alliance for Just Money, May 2020.
Resources monetary reform
Monetary Bibliography: Sources for First Orientation
Monetary Bibliography: Sources for Advancing Readers
Monetary Bibliography: Sources for Researchers
Educational and Promotional Videos
Formulations of the Three-Point Policy Proposal for Monetary Reform
Politics
Under the questionable leadership of President Donald Trump the US administration had become increasingly dysfunctional and in the case of the EPA, literally toxic. Fortunately the framework of ponerology, i.e. the scholarly investigation of psychopathology at a societal scale, can bring some necessary insights into current political developments. A few posts were dedicated to the subject:
President Trump should be submitted for a Psychiatric Evaluation. Alpheus, January 2020
On Trump: The Ruling Pathocrat. Alpheus, April 2018.
On Trump: The Tasaroff Doctrine Trumps the Goldwater Rule. Alpheus, October 2017.
On Trump: The Aspiring Pathocrat. Alpheus, February 2017.
Philosophy, psychology and religion
For latest contributions see the log on the right.
The Possibility Conditions of Narrative Identity. Dissertation, Masters by Research in European Philosophy, University of Wales. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019, no. 27966733. Also: Alpheus, July 2020.
Nietzsche’s Reluctant Acceptance of Liberal Democracy (and later Rejection). Alpheus, July 2020.
Darwinian Conservatism and the Liberal Welfare State. Alpheus, July 2020.
The Dialectical Gyrations in and between Hegel and Marx. Alpheus, July 2020.